And so it’s Monday, and you wake up and you don’t feel it. By the looks of your laundry pile, your dirty hair, and the stack of endless to-dos, you won’t be feeling it tomorrow, either. Maybe not even anytime this week. The kind of grace we’ve been talking about for the past two and a half weeks is the kind that it is lavished, available, and free.
But grace given to you does not mean it’s okay to act rotten because you feel rotten. Why do we always take grace there? Sometimes I think - Well, I’m in a bad way. So glad there’s grace for that. There is, it’s true. Of course there is. And if you wish to stay in that place, you may choose that. But even better is this: Grace given means you are able to act graceful, even though you don’t feel it. Do you see the difference? Grace is not simply free to do whatever I please. Grace is the ability to do as He pleases. Grace means now you have a choice. It is the ability! And really, if I think about it, that is what pleases me, too.
This week, I want to share a handful of stories with you about what it looks like to choose grace in marriage, in parenting, in friendships, and such. There will be no lists or formulas, because you know by now that’s not how I roll. But I hope there will be encouragement and maybe even something tangible to hold on to. This concept of grace is so deep and wide and long and high that I feel smaller everyday I write about it.
I would love to hear from you today, would love to know how this grace-choice shows up for you. What does it look like to be graceful even when you don’t feel it?
Don’t forget to visit the other blogs hosting 31 Days Series this month! Nesting Place, Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, My First Kitchen, Life With My 3 Boybarians, Reluctant Entertainer, The Inspired Room, and Remodeling This Life.
Being graceful means not giving others what they deserve because He doesn’t give me what I deserve.
“Grace is not simply free to do whatever I please. Grace is the ability to do as He pleases.”
Amen. So true. Sadly, we don’t often get that.
Danielle´s last [type] ..The Contentment of Gratitude Multitude Monday
oh you wrote this for me, thanks!
For me, Grace is a smile and snuggle when I’m woken too early by a little one. It’s keeping my mouth closed when I want to say I told you so. It’s forgiveness. It’s hard.
I’ve grown up hearing about grace my whole life – it seemed like one of those common christian words. But God is really showing me on a deeper level what His grace looks like. I wrote a post about it this weekend …
amanda´s last [type] ..grace
Thank you for this post this morning. As I look at the mountains of laundry and the endless to do’s I will try my best to do it with grace.
Dana
Grace means I can ask God to help me be content doing what he has me to do today which is… laundry, grading papers, making meals and doing it all in a happy mode and not screaming at my kids in the process. Godliness with contentment is great gain the Word says.
I was quite happy this morning to realize that I had made it through the month with out a really bad day! that difference I emailed you about… i do believe it has made a lasting difference, a lasting victory finally for me. Praying it goes on and on… Looking forward to your words on grace this week.
Pray for me if you think on it this week, going to Relevant this week, feels like I am jumping off a cliff into the unknown. But I know God wants me to go, so I am going.
Sharon´s last [type] ..Happy Saturday!
Were you peeking in my window this morning, how did you know about my mountain of laundry and dirty hair?
glad to know I am not alone in my Monday morning-ness. Was feeling overwhelmed until my quiet time devotion with God, now ready to take on the day! I enjoyed your post on Grace. I like this quote regarding grace “God’s fullness in the life of the believer”. I also love a new song a friend introduced me too, can be heard on my blog, called “Beautiful Things” by Gungor. Happy Monday to you!
Polly´s last [type] ..Pie Party- Week 2
Great reminder Emily! I think too often we think we can “stay” in a place…but I think we either choose a positive attitude or a negative one. We are either drawing nearer to God or drifting further away…but never remaining, because life is change! His beautiful & perfect gifts {like grace} were never meant to end with us. It’s all about choices, very well voiced
Lisa´s last [type] ..From Not-So-Much to Beautiful…Console Cabinet Redo
Grace for me means running my race with endurance and joy when I want to sit down and feel sorry for myself. I know grace can enable me to fulfill my purpose every day, if I cling to it. Grace is the only thing separating me from a life of being ineffective, self-centered, unloving, and overwhelmed.
Thanks for these great posts on grace. It is a hard concept to grasp for all of us, but the more we talk about it, the closer we get to understanding grace and living under its covering.
Leslie@top of the page´s last [type] ..Secretariat and Glory
It shows up in reading my girl’s Bible with her after bedtime when she asks, even though I know it’s a stall tactic. Because, SHE is asking to read the word. Because 15 minutes is worth the truth that it pours into her, and because as she grows, she will need more of His grace too, just like her mama.
