31 Days of Grace :: {day 18} for when you don’t feel graceful

And so it’s Monday, and you wake up and you don’t feel it. By the looks of your laundry pile, your dirty hair, and the stack of endless to-dos, you won’t be feeling it tomorrow, either. Maybe not even anytime this week. The kind of grace we’ve been talking about for the past two and a half weeks is the kind that it is lavished, available, and free.

But grace given to you does not mean it’s okay to act rotten because you feel rotten. Why do we always take grace there? Sometimes I think – Well, I’m in a bad way. So glad there’s grace for that. There is, it’s true. Of course there is. And if you wish to stay in that place, you may choose that. But even better is this: Grace given means you are able to act graceful, even though you don’t feel it. Do you see the difference? Grace is not simply free to do whatever I please. Grace is the ability to do as He pleases. Grace means now you have a choice. It is the ability! And really, if I think about it, that is what pleases me, too.

This week, I want to share a handful of stories with you about what it looks like to choose grace in marriage, in parenting, in friendships, and such. There will be no lists or formulas, because you know by now that’s not how I roll. But I hope there will be encouragement and maybe even something tangible to hold on to. This concept of grace is so deep and wide and long and high that I feel smaller everyday I write about it.

I would love to hear from you today, would love to know how this grace-choice shows up for you. What does it look like to be graceful even when you don’t feel it?

Don’t forget to visit the other blogs hosting 31 Days Series this month! Nesting Place, Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, My First Kitchen, Life With My 3 Boybarians, Reluctant Entertainer, The Inspired Room, and Remodeling This Life.