What is Grace?

It's been a month and man is it starting to get real...as we all begin to get more comfortable with each other the more open we are to addressing each others strengths and weaknesses. I can't sit here and say that all of this is easy or that all of it is hard, but I can sit here and say that God is showing me and teaching me a lot about grace.

grace [greys] Show IPA noun, verb, graced, grac·ing.
noun
1.elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action: We watched her skate with effortless grace across the ice. Synonyms: attractiveness, charm, gracefulness, comeliness, ease, lissomeness, fluidity. Antonyms: stiffness, ugliness, awkwardness, clumsiness; klutziness.
2.a pleasing or attractive quality or endowment: He lacked the manly graces.
3.favor or goodwill. Synonyms: kindness, kindliness, love, benignity; condescension.
4.a manifestation of favor, especially by a superior: It was only through the dean's grace that I wasn't expelled from school. Synonyms: forgiveness, charity, mercifulness. Antonyms: animosity, enmity, disfavor.
5.mercy; clemency; pardon: He was saved by an act of grace from the governor. Synonyms: lenity, leniency, reprieve. Antonyms: harshness.

If I can get real for a minute or two....I've been struggling to show grace. Out of my own frustrations and quite frankly out of my own struggle with pride I have failed to be loving and kind. I have failed to show grace and I have failed at any attempt to be Christ-like. The good news is however, that while I have fallen to sin God has shown me grace and has allowed for me to learn from my sin rather than to be defeated by it. In this I know that there is truth.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you,

for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses,

so that Christ’s power may rest on me. -2 Corinthians 12:9

I am thankful for the times that life gets real and that it's not always easy. What I am most thankful for is that God's love is unending and that His grace is enough!