Cover me...

It's easy to toss the idea around and prepare to take your fair share when you think you'll need it, but much more difficult to give. Especially to the needy.
It certainly doesn't grow on trees or gather like dust on the coffee tables. But maybe it should.

GRACE

Maybe if it was stocked in every grocery chain and packed in between the magazines at the end of every isle it would make a difference. Easy to grab means easy to come by.
It would make a great snack.

We say it. Believe in it. Smile when children say it.

I've been changed by it.  Saved by it. And challenged by it. But what if the "needy"one is me?

It shows up as ignored stains on a mommas t-shirt.  In the ratted hair of a precarious toddler. And in the understanding eyes of a weary mother across the isle in church.
It makes its appearance in the after moments of when you've spoken too loudly to a child that challenges every nerve you own and snots on the very last one.  It holds you in the moments you want to lose it and pushes you to greatness when you find it.

I don't want to give it because I think one day it will run out. I fear that my latest mistake will become the biggest mistake that grace cannot cover. At the very bottom of my heart I fear. Fear that the one who gave it will come up short and in that time of need, the short stick will be mine.
I have the hardest time giving grace--to myself.

Yet, the grace I need to give myself is the very same grace that saved me. Like working oil into a piece of leather, the repetitious motions eventually soften the hardest of hides and remove the darkest stains of lies. Lies that stain deep are hard to remove, but not impossible.

And it is everywhere. Well placed. Stocked full to overflowing. Very accessible and in every season that we need it. Boy do we need it!




Weary mama, take a breath. Breathe deep of grace. Gods grace.
Little child, settle your self in knowing that you are loved just as you are.
Sister, friend, secret keeper...you too embrace this grace...the unmerited favor of God.
Tomorrow is a new day, and in the newness is mercy. A beautiful, identical twin to grace.

Today may not feel great, but it IS great because of Grace.

If you're like me, giving grace to myself will take practice. Lots of it. We are always hardest on ourselves, but we don't have to be.  Not anymore.

Grace gives us courage to cry, to put our big-girl pants on, and keep going. For when we live in grace, we live without fear.

And that, sweet friend, changes EVERYthing.