I’ve just written a new Capturing God’s Heart over at our Capturing Courage site – you can find it HERE – about accepting grace and remaining in grace.
Now grace is a tricky thing. What is it really and how do we know we have it?
The best I can do is paint a picture of the kind of life that has not found grace and the kind of life that has.
A life that has found grace carries peace within it; troubles of the past have been reconciled, comfort with oneself is evident and there is good humour about the vagaries of human life.
A life that has not found grace carries striving; nothing is ever good enough and preoccupation is on faults.
On one side of the pendulum we have the horrors and griefs, the regrets and those terrible things we have done and said and can never take back. Ever.
On the other side of the pendulum we have denial of horror and griefs; here we enter into frivolity and grotesque amusements by way of escaping the unaccountable realities of life.
On one side we have loads weighing us down, on the other side we have dishonesty.
Grace stands us in the middle of these two. Grace is the balancing point, caught in the tension but finally at rest, between all that we want and all of what truly is.
Grace fills up the dichotomies of life so that we can walk on level ground.
And one sure sign of grace is a life that no longer condemns itself.
Forgiveness of self is the hardest of all but this is exactly what grace is and where we must first invest.
Once we have forgiveness of self we have forgiveness of others.
Once we live with ourselves in an understanding way, eyes fully open to everything but with peace nonetheless, we can live with the world in an understanding way.
Give yourself the gift of forgiveness, understanding, and grace today.
Cyndy Lavoie 
He was an outstanding teacher-that man called Jesus.His words like the one you quoted @ Mathew 11.29 said it all.Thank for extending God’s work.I take self forgiveness as precious as gold itself.
yes indeed!