31 Days of Grace

For the last several months I have desired to begin writing again. My soul isn’t full when I don’t have a creative outlet to express myself. I’ve been downright lost in this season of not writing. I have spent much of the last year pregnant, sick and fatigued or postnatal, sick and exhausted that I didn’t make time to write as part of my self-care.

Please don’t misunderstand me, though, I love being pregnant and I adore having a baby in the house. It brings me so much joy and satisfaction to birth a new soul into the world. To love and care for a little one with my whole being gives me a high I have never experienced before, but with it come many lows. The way that I have best found to work through all of my big feelings is with the written word. Without a creative outlet I have been a mess emotionally and physically.

At 6 weeks postpartum with three kids 5 and under and homeschooling for the first time I know that this isn’t the ideal time to add another thing to my To Do list. However, embarking on a new venture could very well be the thing that gives me the energy and inspiration to be good at all of the other things in my life.

One thing that I have learned over the last year, as we added another member to our family, is that giving myself grace has been of utmost importance. I started out the year by setting an intention to love. To learn about Godly love, to focus on loving others as myself and fully vesting my life to the cause of love. I felt extremely supported by God in this venture and was surprised to find spiritual teachers all around me teaching about love. I absorbed many lessons on spiritual and Biblical love at the beginning of this year.

In this new season of my life, though, I am feeling called to transition my knowledge of love to the practice of love. And through that journey I have found that practicing love can be translated to showing grace. According to Google, the following is the Biblical definition of grace:

Grace: the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings.

I want to use my graces to lavish others with grace. To show unmerited favor and blessing to those who have not earned it.

Will you please join me in the month of October as I pop in here every day to write about how the Holy Spirit has led our family in daily graces. I’m not promising polished, perfected writing. I imagine it will be an honest look into our home and the way that I am practicing grace for my family, my neighborhood and myself. You will most likely see a peek into our homeschool, what we are eating (we are still eating lots of delicious whole foods over here!), what it looks like to have three small boys in the house and how my husband’s extended paternity leave (he took 12 weeks off) is working out for our family.

Click here to find my official 31 Days of Writing page where I will link to each day’s post as it goes live.

I pray that through this exercise you will be inspired to live out your graces to bless and love the people who have been intentionally placed in your life by the Lord. I invite you to join me in this journey, either on Facebook, Instagram, here in the comments or as your own 31 Days of Writing challenge.

Check this page to find all of the other lovely writers who are participating in the 31 Days of Writing challenge and feel free to link up to your own posts. I would love to read them and see how God is working in your life!

Blessings.

Maria