grace like rain....

"Grace is the face that love wears, when it meets imperfection." -- Joseph R. Cooke


I am in the midst of two really great books. One is a novel written by a former writer for The David Letterman Show. It is so witty and fun...I laugh out loud at least once in every chapter! I am also reading a book called TrueFaced: trust God and others with who you really are. A friend read an excerpt from this book a while ago and I was intrigued. The above quote comes from this book...a simple, yet profoundly honest book.


To be able to offer others grace, forgiveness and Christ-like love, comes first from us receiving it from God and others. Do I, in meeting imperfection, first offer grace and love? And how can I truly if I haven't received it for myself? And do I offer myself grace in the face of my own imperfections? And do any of us well?? Unfortunately, I have encountered a lot of ungrace in the very place we should experience grace. That saddens me. Fortunately, I have witnessed beautiful examples and aspire to emulate them.

I am trying to focus on the grace God gives and not the grace humans give. Essentially, that's truly the only grace that matters. It's truly the only relationship that matters. If I am right with God, all other relationships will be worked out by Him and through Him. And, essentially, it comes down to focus. Where I choose to focus will be where my thoughts, and subsequently my heart, are.

This is something you think I would have settled long ago along my Christian walk. I became a Christian at 15, but God has done more work in me in the last 3 years than one can possibly imagine. A friend said this exact thing recently and it amazed my how much this summed up my Christian walk. This concept of being willing to receive His gift of grace and perfect love, in order to give grace and love is not lost on me. I get it...intellectually I get it. And I want desperately to receive it...once and for all. Just somewhere from my head to my heart, the message gets fuzzy. I have moments when I get it...heart and soul get it...and receive the very grace from God that I so do not deserve. For this I am forever grateful. But, most of the time, I find that this is my most basic struggle in my faith. From this basic principle and first step of faith stems all of my personal struggles. I have hope that this struggle will get easier on my quest of becoming more like Christ and less like me. And I hope that I am not alone in this struggle of accepting and receiving grace and love. I continue to pray that God will imprint this in my thoughts and engrave this in my heart.

But God is so good and faithful to me. He continues to speak to me and work in me and never gives up on me. He has given me a wonderfully patient and honest husband and encouraging and awesome friends to help me through this journey. They show me grace and love every day. And three amazing children that I want to live by example for.