I guess I have an {un}official word of the year... grace. This word has been echoing around in my head and heart for a few months now. As each year goes by, and I know my Savior more intimately, I am shocked by His grace more and more. His grace poured out on me, each day when I wake up. When I make my coffee. When I sip that coffee and read His Word, grace to me etched on a thousand pages. His grace to me when I sit and move and work and type emails with nimble fingers. His grace to me when I run at the gym with two healthy legs, while sweat, the grace of a healthy nervous system, drips from my forehead. His grace poured out on me each time I make it home safely in the evening and unload my grace-filled grocery bags from the car. Grace when I make dinner, serve my husband, clean my kitchen with anti-bacterial soap and cuddle up on my sofa or in my bed with the down comforter. And this is only common grace. How do I begin to speak of the grace in my heart? The grace that a God who is ultimately holy and good would choose me to be His child? The grace that God would send his Spirit to turn my heart of stone into a heart of flesh. That He would soften my hardness and humble my rebellion. The grace that a Man would die for me, while I was His enemy. That day by day, God's grace whispers to me, calling me to repent, to serve, to grow, and to be transformed. His grace sustains me be obedient and His grace perseveres when I stumble and fail. And that I will experience this grace in heaven forevermore... there are no words for such grace. And so I will stick with one word. Grace. It is my prayer that this word will linger in the back of my mind in 2013. That it would cause my heart to overflow with joy. That it would make my tongue speak with gratitude. And that it would teach me to give grace to others in the same way it has been lavished upon me.  Grace upon grace. ... Read more