Grace upon grace

Hello friends! I took a bit of a hiatus from blogging this summer... partly because it has been a crazy and busy summer, and partly because every time I sat down to blog nothing came out! I couldn't put to words what I wanted to say--if I had tried it would've been a super confusing jumble of words that had no purpose.

But today, I felt a tug on my heart to take one more crack at it. It all started with a conversation that I was having with a friend. We were texting and she had apologized for forgetting to call me a few days ago! I responded with "don't worry about it" because it really was no big deal; however, what she said really took me by surprise! She replied: "you're so full of grace. I really appreciate that about your friendship to me!"

Something about me: it is often easier for me to give grace to others because I love them! I don't care that they made one little mistake because that's not WHO they are... it's just something they did. I don't expect the people around me to be perfect; I don't expect them to be the perfect friend because they're humans!

But her response surprised me because, lately, I haven't been feeling super gracious. I've been testy with family and most of all--with myself. I haven't been giving myself the grace that I probably should! I think: "wow, I could've done better, acted better, said something better, been a better friend, looked better, took better care of myself, been a better sister/daughter, etc." I've really put myself on a short leash! I've expected near-perfection from myself--something that no one expects from me!

God has given us undeserved, unrelenting, unconditional grace. A grace that it heaped upon us out of love. God KNOWS that we are not worthy of the grace that He has to offer, but he offers it anyway! Why? Because His grace makes us want to be better! When we see that the Lord has given us something that we don't deserve, it makes us want to show him that he hasn't made mistake in offering it to us!
The bible says a few (okay, more than a few) things about God's grace toward us:
"Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under that old tyranny any longer. You're living in the [grace] of God."
{Romans 6:14}

"My grace is enough, it's all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness."
{2 Corinthians 12:9}

So, maybe I should take a lesson from God, and in part, from myself. I should be willing to show myself the grace that I am so willing to show to others, and I should willingly receive God's grace toward me without a thought of "am I enough?".

God's grace is so amazing. It is such a gift, and what's even crazier is that it's a gift we didn't ask for and one that we absolutely didn't deserve to receive! But He still gives it out every single day.