Words.  Language.  Etymologies.  Everything that is a part of language fascinates me.  Don’t even get me started on books and reading!  Well, perhaps I’ll mention just a couple books in a moment.  For now, though, I’ll get back to words.  At the close of each year, I begin praying and searching for a focus word for the upcoming year.  This has been a bit of a meditative practice.  2018’s word is “pause.”  Specifically, being still to know that God is God (Psalm 46:10).  

In pausing and in this utter stillness, I discovered grace.  For so long, I’d been striving for perfection.  If I just were perfect at one more thing, maybe I’d finally be good enough for my father.  Maybe I’d finally be loved and wanted.  All the top grades, excellence at this or that never made a difference.  Most devastating was my belief that I’d never be good enough or perfect enough for God.  But that’s where grace steps in.  Ann Voskamp wrote, “This is the year to be held by arms of grace, not to any standard of perfection.”  

That quote has been my mantra. Gone is the drive toward perfection.  I’ve embraced grace, that sweet acceptance of being who I was created to be without being perfect.  And I am held.  I am loved.  Immensely.  My Creator and my Lord lavishes love and favor on me though I am so far from deserving His grace.

One of the first books I read this year was Emily Ley’s Grace Not Perfection.  What a marvelous book to help one embrace grace, let go of perfectionism, prioritize, and simplify!  Sit down with a cup of tea and immerse yourself in this book. 

Speaking of tea, savoring a cup of warm tea in a pretty teacup is my favorite way to quiet my soul, become still, read, and pray.  And these moments don’t have to be perfect, because, it’s all about grace anyway.

“…be held by the arms of grace, not to any standard of perfection.”  Ann Voskamp