Grace

Grace. Such an easy word to say. However the execution of this is so much harder. I have been mulling over this for some time. "You need to have grace with so and so." "God's grace is enough." So true but so cliche. Yes, grace is good. Absolutely. It is mandatory. God gave us so much grace, but I have been thinking about how to have grace. What does grace look like? Can I even have grace if I am doubting God's grace for me? I can honestly say I thank God every day He gives me grace, because He and along with people around me, know I need his unending grace every.single.day.

I have been struggling to see God's grace in my life. Examples? My sister left for college. That's always diffucult seeing my best friend move away and not seeing her for 5 months. Some of my best friends are off to college. Never easy saying goodbye to dear friends that encourage you and make you grow in the Lord. Another example? My best friends are struggling with very serious health problems. Receiving text messages about possibly needing to go to the ER at 11:30 at night, hearing the test results after another long day at the hospital were inconclusive without any real conclusions or answers. The pain of seeing the effect of the medical problems beginning physically, emotionally, mentally, and sprititually to weigh on my friends. Another example? Looking at this packed college semester and trying to find the light at the end of the 15 week tunnel.

There are many more things I could list when I think about where I see God "failing" to give me grace. Then I look in His Word. And these are the verses I find.

"And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 2 Corinthians 12:9

Oh. God does care. His grace is sufficient. How could I be doubting this? He specifically tells me his grace is enough. He knows what is going on with my friends' health. He is the Great Physician. Who am I to doubt his grace? Then I see this verse.

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30

Ah yes. Wait. He carried MY cross. He carried MY sin. He can and will carry MY burdens and these burdens I have I give over to him and they become HIS so that I am wonderfully FREE of it. He promises rest. He promises to become my crutch to lean on and put all my weight on. How much grace is that? And I see this verse.

"We love him, because he first loved us." 1 John 4:19

Ah, that wonderful love. No matter what you do, HE LOVED you first. He did. He loved YOU so much he sent his son to DIE for YOU! How powerful. What sacrifice. What love. What grace. We sin over and over and over again. A lot of the times, it is the same sin over and over again. He does not shake his head and say, "They will never learn." No. He says, "Love one another as I have loved you." I see this verse.

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them...And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." Genesis 1

He made us in HIS image. What an incredible image to be made after. He said it was very good. That means he made no mistakes. He loved what he saw. He made us good. To assume he made a mistake, or is not capable of keeping his commandments, or he is messing our lives up, is a serious  underestimation we are making of our Savior and Creator. Our Creator loves us. He said we are very good. How incredible. How encouraging.

So as I look at these verses and I see God's grace as he is the Great Physician and knows what is happening to my friends, as I miss my sister and friends, he is the Great Comforter. As I am overwhelmed by school, He reminds me that He is my ox, my crutch, my strenthener. So as I wonder where is this grace, all I have to do is look in my life and I see His grace brushes every single aspect of my life. I can only hope that I can as accurately portray grace to others as magnificently as God has shown me grace.

And So It Begins

Normally I adore getting ready for school. School shopping! Having 50 new pens and pencils, knowing by the end of the first week, it will probably be down to about three of each if you are lucky. The first day of school outfit, new backpack, new folders, new and old friends, books, notebooks, everything neat and oraganized just waiting to be used. But this year, I was semi-nonchalant about getting ready. I have yet to go supply shopping, didn't have any new clothes for today, nothing super exciting in my lunch box like the good ole days. No, nothing like that. Maybe because I just got back from travelling all summer. Maybe because I am in denial school is starting again. Maybe because I am growing up and the "first day of school syndrome" has left my body. Who knows. But I threw my Ipad in my backpack, grabbed a notebook and a few pens and that was the preparation I did for my day of school.

But, today my blissful "travelling across the country for the summer" days came to a screeching halt the moment the alarm sounded. Back to reality it chimed. Those happy summer days are now mere vague blissful memories to be stored in your overcrowded mind it mocked. I sat up and thought... well might as well get started on my second year of college. Last year I was petrified. I had no idea what to do or where to go or who to see. This morning I woke up cool, calm, and collected. No need for a massive cup of coffee. Nope this year I went caffeine free my first day. I got up, got ready, caught a hug from Dad before he went on his run, went in, kissed Mum goodbye, and headed out the door. No.. first day of school pictures, no special breakfast, new supplies, new outfit, no hugs from my parents as they dropped me off at school. Nope. Not this year. This year was no fanfare. Just the way I like it. I walked out to my car all alone, no one standing at the door waving goodbye. I got into the car and drove to school. This year I walked in being like "Ya, I know where I'm going. I know where I need to be. Hey! I know you and oh! I need to talk to you! And yes! Look who found a parking spot and got to class early."

I found my first classroom, I had never been on the first floor for classes. I met some nice people. I wanted to start this year out with a bang. I thought stats at 8:30 in the morning would sufficiently allow me to have that euphoric feeling of knowing how doomed I would be this entire semester. It was a great feeling let me tell you. I wasn't very nervous. Somehow this whole second year college thing had really grown me into an outgoing- I will talk to whoever in my class- kind of girl. Stats was entirely too boring. I hate the teachers who are all, "Now that we have finished going through the syllabus let's dive into the material." I am thinking, "Oh let's not! This is the first day back! Ease us in slowly please." But no. We dove right in to defining technical statistic terms. Oh the joys. What I will do to be educated. We finally finished the class. And I bolted. Okay. Kidding. I didn't. I calmly walked out.

Second class of the day. Spanish. Old hat. Same teacher as last semester. This will be a piece of cake. Walked to the class, walked in, and BOOM! What do I see? A sea of familiar faces! Well, not a sea of them. But there were only four people in the entire room I had not had Spanish class with last semester. And I was like ohhhhhh yes!!! It's like a family reunion! It was an incredible feeling. We talked a little bit about our summer, and then we dove into reviewing. Uhhhh....buenas noches? No no no. Buenas dias! Ehehehe. No practico espanol this summer. (verano) Time to think. The beautiful thing is that mi profesora let us out a whole hour in a half early! Bless her little golden heart. (This is a 5 credit class so 2.5 hour classes, and yes it does get very long) Anyways, so out I walked from Spanish feeling confident as ever.

I walked to get books I had ordered from the bookstore. Wrong decision. Masses of students, most of them having no idea what they were doing. Oh. And did I mention the long line? Hm. Oh, well it was long. I got up, grabbed my books, and got away. Basically uneventful.

So, here it is. The end of the first day of school. I have my homework for stats completed (ya it is THAT kind of class. Who gives homework the first day of school?!?!?) and I have English and music and biology to conquer tomorrow. I feel great. This is going to be a huge workload but I must say, stellar first day of school. And I decided I needed a first day of school picture, so since everyone was sleeping when I left, I got one taken after I had survived the day! Anyone else have first day of school experiences, good or bad, you want to share? Write below and I would love to read about it!

The person who survived first day of school,
Sarah

First Day of School Picture

A "Si" cup with me makes me "Happy, happy, happy"