A Magnolia's Heart Beats

Grace - Thankful Thursday

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” ~ Romans 5:1-2 (ESV - emphasis Iris')

Oh, the precious gift of grace! I'm so thankful Iris chose this theme for Thankful Thursday. Hop on over to her blog to read her precious thoughts, and to visit other participants in this wonderful meme.

I wanted to do a quick word count on grace in my favorite versions of the Bible.

NIV - 124 times

KJV - 159 times

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

The transliterated word for grace is charis. From www.blueletterbible.org -

One of the definitions is of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues.

What a beautiful word charis, or grace, is. It reminds me of our word "cherish". Oh, how I cherish grace. If God never blessed me with another single thing, my soul would be at rest because I know it is only by grace that I will spend eternity with Him in Heaven when my body leaves this earth. I am so thankful for God's precious gift, given through His Son! I pray that God's grace would abound in me strongly and extend outward through gifts to others.

God has truly blessed me this week.

Our grandson was born almost a month early on Monday afternoon at 3:20. He weighed in at a whopping 5 lbs., 9 oz. and is 19 3/4 inches long. Liam is a healthy baby boy with a voracious appetite and his lungs seem to be good and strong.

Kristyn is doing so much better than she did when she had Nolan 13 months ago. Her health is good and she did great through labor (she slept through most of it)! Nolan was (overall) a joy to keep during her labor on Monday and spent the night with us Monday night.

Our son-in-law is already a wonderful husband and father to Kristyn and Nolan and we trust he will be to Liam as well.

My husband is such a great husband, father and grandfather. He was a huge help Monday night with Nolan and he is taking good care of me (Nolan shared his cold with me. I thought he had a runny nose and low-grade fever because he was teething - silly me!)

My wife-in-law (my husband's ex-wife, Kristyn's mother) is a God-send. She helped me tremendously throughout the day Monday with Nolan. We would have never gotten through lunch at the cafeteria if not for her. I count Tabitha as a friend and was very comfortable having lunch with her and spending the day with her while Steve was at work. She is awesome in the baby-department, having 4 children of her own. She has raised 3 boys, ages 18, 12 and 9 and has lots of wisdom and knowledge to hand down to Kristyn as she starts anew with her family. I'm grateful for the work God has done in Tabitha's life, growing her into a godly woman and a wonderful mother to Kristyn and her own boys. She is a terrific grandmother and took Nolan Tuesday night, so I could go back to work today. Pray for her, that she doesn't get The Cold.

My father went back to the cardiologist for a check-up and has 2 more weeks to go before he can get back on his riding lawn mower. He just bought a new one and is impatient to check it out. In fact, I think he already has, but will heed the doctor's advice not to do it again for 2 weeks!

Work was easy to catch up to today because I work with such a great group of people. I'm thankful for my Work Family, as I call them. We are a close-knit bunch for the most part and work well together, picking up each others slack when needed.

I give each one of these blessings back in praise to God, from Whom all blessings and grace comes.

What are you thankful for this week? Visit Iris and count your blessings with us, won't you?