If you’ve journeyed with us over the last year you would have read articles about understanding you and your partner better, why putting the hard work into your relationship is worth it, how to overcome rough patches, tips on savouring the good times together, and much more. We have just a few weeks left in this journey together before the Toucan Team takes a break for summer, and we wanted to touch on an aspect of relationships that we believe is one of the most important.

Grace.

Grace for your partner and for yourself. Grace is a gift. It’s forgiveness freely given without the expectation of anything in return. It’s one of the best gifts you could ever give your partner, and one of the best gifts you could ever give yourself. Grace is saying that it’s okay to fail and that you will love them no matter what.

These days we expect a lot from ourselves and the people around us. This is understandable as the world we know is more connected than ever before and pockets of social media glorify the ​‘hustle’. All of these expectations constantly push us to our limits and often breaking points.

So what does that mean in your relationship? What do you do when your partner inevitably fails? Answer: try to meet them with grace. This doesn’t mean allowing someone to treat you terribly with no consequences. It means recognising that you will let each other down but still pressing into each other to keep your love strong.

Make space for each other to NOT get it right every time. It’s important to express that you know your partner is human, and therefore fallible, and won’t hit the mark every day. Living in constant fear of letting each other down can build stress and resentment over time leading to an outburst or simply shutting down. You and your partner both need to feel confident that you will still love and forgive each other when you fail.

How can you act more graciously toward your partner this week? How can you act more graciously towards yourself?

Remember — time doesn’t heal all wounds, forgiveness does. Give grace a chance.