What is Grace?
At Kindred Grace, we see grace as threefold. The grace God showed to us by sending His perfect Son to die for us. The grace we need to give ourselves for our failures and imperfections. And the grace we desire to show to each other through our words and actions.
Grace Given
Grace is the undeserved love, forgiveness and acceptance that Jesus shows us. It’s the way He patiently and consistently shows us a better way, but doesn’t abandon us when we fumble. It’s Him loving us just as we are, but also loving us into a better person.
Grace Received
Grace is the recognition of God’s abundant blessings that are transforming our lives. It is the realization that there is no room for self-righteousness in hearts that have been given life by His transforming love. It is releasing our pasts and our pain into the covering of Jesus’ love and forgiveness.
Grace Shared
Grace is love with no conditions — abundantly given. We haven’t just been blessed with the gift of grace to hold to ourselves, but we’re called to extend grace, too. Leaving the gray areas gray and not trying to turn them black and white, remaining firm in our convictions yet always holding to an attitude of teachable humility.
Grace is…
(grace in the words of the Kindred Grace Team)
“Grace is God’s tender, lavish kindness just where I deserve the opposite, for Jesus’ sake, and because His very nature is love. Sometimes it takes the form of reassurance and reconciliation; sometimes it takes the form of specific supply of His character traits and power, in place of my weakest and unloveliest traits.”
-Elisabeth
“I think of grace as love with no conditions — abundantly given. We haven’t just been blessed with the gift of grace to hold to ourselves, but we’re called to extend grace, too. Grace received and grace shared.”
-Danielle
“Grace to me is the undeserved love, forgiveness, and acceptance that Jesus shows me. It’s the way He patiently and consistently shows me a better way, but doesn’t throw me out when I fumble. It’s Him loving me just as I am, but also loving me into a better person.”
-Chantel
“Forgiveness is pardon offered. Mercy is not getting what you indeed deserve. But grace? It’s one of the truest expressions of love. Grace is so much more than having a slate wiped clean or a heart renewed. Grace stretches the soul past pride and pardon, and even redemption. Grace means getting what you don’t deserve from the One who, really, should be the last One who has to give anything.”
-Rachelle
“Grace is my Father’s mercy and love that I do not deserve. A free pardon and an amazing gift that I cannot repay. A sweet mystery, unfathomable, of goodness to me in the face of my wretchedness.”
-Jessica
“Grace is leaving the gray areas gray and not trying to turn them black and white, remaining firm in our convictions yet always holding to an attitude of teachable humility. Giving yourself grace to not know the answers. Giving others grace to not agree with you.”
-Gretchen
“I think for me, grace is seeing true. And seeing true often, in life, means that I simply understand that I can’t see. I also believe that true grace and true love overlap. If we’re walking in love, we’ll be walking in grace. I think the true key to learning grace is to learn understanding.”
-Natasha
“For me grace is the ability to abide in Christ. It’s the cushion between life’s hard spots and my heart. Grace is like snow shoes. The stuff (snow) of life is still there — grace gives the ability to walk on top of it or through it. For me, grace is definitely pardon, but that’s only the beginning; grace is power and grace is the promise of humility.”
-Katie
“Grace is God making me live when I was dead to Him; God loving me when I could not love Him back; God forgiving me when I could not forgive myself; God lavishing me with the fullness of Himself and continuing His favor toward me when I do not (and never will) deserve it; and God giving me the ability to pour out His life, love, forgiveness, and favor to those around me, especially when they (like me) least deserve it.”
-Colleen
“Grace, to me, is personified by Jesus coming as a tiny baby, by Him saying ‘not My will, but Thine be done’ and drinking the bitter cup of the crucifixion, by Him rising from the grave and saying, in the reality of His resurrected-from-death life, there is always hope: and doing all of this in tender, faithful, courageous, reckless, unconditional (and undeserved) love.”
-Elisabeth Allen