Be grace.

When I was little my grandad called me Grace, because I was the poster child for the antonym of graceful. I was clumbsy and would trip over my own two feet. Some days, underneath the woman I've grown into, I still feel like that little girl who was more like a bull in a china shop than the budding lady my mom always hoped I'd be. 

As I've always viewed that nick name as sarcasm for a girl who can't seem to stand on her own two feet; the older I get, I'm starting to wonder if I've been wrong all these years. Maybe that nickname given to me by my grandad so many years ago wasn't sarcasm at all. Perhaps the fact that there are days I can't stand on my own two feet is a mere metaphor for the very definition of a life lived in the grip of grace. 

Grace-

What is grace? In the New Testament grace means God’s love in action towards men who merited the opposite of love. Grace means God moving heaven and earth to save sinners who could not lift a finger to save themselves.

What a beautiful picture of unconditional love. 

Romans 3 says, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

For all those times, literally and physically, that I've fallen flat on my face, His grace abounds. 

Ephesians 2:8 says,

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

It's ok that most days I can't stand on my own two feet. Grace still abounds. 

One verse that I always share with my children is Psalm 139:13-14.

13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

I know God created me with purpose. Sometimes, I still wonder what His purpose for my life is aside from being a mom and Ryan's future wife. As I've prayed and pictured what his purpose for my life is, the word Grace has been what comes to mind. 

It's like God's saying, "Don't worry about the details or about being your idea of a perfect mom, future wife or perfect anything; just be a picture of grace." 

Maybe not all of us were meant to be extraordinary, to have it all together, or walk the tight rope without tripping over our own two feet. Maybe the only thing the God of the universe asks of our lives is to live out who we are in each moment of our everyday lives. To be the picture of grace that He so lavishly bestowed upon us and to point others to Him. 

For me, right now, I feel like my calling is to simply be that picture at home for my children and for Ryan. I know that my greatest ministry is at home. Perhaps God will use my ministry here on this blog as well as at home to minister to others. I don't know. I do know that he's sovereign and "in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."  -Colossians 1:16&17