Kelly - Galatians 1

I love the way Paul starts his letters - - a common salutation that is so much more meaningful than "Dear John" or an informal "Hey friends!"

What is it to begin a conversation with someone by wishing them grace and peace? The past 24 hours have been a bit of a "time of reckoning" for me. Twice I have gotten in arguments with people I do not know well (once on Saturday, once today) and twice I have had my poor behavior put before me.

On Saturday I had a phone conversation with the childcare center at the gym - which is not opening up during the day until the week after my kids are out of school (Braintree gets out a little earlier than others). I asked about several options - since my oldest was the child who would have no place to go and she can more or less entertain herself for an hour. All were shot down as "against the rules" and I ended the conversation in a quite exasperated huff. Today while talking to a mom in the karate lobby, we stumbled across the fact that she was the woman I had been talking (rather rudely) to. Ooops. It took some smoothing and apologizing, but she was more forgiving than I deserved.

At the mall today I was treated rudely by a salesperson - and I called her on it and the manager got involved (not by my initiation). In this case my actions were in proportion to what had happened, but the woman ended up in tears. A reminder that we all carry baggage and issues with us and we need to treat each other carefully.

Grace and peace to you...what a way to start talking to each other.