Can I Just Say Grace or Do I Have to Mean It?

I have read the most amazing novel... Tender Graces by Kathryn Magendie. I literally haven't stopped thinking about it...it is the kaleidoscope I view all that has happened these last few days. It is through this lens I view my mothering and certainly many of my choices.

When I think of the word grace...I think of forgiveness although I know it has many different meanings and it is a word of significance for Christians in particular.

I struggle with accepting grace and giving grace...but I am ashamed to say that I struggle with forgiving others. My husband on the other hand is a very forgiving person who has shown me incredible grace as well as to others...He just does!
I on the other hand ( y'know the one you want to cut off...) revisit the trauma and ruminate until it's all fresh and new! Why?
I honestly don't know...I do the very thing I do not want to do.

I have been hurt in my life but no more than I have hurt others I am sure...
Why do I keep this record of wrong doings...when it is not what I want to do!

I do know that this flaw in my nature has kept me close to God...I mean I don't think he would like someone like me to roam too far away!

I loved this book...it has a few broken and interesting characters ...like me!

How about you? Is it easier to receive grace or to give it?

Bloggy Book Club: Tender Graces by Kathryn Magendie

Bloggy book club choice for August was recommended by two different bloggers....Elizabeth and Jeanne... both women are great bloggers...Jeanne is also a great writer!
The really great news is the author for this month is a fellow blogger, but more than that...the book is a beautifully written.

I am not a writer but ...I am a reader...I love to have a book transport me to another life, another place and to be immersed in all of it's telling. I was reading two other books...which I have now put aside, the day my package arrived (I am not saying what I was reading!)

My package came on Thursday from Amazon and in it was my copy of Tender Graces by Kathryn Magendie...

I opened it at once and read the first paragraph...
I rarely care about what others say on the outside flap...
It is the first paragraph of a book that captures me and this one surely did...

All my tired flies out the window when I see Grandma Faith standing in the mountain mists that drift in and out of the trees. She's as she was before, like one lick of fire hasn't touched her, whole and alive and wanting as she beckons to me. Grandma whispers her wants as she's done all my life.

...and like that...I could not put it down.

Join me in reading for the month of August Tender Graces by Kathryn Magendie and stop by her blog and say "Hi"!