This morning I heard a renowned pediatrician and child psychologist on Christian radio talking about the important role a father plays in a child’s life. It caused me to reflect on my dad, and the effect his presence has had on my life.

It’s well known that our childhood experience drives us toward certain behaviors or attitudes, sometimes carried throughout our adult lives. No one had it perfect. Where there was lack, we often seek to fill the void, sometimes with things that bring more pain than blessing.

If we’re honest, in different ways we’re all broken people—in need of filling what C.S. Lewis called the “God-shaped hole” in every human heart. Jesus Christ fills the void of our brokenness by restoring us into relationship with our Creator, the only one who fills the deepest longings of our hearts for love, purpose, and hope.

A heart of humility recognizes its limitations, and is willing to admit its failures, weaknesses, and need. It willingly receives the grace that God freely bestows to the humble.

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.  (James 4:6)

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.  (Ephesians 2:8)

The Christian life is all about grace—the free and unmerited favor of God.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.  (2 Corinthians 8:9)

Grace is written all over our lives, for those who have eyes to see. The apostle Paul did, to the end he was able to say “I delight in weaknesses . . . in difficulties.”  He recognized where his strength came from.

But he [the Lord] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.   (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

God so freely extends His grace and goodness that we are exhorted to be strong in grace.

Pause today and reflect upon God’s grace in your life.

With thankful hearts, may we echo Paul’s words, “By the grace of God, I am what I am.” 

His grace is enough.

Copyright © 2019 Cheryl Elton

The post His Grace is Enough appeared first on Cheryl Elton.

I was visiting my elderly Dad in the nursing home when out of the blue he said, “You should have won that Spanish award in high school.”

I looked at him in stunned silence . . .

His words felt like someone trying to pick at the scar and re-open a wound from long ago.

“You remember that?” I finally said.

“Of course,” he replied. “We all knew you were the top Spanish student senior year, yet I never understood why the award went to someone else.”

I could only shake my head in disbelief and smile.

If only I’d heard those words 30 years ago!

How it would have tempered my disappointment and affirmed all my hard work. 

But the award ceremony came and went and nothing was ever spoken.

Failing to speak the good we are thinking can sometimes wound as deeply as words carelessly spoken.

Proverbs 18:21 tells us “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”

Words are powerful.

They can convey negatives on the road to death—pain, offense, dejection, depression, annoyance, rage, etc. . . .

. . . or, our words can impart life—inspire, encourage, motivate, embolden, heal, restore, and so on.

As Christians, our words should reflect the message of Christ and add value to conversation, building up rather than tearing down.

“Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” (Ephesians 4:29) 

Our words can dispense grace to the hearers!

“Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” (Colossians 4:6)

Salt has long been used to preserve and flavor food. It makes what we eat wholesome and palatable.

Likewise with our conversation . . .

Like putting salt on our food, our talk should be seasoned with good, gracious words, making conversation more appetizing and flavorful.

Without “salting” our words, they are subject to being unprofitable and injurious, like meat left untreated, spoils.

So don’t hold back!

Remember the words from Berton Braley’s poem “Do It Now”: 

“If you think some praise is due him now’s the time to slip it to him,
For he cannot read his tombstone when he’s dead.”

Is there someone you can bless today with kind and encouraging words?

Copyright © 2017 Cheryl Elton

The post Make a Difference in Someone’s Life Today appeared first on Cheryl Elton.