(Not positive, but I think it was 1988.) 

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce Fiasco and A Lesson I Learned Along the Way

When your kids won't stay in bed

[Tell Me] A True Thing

Still Stealing Kisses

You are made in the image of what you desire…

I shared with you recently how much I've loved reading through a month of grace.

Now it's my turn to talk about it a little bit. 

I feel like I've known the words to Amazing Grace my whole life. Backwards and forwards, I could sing them all. 

There have been parts of the song here and there over my life that tugged at my emotions.

But nothing like a few months ago when the words of one verse grabbed me like never before.

Through many dangers, toils and snares

I have already come

Tis grace that brought me safe thus far

And grace will lead me home.

One night I was completely overwhelmed by the magnitude of these words.

It is easy to feel that my life is mine, and that I have brought myself where I am, that I have control over where I'm going. To some extent this is true, but only in a very small way.

My understanding of "my" life was changed dramatically one day when God made His Word present a perfect picture to me.

For you formed my inward parts; 
You covered me in my mother's womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works, 
And that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they were all written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.
Psalm 139:13-16

As I was in a place of constant struggle with whether or not I could really place my life in God's hands and trust that He would take care of it, I was startled by the truth of these words.

My life has never been mine to take care of. It is mine in the sense that I get to choose what to do with it, but it's never been mine to control.

I thought of myself as a newborn baby, with absolutely no control over anything. I thought of the miracle that I was born. My mom miscarried babies both before and after me. Yet I am here. Why?

Because my days were fashioned for me. When yet there were none of them.

Grace is….life.

Life is GRACE.

There is no way around it. 

I have no ability to control the beating of my heart, the flow of my blood or the function of my brain.

And yet, I am here.

Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come.

Have I really brought myself all that way?

Did I really bring myself through the dangers of being born?  My life is SO fragile. Have I really kept myself all these 29 years? Is that my accomplishment.

Of course not.

Grace has brought me safe thus far.

And when my life, this life that I'm living now, is over? Because we all know someday there will be an end. Does that mean grace has stopped?

Of course not.

Grace will lead me home.

To the home my heart has desired since the days I was covered in my mother's womb.

The home that the Giver of all this grace has prepared for me.

Right now my understanding and recognition of grace comes and goes, sometimes in big obvious bursts, sometimes softly and subtly. Sometimes the tainted parts of this life keep me from seeing it at all.

But then, there will be nothing else.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:4-10

Be sure to visit Chatting at the Sky for more On Grace….

Our day was uneventful. 

School was accomplished with minimal difficulty or conflict.

The house got cleaned, the laundry got put away.

We picked blueberries for awhile.

Then the girls got dropped off for dinner with Grammy and Papa while we ran some errands.

We came back to pick the girls up just before bedtime. 

They climbed in the car, and Miss A was thrilled to see that we picked up her favorite cereal while we were out.

In the back seat on the way home she just seemed giddy.

I asked "Are you so excited about the cereal?"

In her classic Miss A way, she tried to answer me about ten times in a completely unclear jumble of words as her thoughts poured out faster then she could put them in order.

Finally she slowed down and got it out nice and clear…

"I love my whole life!"

What a blessing to hear such a joyful exclamation at the end of a totally typical day.

A girl after my own heart, she knows the truth…. Ordinary days are best!