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Welcome My Friend!

Hi my lovely new friend 💖

 Ahhh...I just had that first sip of coffee aka "The Elixir of the Lord" and oh my...why is that so heavenly? It warms every space on the inside and hits a different part of my soul. #dramaticmuch? 😂🤷‍♀️

Anyway, how the heck are you today? What was a win for you this week? I want to know. Tell your girl.😍

I was thinking about something this week after a conversation I had with a few dear friends earlier.

It was all about GRACE. The GOODNESS of that gift. It is one gift that we all are capable of giving and guess how much it costs??

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

It is FREE...did you know that is my favorite "F" word?! YEP, FREE.😂😂

It goes hand in hand with the other free gift...kindness. But the thing with grace is we don't give that away as easily.

I mean, you are human and so am I and if we are both really super duper honest, we have at times held that out on people, our friends, our family, our spouse and heck, even ourselves.

I think many of us forget what grace really is all about.

❤Grace is love.

❤Grace is forgiveness.

❤Grace is doesn't hold a grudge.

❤Grace moves us forward.

❤Grace is often over complicated yet fairly simple.

❤Grace is a completely under looked way of mending and healing.

Here's the thing...grace is FREE and underused and many of us have never felt it therefore find it even harder to bestow it on others or to our own self.

I mess up. I fail. I do things that disappoint some, usually those closest to me. I forget things sometimes. And if I am guessing correctly, I am not alone. You too, right?

Because WE are human. We are not robots. We are not perfect. 

As Bob Goff says it, "grace never seems fair until we need some ourselves."

We try to be the jury and the judge. We try to decide who deserves it and who doesn't. We hold out on people and ourselves and all it does is add to the stuck feeling, the resentment and the heartache in our life and ultimately the world.

If we could only fathom the magnitude of grace we get every darn day from our God, we might possibly understand then how to give some away to ourselves and others.

We get that gift from Him everyday. Because we are loved and seen as worthy always, beyond our biggest mess ups and failures, He still shows up with His pockets full of grace for you, me, her, him and them.

Pretty generous, right?

I think many of us have lived too with the idea that grace is a cop out, it's easy street or it's not setting a boundary. If we give grace then we condone what they did...OR if I give myself grace for not doing something perfectly then I am making an excuse.

But I challenge you on that. I challenge you to view it differently.

Grace is actually a sign of great emotional maturity.

To be able to see someone through their mess ups, find the good in it all, love them and forgive them. And yes, you may not ever go back to where it was but your heart will change and when that happens, EVERYTHING changes for the better.

 THAT is where it is at. THAT is how we heal and move forward, no matter what the offense is.

From unkind or hateful remarks from others via social media, to not following through with a goal you set for yourself to really, really HARD challenges that come with marriage and relationships, trust and beyond...we are ALL capable of sharing grace with people.

Yes, it will be hard but worth it.

I read this quote this week and it hit me in a good way "When you finally learn that a person's behavior has more to do with their own internal struggle than it ever did with you, you learn grace."

So much of what you or I or they maybe struggling with likely has ZERO to do with anyone specific but our own self. And when we view someone's actions with that lens, it is a lot easier to pour our pockets of grace out on them and love them.

And don't miss this: grace doesn't make what they did right, especially if it harmed you in the deepest ways but it allows you to move forward and it allows them to feel the gift that God gives to all of us.

And when someone feels and experiences that, it might just be the ONE time they felt loved and felt like they still mattered.

It might just be the ONE thing that changes it all for them and you. And when those little changes happen inside each of our hearts, it changes everything about our lives,our relationships and every other person we touch in this world.

We get to practice this everyday, many times over again. And we may get it wrong many times but I am going to stay the course and keep trying because I believe in the depths of my heart that GRACE WINS, EVERY SINGLE TIME.

May our heart posture sit with GRACE and our pockets full of it today.

grace 1

Today you are enough and you are AMAZE.

LOVE YOU. MEAN IT.

-A

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