We all love credit. We are immersed in a culture that is padding and polishing our resumes.  We make sure our accomplishments are credited to our “account” in work and in our relationships.

I really started thinking after I read Lindsey Nobles’ post yesterday about tallies and read this:

But one thing is clear. I have a terrible tendency to keep score in relationships. I file away a handy little mental tally  that keeps track of how each of my friendships is progressing. Notches are silently added when someone exerts effort. And notches are deducted when they do not.

I got to thinking, “That’s me.” And after I read the accompanying thirty-nine comments, I realized, “that’s us.” We keep score and we want credit. We want credit for the things we’ve done to make its way into our relational savings accounts.  And we process debits of the accounts of others who wrong us, or don’t adequately give us credit for the things we’ve done for them.

The back-breaker for me in reading Lindsey’s post was this:

But what my tally REALLY DOES is limit my ability to love, limit my ability to extend grace, and limit my ability to faithfully risk in my relationships.

Have you ever had the feeling you were staring very uncomfortably in the mirror where there was no mirror?  Uh, yeah…

Today, I was doing some Bible reading on YouVersion when I came across this verse from Ephesians 2:8…

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. (Emphasis is mine)

I don’t just limit my ability to love, extend grace, and risk in relationship with other people, fellow human beings, but also God. I have at times kept a record against God of the things I thought He should have done and didn’t, and I’ve tried to take credit for things that are not mine to take credit for.

Have you ever been there?