Eyvonne´s last [type] ..But I thought we weren’t supposed to curse
Grace doesn’t mean that because I overslept, left my lunch at home, didn’t grade papers, don’t have proper lesson plans and am quite concerned about my dad in the hospital, I am free to grump at my students. The truth is that God loves me. I love my students. Act like it!
kendal´s last [type] ..not even going to try
I’m fixing to go back to work after being on maternity leave for 3 months. I can so relate to giving grace when you don’t feel like it. I get to work by 630 (am) on Mon, Tues, and Wed. After very little sleep, it is hard to be graceful to people who are NOT being graceful to you. I am a nurse at an Endoscopy clinic (we do mostly colonoscopies) so it’s understandable people aren’t too happy to be there. I can’t tell you the number of times that people have told me thank you for being so kind to them. It makes me feel good to know that I have extended them grace when I didn’t feel like it or even feel like they deserved it!
Loved this! I remember once telling my son “just because things aren’t going your way doesn’t mean you can take it out on someone else.” Ouch. Even as the words were leaving my mouth, they were convicting ME. Such a great thing to remember!
What are the things that make it harder for me to give out the grace {i so desperately need others to dish in my direction}:
-lack of sleep
-lack of time with Jesus
-imbalance
-time pressures
-blocked expectations
oh, and, most definitely,
-when i discover we’re out of coffee, the morning of.
Am loving your series, and am visiting often. Thanks for taking the time to make GRACE something to encourage, champion, revisit.
Laura@Life Overseas´s last [type] ..Promise Under Trees
grace today is…after being woken up, and kept up, for a good bit of the night last night by my 8 year old, who has sleeping issues…i was able, by God’s grace, to see him this morning and give him a big hug and lavish some love on him that he’s sure going to need today!!
Grace is throwing the boxer shorts behind the door into the hamper – again – without saying a word. (If it’s true that it only takes two seconds, they might as well by my two seconds!)
Flower Patch Farmgirl´s last [type] ..Guest Post – Pretties and Posies
Ah, Emily, I can really relate to this today. I got a late start on my writing today and it frustrated me…I was a little cranky at first but caught myself and apologized to my dear husband who has endless patience with me. I took a deep breath and began thinking about what I am learning in my Scripture memory and study this week…what life can be like what it was meant to look like with our roots deeply holding onto the Grace through His Word.
I am determined not to allow grace to become an excuse today. Thank you for this precious reminder…you have such a beautiful way of putting difficult things.
I can’t wait to read this week’s grace-filled posts! I have such a long way to go!
Mary Joy @Seeds of Encouragement Sewn with Grace´s last [type] ..Psalm 1- 1-2 Scripture Memory Monday vlog
Grace would not that we’d live in it’s shadow, but that we’d soar on it’s waves. It enlarges our territory and slips mercy into every creaking crevice that cracks us wide. And oh the cracks I have this Monday morning. Still pajama-clad in need of soap and shower, lunch looming the hour and I still mulling Him at the keyboard. My starting grace this morn will be to leave the feet of Jesus to tend to house, home, and little people underfoot. Emily what a treasure you wrote this am.! I’ll leave with it in my heart as I go to prepare a meal and commune with family and Spirit and wonder it all.
Tammy@If Meadows Speak…´s last [type] ..Condemnation & Conviction-separating blurry lines are Supernaturally divided out
I so desperately needed this reminder today. It’s so much easier to curl up in a ball and be “ungraceful” on a Monday morning! Although I strive to be like Jesus on days like today, I find another example helps me too. How would Audrey Hepburn–that classic figure of grace and beauty–treat a day like today? I think the Audrey we all picture would find grace in every moment… even when our hair isn’t cooperating and there are bags under our eyes. I think she’d rock grace like it was nobody’s business, so that’s what I aim for too!
Annie´s last [type] ..why theres a new button on my sidebar
I think for me, right now, grace means not defending myself, even when I am right….not justifying my actions, and sometimes….apologizing for something others may have wrongly perceived…..that is not always easy!
Danielle Cevallos´s last [type] ..1000 Gifts
Oh girl, it’s Monday and this is so. where. I. am. Ugh. Today, for me, grace means breathing multitudes of short desperate prayers so that I don’t snap (too much) at children who look to me for everything. It means practicing patience when she can’t get the math problem right again and again. It means ignoring the dishes and the shower, reading Curious George to the 2-year-old, and saying “no” to the things I’d rather be doing. None of this in my own strength. None of it. And needing heaping doses of grace to make the good choices.
Scooper´s last [type] ..Love Em For Who They Are
“Grace is not simply free to do whatever I please. Grace is the ability to do as He pleases.”
I love this!
This comes as such encouragement on a day where Satan has tried to steal my joy. He has tried to drag out fears and insecurities, and sin and rub my nose in it. I have to say NO WAY! To stand on truth and even though I feel like crawling under the covers…and I did….but to get up, to “woman up” and to choose Grace. To choose to please Him even when I am afraid, even when I know I don’t deserve even an ounce of Grace. I am so thankful for your daily posts, may the Lord continue to bless you and your family with His unspeakable Grace as you continue to speak about Grace here.
