{GRACE}

This week in my religion class we hit lots of grace words...we read lots Romans, Ephesians, Acts, Philippians, Philemon and 1 Timothy.  Many Grace words and I got to thinking what "Grace" means to me. And a song I sang lots as a child growing up in the Baptist church.  The chorus goes, "Grace, grace, God's grace, grace....to me, to me..."BUT as I looked it up in the Bible dictionary other things popped out to me.   It says grace is used frequently especially in the new testament in the writings of Paul.  The main meaning is “divine means of help or strength” given through the mercy and love of Jesus Christ.  I love this thought of grace.  There are songs and endless scriptures about grace we even have friends whose names are Grace. So in Ephesians 2:8 for example it says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:”  and if we switch out Grace for divine means of help or strength.  It gives it a bit of wow for me.  I understand that it is not because of our supper smarts we are saved it is because of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ that we are saved.  Not by our own doing, but with help.  What a humbling process for some.  I know all that I have is because of the choices I make good and bad.  Grace is the help and strength given to me to make the correct choices.  Some one also recently said, grace is not just given to us but we have to work at it.  There is a scripture that says grace without works is dead, or to that effect. Tell me your thoughts on Grace.  There are many helps out there and some of my favorites are at lds.org