Jennifer Grace

As a kid I used to joke about my middle name because I am the clumsiest person around. I trip up stairs, constantly am getting toothpaste in my eye and hurt myself on almost every adventure I attempt. I broke almost every valuable that my parents let me touch as a kid and so I had accepted the fact that I would never be described as graceful. However, the past year has caused me to really reflect upon grace and upon my name.

I think that my name is Grace because God knew how desperately I would need to be reminded of it every day of my life.

I need to be reminded how much it has changed me, how I am not the girl that I was before. I need to be reminded to show it to others and that justice is beautiful, but there is strength in grace and forgiveness. And I need to be reminded that when one is given a lot of grace, they are expected to share that with others.

Grace has become a integral part of who I am. I have come to see that every breath, every motion, every laugh and sob, is grace in action. There is no aspect of my life that grace has not touched.

In Ephesians 2:8-9 Paul tells his readers “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.” This past year has been one of the hardest of my life for a variety of reasons…but I am stronger and wiser after it. This is not because I learned how to handle life so well, but because I have learned how desperately I need the grace of my Father to guide me through every day. I could not be the woman that I am slowly but surely becoming if it was not for grace. My name reminds me daily of the wretch that I was, and could be again if it was not for God’s grace. When we come to grips with the fact that we are lost and alone without God we finally understand how desperately we need him.

My prayer for you reader is that you are able to see yourself through God’s eyes in 2014. This means seeing the dirt and the pain, but also the beauty and the grace. We all stray and fail, but we are loved by a perfect God nonetheless. He sees past our constant failure and chooses to redeem our weary troubled souls. I pray that you find rest, hope and joy in Christ throughout this year, but mainly I pray that you see how your life has been shaped by grace.

Thanks

When my parents split up when I was a kid they decided to make sure that we had strong holiday traditions with both sides of my family. This became Thanksgiving with my mom and Christmas with my dad. My Thanksgivings consisted of playing dress up in the crawl space under my grandma’s house, decorating countless turkeys with herbs, cranberries and orange slices only to tear it to shreds moments later, and writing and putting on plays for the women in the family while the men congregated to watch the Lions lose.

But now…this Thanksgiving was different…beautiful and new…but different. Because last Thanksgiving was a moment when bitter got blasted into my sweet life. Four days after our traditional perfect celebration we found out about my grandma’s cancer.

This stronghold of smiles and memories was suddenly shocked into a panicked confusion and things started to fly out of my hands. But as I have said in past posts, I have been blessed beyond compare this year…and so I want to take a moment thank you for what you’ve meant to me in this past year and difficult season.

Chances are if you’re reading this you have impacted my life in this year.  I cannot put into words how thankful I am for all the people that have invested in me and loved me back to health. My heart was so weary and burdened a year ago…but now it feels clean and new: scrubbed with the steel wool of adversity and washed in tears. I wish I could take the time to list everyone out by name, but it would take days.  So instead I just want to thank you. You know how you have helped me, or maybe you don’t. But I know that God has put ever person in my life there for a reason and without all of you I wouldn’t be who I am.

Thank you family.

Thank you friends.

Thank you strangers.

Thank you Father.

May we go into this new season with our heads held high in the assurance that we enter as conquerors and are stronger than we can imagine with Christ at our side.