{"id":85612,"date":"2025-03-14T15:26:45","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T20:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=85612"},"modified":"2025-03-14T15:26:45","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T20:26:45","slug":"always-with-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/always-with-grace\/","title":{"rendered":"Always with Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p>by David Gibson<\/p>\n<p>It was about 4:00 a.m. in the ICU. There had been a change of shifts, and a nurse entered Chub Lambert&#8217;s room whom he had not met before.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Good morning!&#8221; Chub said. &#8220;How are you doing today?&#8221; She didn&#8217;t respond at first. After a pause, she said, &#8220;I don&#8217;t know how to answer that because in all the time I&#8217;ve worked here, no one has ever inquired how I am.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>How many of those whom a nurse serves are irritable and demanding? Nurses must have a thick skin and exercise great patience with their patients.<\/p>\n<p>How do we view those who serve us in restaurants, stores, and other public places? Do we see them as individuals with needs and feelings, like ourselves? How sensitive are we to how our words and actions affect them personally? Are we careful about our tone of voice? Do we say thank you when they refill our glass of water?<\/p>\n<p>Do we tell people off when the service is deficient? What impression does that make on the gospel? Do we communicate our concerns calmly and courteously if we have a real problem with a product or service?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;<em>Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person<\/em>&#8221; (Colossians 4:5-6 NASB).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What Chub&#8217;s nurse said indicates that consideration is in short supply. Therefore, any effort to be pleasant will definitely be noticed! How simple, yet it can open hearts to the gospel!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by David Gibson It was about 4:00 a.m. in the ICU. There had been a change of shifts, and a nurse entered Chub Lambert&#8217;s room whom he had not met before. &#8220;Good morning!&#8221; Chub said. &#8220;How are you doing today?&#8221; She didn&#8217;t respond at first. After a pause, she said, &#8220;I don&#8217;t know how to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,1558],"class_list":["post-85612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-grace","tag-speech"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19616,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-nurse-suggested-that-i-tell-a-dying-christian-that-it-is-alright-to-pass-away-is-that-proper\/","url_meta":{"origin":85612,"position":0},"title":"A nurse suggested that I tell a dying Christian that it is alright to pass away. Is that proper?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Our oldest member is 97 and is currently in a\u00a0nursing home. From the looks of things,\u00a0she is very near death.\u00a0 One of our members who has been very close to her was visiting her this afternoon and also talked to the charge nurse, who told her\u00a0that she has seen\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49278,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-could-michal-have-five-sons-when-another-verse-said-she-had-none\/","url_meta":{"origin":85612,"position":1},"title":"How could Michal have five sons when another verse said she had none?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Please, I need an answer. Can you see any contradiction between II Samuel 6:23 which says Michal had no children to the day of her death and II Samuel 21:8 which says Michal had five sons? Answer: \"So David said to Michal, \"It was before the LORD, who chose\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47809,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/love-finds-a-way\/","url_meta":{"origin":85612,"position":2},"title":"Love Finds a Way","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"by Sewell Hall All Christians want to bring the lost to Christ. But each of us has some handicap that causes us to feel limited in our ability to do so. It may be a weakness of knowledge or difficulty in expressing ourselves. Perhaps it is a personality deficiency or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27908,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/all-things-work-together-for-good\/","url_meta":{"origin":85612,"position":3},"title":"All Things Work Together for Good","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Cecil B. Douthitt Gospel Guardian\u00a0- August 31, 1967 Romans 8:28\u00a0contains one of the most precious promises in all the Bible: \"And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to his purpose.\" An accurate understanding and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10930,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/help-in-overcoming-smoking\/","url_meta":{"origin":85612,"position":4},"title":"Help in overcoming smoking","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Pray that God would continue to help me battle smoking.\u00a0 I go days without it, thinking I am finally free,\u00a0and then bam I fall flat on my face.\u00a0 I cannot tell you how hard this addiction has been! Answer: All addictions are difficult, including smoking. But unless you strive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18020,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-person-with-more-sins-love-god-greater\/","url_meta":{"origin":85612,"position":5},"title":"Does the person with more sins love God greater?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi. I have a question for you. Actually, a couple. I think this will be some pretty good ones to have on the site, but mainly I am writing for some clarification for my own personal understanding. Concerning the parable of the two debtors that Jesus told Simon Peter\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}