Showered in Grace ✨

It’s been a long day of cooking, cleaning, school drop offs and pick ups, tumbling practice, therapy and taking the dogs for a walk after the gym. You’re tired, your feet hurt, and you probably smell because it’s as hot as Satan’s rear end these days in this Georgia heat. Everyone is settled for the night and you finally step into that shower where you can rinse off all of the dirt, the stress, the exhaustion and life’s craziness from the day before you face plant onto your bed. Well, there’s this sweet little thing called, GRACE, that showers us with Jesus’ love just like that. It’s that simple when we ask Him for forgiveness. The best part you ask? It’s that He never denies us that forgiveness, no matter what we do. So, why do we have so much trouble showering others with the same abundance of grace as Jesus does?

I don’t know about you but I do know for a fact that I am thankful for His grace upon my life, every single day. I am flawed in so many ways that I’m not sure I can even keep count. I’m a mom and a wife and I lose my temper with my children and my husband almost daily. Seriously, how hard is it to clean up after yourselves? Do I look like a maid? And if I step on one more Honey Nut Cheerio and crush it beneath my feet (because children are incapable of getting every bite into their mouths) after I just vacuumed for the 5th time, I may scream. 🤪

My oldest likes to play this game called, “Justification.” Ya know, it’s not arguing, it’s justifying that her point is indeed worth taking to heart. Even after I said, “NO,” until I’m blue in the face. I get it, I know those little, ugly, checkered Vans are what’s in, but no. I still went back and bought them weeks later because I like my kid a little bit. You’re welcome, Mom. Payback is a real witch sometimes and I apologize deeply for every time I cried at the mall when you wouldn’t buy me $183,000 worth of clothing from Hollister.

All of these things hold a special place in each of our daily routines. Some days, I wake up and I tear myself to pieces from the time my feet hit the ground. It begins with, “oh, I feel fat.. and I don’t like anything I clothe myself in today.” In case you’re wondering, I live in yoga pants and t-shirts so I’m not entirely sure on why some days the same outfit that I put on repeat, makes me feel uglier. Then it escalates to, “I am so tired of cooking and cleaning day in and day out. Can’t a girl get some help around here?” Then, before you know it, it flows into, “I’m tired, I don’t like any of you and I’m just going to be a grump all day.”

After some time passes or some cute little scheme that one of my kids or husband plots to makes me laugh, I humble myself and realize, this is who I am. Jesus saw fit for me to be a mom and a wife. I don’t always understand His full plan for my life or why He has laid many of the things on our plates that He has, but nonetheless, He did and I am thankful for these three humans in my life. Even when they make me lose my marbles. I look at my children, who love me unconditionally, even on my worst days and my heart fills with joy knowing that I am, “Mama” and they trust me, they depend on me and they think I hung the moon. They show me grace no matter how many times I get frustrated with them. Just as Jesus shows us grace every time we sin. I’ve hurt many people out of my 29 years of life due to my own actions. That whole chapter of my life is a story for another time… it’s long and messy but I believe Grace works best on messy people. Most of that pertains back to when I was in the unhappiest of places in my life. Hurt people, hurt people. When you learn to spin that hurt around and funnel it into a love for Jesus and yourself, He will teach you grace.

We have all been that person judging another person in the room. Most of us do it so naturally that you don’t even realize until it’s too late. What IF we chose to try to stop our minds before we judge too viscously and say a prayer for them? What IF we see another mom struggling in the grocery store with her screaming child and we choose to walk over and offer help? What IF we tell each other we are thankful for our differences and try to understand why we see things in another light? What IF instead of judging someone for being strung out on drugs, we offer to help find them a safe place to get sober? What IF we just walked away if we have nothing nice to say, instead of tearing each other down? What IF we showed the world the same grace that innocent children and Jesus show us each day? I am convicted of this daily but ultimately I am thankful for fresh grace each morning when I wake up • I know I will continue to need 100% of ALL the grace for the rest of my life. Will you?

Jesus has loved me in my darkest of moments in this thing called life. He is the one that never allowed the sun to stop shining on me, even if it was just a small glimmer through the clouds. I’ve tried to do anything and everything MY way and without Him multiple times. Let me tell you, you can hustle all you want but grace can take you where hustling can never reach. I don’t know about you, but I’m not always the girl I need to be, I don’t think I’ll ever be… but Jesus is ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, the man I need Him to be.

In the words of my Dad, “Don’t wait as long as I did to let Him lead you in this life.” ✨

Let grace wash the dirt off of you and watch the abundance of happiness it will bring to your life when you allow that same grace to flow from your heart. 🖤