Knowing Grace

I wrote on Saturday about our crazy day and how thankful I found myself in the middle of it.  The crazy continued Sunday when Mik and I left a concert late last night to discover we had a flat tire.  Again I was thankful for God's provision of friends who were there still and could help us out.  We were late getting home, but we made it - without even any tears.  : )

But all of the stress started to get to me a bit today.  Mostly because I was thinking about our landlord coming over and seeing the mess our place was and the body shop and tire shop guys and our friends last night seeing how messy our van was.  I recognized finally that shame was nagging at me.  And I couldn't put my finger on what the antidote to shame was.  I know that when I'm tempted to feel sorry for myself it's good to choose to be thankful.  But what do I do when I'm feeling ashamed?  And perhaps more importantly, what do I encourage others to do with their shame?

None of the Bible verses I found seemed to be what I was looking for.  But I did find something that is fascinating me.  One of the definitions for "shame" is "disgrace."  DisGRACE.

Could it be that the antidote to shame is simply God's GRACE???

More thoughts about God's grace and peace and thankfulness coming tomorrow...

In the meantime, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts..." (Colossians 3:15)

Day 6