Some days you check the clock and noon hasn’t hit yet, but you’ve run a mile, done a separate workout, cleaned your room and showered already. Some days you check the clock and noon is too far gone but you've not left your bed for more than 10 consecutive minutes.

Some days, or all days, you forget you deserve grace.

I don’t mean to say that you can convince yourself every day that doing nothing, or doing too much is acceptable. Although, you must convince yourself that every once in a while you do deserve grace. During the days you spend in bed, it is most important to keep a firm "my body needs and deserves rest" mentality in order to prevent thrusting insults upon yourself about how lazy you are. During the days that begin and remain productive, it is most important to keep an "I’m not tired and this will pay off later" mentality.

Why grant ourselves grace? Because without grace we begin to think the worst of ourselves. We begin to identify with those lazy days as reasons we need to push ourselves way past our limits at the gym and count every calorie for a week. We begin to identify with those productive days as reasons we deserve the lazy days that make us believe we don’t deserve the lazy days and need more productive days. It’s a harmful cycle, can you tell?

Grace above all things is one of many ways to prevent self-loathing. Grace above all things allows us to build love for ourselves which in turn will promote an outpour of love towards every other thing we encounter. Grace yourself, before you wreck yourself.