The word grace has so many meanings it can make your head spin. Growing up we said ‘grace’ before every meal eaten to give thanks for the food provided for us to eat. Being thankful for every single meal I eat in the form of a prayer has become something I have passed onto my daughter. With gratitude in our hearts, eternal grace will follow. Grace in the way you carry yourself and in the way you carry others. Grace in your heart will show in your movements. Grace in your movements will show in your life. In christianity grace is the unmerited favor of God. Grace is also a word used to describe courtesy and good will. (She had the grace to apologise afterwards). It is also the word used to address a duke, duchess or an Archbishop. Gracing someone with your presence, is also a thing.

I write this piece because I have truly had all forms of grace in spades. The amount of times I have found myself in situations that I was in over my head drowning in the danger of a situation, or the lack of preparation in some situations, the stupidity of decisions sometimes had led me into places that I should not have been. but through the grace of my maker, the protection I have over my life and the disastrous situations I wish I could explain how I got out of them was purely by grace. There is a force of nature that surrounds me in everything that I do, always with me no matter what choices I make. Steering me in a direction that I originally didn’t want to go, but found myself here anyway. Grace really did lead me home, through all the twists and turns of my life, I danced ballet as a child we were taught grace and posture. I danced in nightclubs as a teenager /young adult and lost most of the grace that people tried to teach me in the physical form, but grace still followed me through the valley of the the shadow of death, even when I forgot who I was and what I truly wanted. Goodness and mercy surely followed me all the days of my life because it can only have been by the grace of God that I find myself where I am today, who I am today and why I choose this way. If you know me, then you have seen the work of my maker in me, transforming me and placing me without me even realising it.

The fear I once had in failure will never overwhelm me again, because I see that even though the chips will fall where they may, God will always place me strategically to keep me where HE needs me to be, not where I need me to be.

Live your life in grace.

Written by: Tammy-Lynn Murphy