Amazing Grace

If you were asked what your favorite word in the English language was, what would your answer be? What one word brings you peace, comfort, joy, hope? For me that word is grace. It is the sweetest word I know. It is a word that took years for me to fully understand. A word with so much power, that to dwell upon it can easily cause tears to stream down my face.

What is grace? Well the definition of grace simply put is “God’s unmerited favor.” That does not even begin to encompass grace as I know it. It is so much richer, so much more complex than those three words.

As a child I carried quite a lot of guilt around. I felt mean, bad, worthless, stupid and ugly. All this while I was still in grade school; quite a load for little shoulders to bear. At age 14 I accepted Christ and was baptized. I still remember the relief I felt. I was clean now, all that sin washed away! I just had to be good from now on and I would be deserving of God’s love. Well, we all know how that turned out! I was reaching for an impossible goal, and without grace, I had no hope. It was decades before I truly understood God’s grace. Baptism into Christ washed away my sins and brought me salvation, but fully understanding grace washed away the years of guilt and self loathing. 

Grace is what God rains down on me every single day. Every single day that I try to follow His path and stumble. Every single day that I try to speak His words and misspeak. Every single day that I try to be an example of His love and fail. His grace envelopes me and gives me hope and peace. His grace allows me to forgive, not only other people, but myself as well. Grace was always there, I just needed to allow myself to accept it; every single day.

Amazing grace
How sweet the sound
Amazing love
Now flowing down

From hands and feet
That were nailed to the tree
As grace flows down

And covers me

God Bless ~Marla