We talked about Grace on Sunday morning. Well, the Pastor talked about Grace, and I took notes like it was going out of style. The Pastor is doing a series of services about how we can get our Holy back (actually, it’s called the Art of Being Holy or something similar, but I think How Jill Got Her Grace Back would make for a pretty good movie, yeah?) Anyways, I could not have written down absolutely everything. But what I got down equals some awesome stuff. Let me share it with you from my view point.

My dear, sweet husband and I were talking about this on our way to pick up some KFC and take it to my Gram’s house. J was saying that having holiness is a pretty simple plan. The basics are that if you just don’t do the bad things and you do all that Jesus teaches us (through His Word) to do, then we’ll be pretty holy people. Now, know that no one will ever be just like Christ and be sinless. There was only one and will ever be One (well, until he comes back… but here in the now, just the One).
So, we have the basics. Do no evil, See no evil and Speak no evil. Evil being anything not Holy, right?
If we can take who Christ is in us and we live it out fully, then we’re doing what God wants of us.
And the most awesome thing, I think anyways, about being a Christian is having God’s sweet Grace. And boy, do I ever need it. And something that I’ve thought about before, but it really hit Sunday morning was the question “How much grace am I giving to others?” I know I talked about it a little last week. But this is good stuff.
When Big Sister pees on the floor, am I giving her Grace to Restore her? Because that’s what it’s all about, right? Giving forgiveness and restoring another person, even if your sock is wet and smells like urine.

We talked briefly about the fruits of the spirit (you can find them Galatians 5:22-23) Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control.
Do you have any problems with any of these? Some of these some times? I know I have problems with all of these at one point or another. The hardest for me are : Patience, Faithfulness and Self-Control.
Why?

Well, God didn’t put in a very big Patience part in me. It’s my weakness. It’s something I struggle with every single day. My husband is telling me a story but won’t get to the point - I get annoyed. My sweet Big Sister is trying to tell me something but I don’t understand what she’s saying. She says it fiftymillion times - I get annoyed. Little Sister wants to wake up twenty times in the middle of the night - I get annoyed. Well, I actually just roll over and feed her, but I would get annoyed if I weren’t half asleep.
Faithfulness. Arg, well, I’m faithful. I have faith. At times my faith waivers. Not my Faith in God. But sometimes in His Plan. Sometimes I want to ask (and sometimes I do ask) “Uhm… are you sure that’s right?” Sometimes I don’t give God enough credit. Kind of like when our parents would tell us to do something but we didn’t get a reason. They just told us we’d understand one day when we have children, and now that we do we get it. But we’ll never be God, so we may never get it until we’re in Heaven and know all that it is we’ll ever know, but anyways, I digress.
Sometimes I just think my ways are better and then I’m gently reminded that nope, the Jill-ways are never ever better than the God ways.
Self-Control. Oh boy. When I’m annoyed (when I’ve lost my patience) I lose all ability to keep my self-control. Whether it’s doing a big sarcastic sigh (as in *sigh* what’s your point?), saying something that I wouldn’t want my two year old to repeat, or it’s doing some other not nice thing - I lose my self-control. This is something my husband is completely gifted with. I think he’s raised his voice to me maybe one time and it’s because I was probably yelling at him. Because I do. It’s wrong, but I do. It’s something I’m working on and I think he noticed that. Anyways, it annoys me that he has such amazing self-control and probably one of the things that makes me lose mine the most. Now isn’t that silly? That’s a devil thing for sure.

But you know what? Even though I repeatedly don’t follow through on those three fruits of the spirit - God gives me his most awesome Grace. And He gives me restoration when I ask for it. He gives me his love and his comfort.

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age. Titus 2:11&12

I don’t know for sure if any of this has made sense. It’s kind of been a stream of consciousness for me. And that’s what I like, whether you understand it or not. But hopefully you have, because otherwise it was a big ole’ waste of staying up late:)

Posted: 05|5|08 at 9:13 am. Filed under: My Walk Monday.
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