Five Minute Friday: Grace

God's

Riches

At

Christ's 

Expense

That's what I have been given a lot of. Grace. So amazing. So free to me. So costly to the One who has given it to me. God has given me so much that I don't deserve.

3 things have come to mind with the word "grace." 5 Minutes doesn't give me much time but there they are:

1. The Youngest Pilgrim by J.G. Green. A great little book I found at the church library that we've read aloud in the past couple of weeks about a boy in Korea who meets Jesus through his visits with the shopkeeper who owns the corner store. The first Christian song he heard was "Amazing Grace" and it made a great impact throughout his life. I loved hearing my kids sing it whenever it was mentioned in the story.

2. A woman named Grace that I am so grateful for. She has been a kind of mother figure to me (and Glenn and my brother). When I was growing up her family would faithfully visit my dad whenever he was in the hospital for some complication with his diabetes (which was often!) on Sunday afternoons. It didn't matter which hospital it was they would make their way there on Sunday afternoons and spend time with us. Almost every Sunday of the year and a half that mom lived in the nursing home they were there. Loving us, encouraging us, making us laugh. I really don't know what we would have done without her dear family over the years. They have the dearest servant hearts of any people I have ever met. Always giving, always loving, always serving, always caring. I am so grateful for the grace God has given me in Grace.

3. The grace that God has given me in parenting. I am far from a perfect parent but God's grace is producing some amazing kids that I have the privilege of living life with. They challenge me with their faith and their questions. They cause me to grow and to be more and more grateful for the grace that God gives me on a moment by moment basis as my Father.

Grace, grace, God's grace. 

Grace that will pardon and cleanse within. 

Grace, grace, God's grace. 

Grace that is greater than all my sin.