Are You Ready?61was conducted at Duke University. Researchers requested that
health- conscious participants eat a doughnut in the first part
of the study. Once they completed that task, participants were
put in a room with candy and told they could eat as much as
they liked. Half the people were told to give themselves some
grace— that eating the doughnut benefited research and they
shouldn’t feel bad about it. The other half of the group were
given no such message.
As a result, the group given no message of grace, or “self-
compassion” as the study calls it, ate more than 50 percent more
candy than the “grace group.” This study shows that when we
choose to give ourselves grace, we go on to make remarkably
better choices toward our goals.^4
So instead of trying to have a perfect habit each day, give
yourself grace when you need to adjust for a difficult season.
Give yourself grace if your prayer time isn’t as long as you want
it to be. You’ll get there. Just keep going. Being frustrated with
yourself when you fall short does nothing to get you where you
want to go.
True, this study didn’t dive into biblical grace. But the next
logical step is to reflect on how we respond, not only to self-
grace but also to what happens when we accept the grace God
offers us each day. When we remember that He isn’t standing
at the finish line awaiting our triumphant victory or harshly
judging us for every failure, and when we choose to cling to
2 Corinthians 12:9, we can move forward in His grace and
strength: “He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for
my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast
all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s
power may rest on me.”