Friendship and Grace

I really struggled today with the concept of "grace." Grace-getting what we don't deserve and not getting what we do. That idea is so central to our faith in Christ, but yet seems to allude so many I know...not so much the grace we experience at the point of salvation, but the grace we need on a daily basis, and the grace we need to extend to others.

Today was also Katherine's bridal shower. There she was, my little girl, having her hurrah moment, being the princess, surrounded by two very beautiful women.

This picture of them is only one in a line of many. These girls have grown up together. They know each other, their strengths and their weaknesses...but they love each other-grace. It has been said that you can count the number of true friends you have in a lifetime on one hand. Those are the people that know you completely, love you any way, and extend grace when you least deserve it. I don't know that I can fill up one hand yet with those kind of friends, but I do know there have been some very special people in my life. Only a few, but those few have kept me a float. They have allowed me to vent, allowed me to be unreasonable and demanding, have allowed me to cry; they have been there when I needed them to be and just loved me. They have given me grace and in so doing have taught me how to love, how to give, how to sacrifice.

My daughter is one of those people. She can love; she can give; she can extend grace-and those young women that are sharing her day with her-they too are those kind of women. Toni, Tonia, Kayla...you too have taught me grace. I love differently today just because I have known you. I understand more fully what it is to sacrifice just because I have known you. I know what grace means because you have shared your lives with me, because you have been graceful to me, and you have modeled grace in your lives. Thank you ladies, all of you for being the beautiful women you are!