Grace Gifts

autumn's jewels

I am ashamed to admit this, but last May, the first time I began reading One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voscamp – I did not finish.  You see, when I first picked it up I read the first six chapters straight through before I ever budged from my bed that Saturday morning. 

Then, gently, thoughtfully, set it aside.

intimate simplicity

winter beautifully fading

When confronted with truth so boldly, I must stop and consider how it will change me.  I must consider what it will require of me. 

And I tend to take the long way around, most all the time, on matters such as these. 

forgiveness

I move slow as my world spins about me with the hopes that wisdom and understanding will fall on me, coating me in shimmers of a brighter light. 

Spring's Grace

Change is never easy and I battle it with a fierceness unrivaled – especially when instigated by someone else, even if that Someone Else is God. 

Now, I move slower still towards peace. 

bees busy working

Even though I have long hunted God and His beauty, the idea of keeping another journal meant more time and it seemed the one thing I was shortest of…

and is it not always this way? 

snapshot memories of happy

But God has His ways, and His truth follows me around like a snippet of a favorite song – be ignored, it will not. 

forgiveness

Gratitude is a snapshot of memory that keeps His beauty forefront in my mind; always there, His omnipresent certainty dwells deep in the spirit. 

one true love

It springs up renewing me, maturing me, stilling me in His presence so I can receive His forgiveness and His love so that His light might shine brighter in me.

Because Thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips will praise Thee ~ Psalm 63:3 nasb

Mercy, peace and love be multiplied to you,

Elizabeth