? Jess
Jess´s last [type] ..from her point of view
my favorite grace post so far. Cant think about Grace without closing my eyes and thinking of JESUS and what he’s done for me….
denice´s last [type] ..Getting Into a Rhythm of My Own
Your posts have been so uplifting Emily. For me, in the day to day of life, it means dying to self. Taking the time to listen when I’d rather be reading or writing, making the phone call, going places with those I love rather than staying home where I long to be.
Linda´s last [type] ..Transformation
it’s grace when I speak with kind words to my teenager–even when she doesn’t.
it’s grace when I choose to help with an assignment that has been procrastinated…
and so much more. I need God’s grace to take over so many moments of my day. And He pours it out if I am willing to receive it.
dawn´s last [type] ..do we dare hope
Grace has been not taking this entire summer situation to a law office and taking someone down. Grace has meant keeping quiet when I want to shout from the rooftops. Grace has been holding my head up in the middle of all this embarrassment. Grace has been the ability to smile when asked “why are you no longer there?” It has been a simple smile when I am crying inside. It has been a time of quiet whispered prayers of “help me handle this.”
There are certainly times when I am ugly. I will not deny that. But I strive for the times when he lifts me up and lets my soul breathe, as you would say.
I was thinking the other day that I wanted you to address where grace comes from when we are down. How to embrace it when it seems to slip from our grasp. How to life our heads and let the sun shine in when the clouds want to hold us down. It has been a journey for me and I know you have other readers in the same sucky boat. Life isn’t easy, but he gives us the choice to handle it with a smile, rise about the muck, and give the grump to him. I may want to wallow in the mud, but then I wouldn’t get the chance to use my cute rainboots, would I?
Can’t wait to read this week!!!
I can’t tell you how wonderful this series has been. So many days your words have been God’s words to my life. Thank you.
Oh my, kind of ironic, given what I wrote about today, which was about prevailing, with Him, in the midst of mundane…and worse. Yup. Been there. God is great to put up with me on my most whiny days.
Michelle DeRusha @ Graceful´s last [type] ..Prevailing
I am one of those in which the “grace invasion” is trying to make a change. I have recently entered what is turning out to be one of the most difficult seasons in my life. I’ll spare you the details, but it all boils down to the fact that God is trying to teach me about grace. What it is to receive it, and to give it. What it looks like, feels like, tastes like… I think I’ve never understood it much because the funny thing about grace is when you’re being given it, you’re not aware of it. At least not until He makes you aware. And I’m starting to see how much I’ve been given it over the years, and also how much I haven’t been giving it. Especially lately.
And THEN I just so happen to stumble upon your blog. And you just so happen to be talking about grace for the entire month of October! And all I can think is, October isn’t long enough. Thank you. Not only for helping me wrap my mind around this thing called grace, but also for being one of the many lately to inspire me to start blogging again myself. It hasn’t happened YET, but it’s coming.
Thanks again! And feel free to spill over into November on this topic!
Grace empowers me to try and treat all people equally with no thought to race or religion. Grace gives through me when logic tells me there is no deserving because it reminds me that I didn’t ever deserve His love either. Grace enables me to move past condemnation. When I would love to stay and have a pity party or knock myself around for being foolish or proud, He reminds me He hasn’t given up on me.
Carol´s last [type] ..Mending
Grace is many things… most my son.
It is most days singing that same song (over and over again for him to record in his mind until it is sung to his perfection) or singing this song that he needs to hear for his anxiety to calm him down (even at my brothers recent funeral during the time when I should have been by my mothers side when we were praying at the coffin right before the funeral;
Grace is loving him unconditionally and doing 24/7 when sometimes he doesn’t even know me as “mom”;
Grace is fighting the school district in court for 5 years b/c I needed to fight for his dignity (he came home with marks on him (upper arms) and couldn’t tell me who hurt him);
Grace is never ever sending him back to school until (I promised him) he is able to communicate if anyone hurts him!
Grace is always being at his side b/c he needs me to communicate for him b/c he cannot speak (just b/c you can’t talk doesn’t mean you don’t have anything to say);
Grace is ensuring his safety 24/7 b/c he doesn’t understand that if you go outside without clothes on and walk into the middle of a street – a car will not stop for you or worse – someone will report you for a crime b/c you are not a baby anymore…
Grace is keeping your faith when autism tries to steal it away every second of every day.
Grace is working through huge challenges about autism with your husband to keep the marriage together for love… not for the children
Grace is keeping it together when they tell you that it isn’t cancer it is only a biopsy and at the 3rd biopsy they tell you it is cancer
Grace is wanting to stay alive for your son because he still needs you but when you don’t really want to anymore b/c the challenges far outweight anything that you could ever imagine (and please Grace is not hearing that God doesn’t give you more than you can handle – b/c he did)
Grace is when I look at him sleeping and I fall in love all over again to make it thru to the next night!
I pray everyday for a miracle… is that Grace?