Grace

G is for Grace.  (A-Z Blogging Challenge)

Three Graces come to my mind.

One is Aunt Grace, my mother's sister. Aunt Grace collected postage stamps and enjoyed putting together jigsaw puzzles.  She would give us girls coloring books, crayons, and paperdolls for Christmas.  When we got older, we received books such as Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, Judy Bolton, and Cherry Ames.

Aunt Grace and Uncle Packard would come to visit and stay for a meal. Aunt Grace always took lots of pills.  When we sat down to eat, the first thing she did was take out her pill bottles and count out her pills!  I was always fascinated by the different sizes, shapes, and colors.   She also drank a lot of coffee.  Coffee usually was not served at meals at our house, but it was served when Aunt Grace came to visit. Aunt Grace died in her early 60's from a series of strokes. 

Another Grace is one of my current students.  She is every teacher's dream.  She bounces into the classroom every morning eager for whatever is going to happen that day.  She works hard, does her homework, gets along well with all the other kids, and is always eager and ready to help out. Oh, and she is in love with Justin Bieber!  Read what Grace has to say about Justin, although I am not allowed to tell you which one of these essays was written by Grace.

My third grace is the grace of God.  Grace and mercy are buddies in the Bible and hang around with each other.  Simply put, grace is God giving blessings and doing good for me that I do not deserve.  Mercy is God not giving me the bad that I do deserve.  This does not mean I can do whatever I want because grace and mercy are there to cover for me.  Rather, my understanding of grace and mercy should make me want to respond by living my life as God expects me to because of what He has done for me.

By the way, my middle name is Grace.