Volumes have been written about what makes us what we are, nature or nurture. Both are incredible forces in our lives. Sometimes nature can triumph over nurture and sometimes nurture can redirect nature. What I would like to suggest here is that when nature and nurture are jointly touched, changed and channeled by grace we then become our best. Grace is given to humans to make us fully human; it is given to us to transform us into what the Lord is calling us to be. For this reason we cannot excuse our behavior by pinning what we are on either nature or nurture. We are children of grace.
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.” (Titus 2:11–14 NRSV).
