Grace, Grace, Gods Grace

GRACE......
Isn't it the mere mention of the word that drives the point home in our inner being that were it not for that one thing, we would be lost?

I have been musing on this today....for reasons I am not at liberty to share here. I have just been thinking about how much that grace affects our everyday lives.

As a young person, I was sure I had all the answers. I was probably even a bit annoying in making sure others knew I thought I had them. To those folks, consider this my big apology, for as the years have gone by, and I have lived a lot more life, I realize I knew ....well, nothing. Count it up to the wisdom that begins to happen as the hair goes gray, along with spending more and more time in the company of my Savior.

Everything I thought I knew, everything I thought I understood, everything I thought I was right about has been upturned.
In true form for scripture, God had it right (well of course He did)...
'When I was a child I thought and spoke as a child.'
It is the next part of that verse that is the encouragement to me now. There is the 'out' of getting to be grown up.

It is a bit of a shock when you hit that point, that 'aha' moment when you understand that grace covers the worst of yourself. You know your own heart and mind better than anyone, so you are the only one who can completely appreciate the mammoth gift of that grace. You alone know how wretched you are, and wonder of wonders, God's love covers it.

I will go a step further and add, there is a second 'aha' moment. This is the one I contemplate more today, the one where you finally get to the 'grown up' moment of realizing that God is doing that in other peoples lives as well. Not only is He doing that in their lives, but in yours He is equipping you to 'allow' them their mistakes, their setbacks, their own 'journey to holiness'.

Growing up means learning that I am full of faults that it is a miracle that God forgives.
Growing up means that I begin to understand just how much I don't know and how much God does.
Growing up means allowing other people to make mistakes, and thus allowing them room to be forgiven because that is what God does.

So today, as I check my own list of expectations for myself and for others, I pray that I can apply my 'aha' revelations in a way that frees us all to live with grace applied.