Grace, grace and more grace

I've reprinted a letter I sent to my sister.


Hi Shawna,
Phyllis just sent me the photos of Derek and me. I now know that you were being nice in saying I "looked different" on the horse and horses "make people looked squished down".
What you were doing is trying to find a polite way of saying, "What's up with Sharon's big ol' pot belly?"
Good night! How much weight have I gained?!
I don't think I look like that in the mirror. And don't try reasoning that photos distort someone's body because there's nothing to compare it to. I was on a horse, for goodness sake! I have got to lose more weight.
So I guess the last laugh is on me. There I was making fun of the chubby women rodeo riders when all along you were on the line listening to me thinking, "hmm...maybe she without cellulite should throw the first stone."
Well, I've been ill these last two weeks so I'm not working out for a little while.

On a more worthy subject: BSF is going really well although I think we have not been without Satan's attack. First, Iris, one of my co-children's leader, left all her notes at home so she had to adapt her discovery lesson.
Then there was me. I had to do the closing activity which is basically to get the kids to memorize next week's scripture. I took the scripture to school and, with the aid of the deaf ed interpreters, learned how to put the scripture into sign language as a memory aid to make the lesson more interactive and interesting. For the record the scripture was:

"No one has seen God, but God, the one and only
who is at the Father's side, has made Him known." (John 1:18)

I had it so beautifully prepared. So simple yet just a lovely visual representation of God's word. I get to the Bible study that night, rarin' to go only to find out I had the wrong Bible lesson. The scripture I was supposed to teach the children was actually:

"Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name." (John 20:30, 31)

Well, well, well. Did I teach the kids and adults how to use American Sign Language to recite scripture? Nope.
Did I throw a bunch of English words together and sign John 20:30-31? Yep. Did God enable me to use sign language to enable every one to learn and memorize the scripture? Yes, He did. As I was going through the activity, God kept reminding me that the object was not to teach these children sign language but help them to memorize the assigned Bible verses and I can say with satisfaction that we all had the scripture memorized in fifteen minutes. Not only that but we could sign the verses without speaking, which actually looked pretty cool.
Do we serve a great God who's love everlasting assists us in the minutest details of our lives? Yes! Yes! and Yes!

One thing our teaching leader at bible study said was that Jesus' death on the cross was not only to cover our sins but to pour grace in our lives every day and every moment. Grace, grace and more grace. Grace covered me Monday night at Bible study. That is my wish to each reader out there.
May you have God's grace. Grace, grace and more grace.