EVERYWOMAN BLOG
From Everywoman Champions
![GRACE IN THE MIRACLE](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66283b732542aa2ad26a0fca/1718577421692-P4BA92D8VONGX9G4MYRM/Blog+16.png)
GRACE IN THE MIRACLE
From a young age, I was told having children may never happen at all but if it did, it certainly wouldn't be natural and would most definitely be a challenge. But even from that young age, I held so tightly to the dream that one day I would have my own children.
![AN UNDESERVED GRACE](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66283b732542aa2ad26a0fca/1718577189125-1CDYIDSAJG6AEWRO6R5S/Blog+15.png)
AN UNDESERVED GRACE
I genuinely do not know what I would do without grace. What I do know is that perfection, for me, is the antithesis of grace. Perfection is striving to be a person without faults or defects, and it is something I struggle with. Trying to be perfect is tiring. Putting on a perfect façade seems to be so common these days with the likes of social media.
![RECEIVING GRACE](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66283b732542aa2ad26a0fca/1718576826099-XT3P0TMAKWC8SHOT90MF/Blog+14.png)
RECEIVING GRACE
A sinner lost, broken, surviving. Longing to be loved and accepted, even by my own parents, good behaviour and school grades were rewarded. My coping mechanism in life was to please people. How?
![HOLDING GRACE HOSTAGE](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66283b732542aa2ad26a0fca/1715909255605-0XXE9M255M2L7G5ZSN1L/Blog+13.jpeg)
HOLDING GRACE HOSTAGE
Holding grace hostage; extending grace to others.
Take a moment to think of your life before Christ. Your thoughts, actions, habits, attitudes... I used to smoke; heavily. Thankfully, through God’s grace (and patience), I am a new creation now - but it’s taken time! And it wasn’t always an easy walk.
![AMAZING GRACE](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66283b732542aa2ad26a0fca/1715130346562-X5L7UULWR3H88KHL6JSR/Blog+12.jpg)
AMAZING GRACE
I love God, with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind & with all my strength. By His wonderful Grace I’ve been restored, transformed & made new! Our story is one of redemption, of the miraculous & of a child-like faith; we now dedicate our lives to sharing what God can do, if you simply believe.
![THE GOD OF GRACE](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66283b732542aa2ad26a0fca/1715130242184-E6E4PS9WC4KDD654WW70/Blog+11.png)
THE GOD OF GRACE
As Christians, we know about the grace of God, but we may not know about the fullness of it. Recently, I was reading How People Grow by Dr Henry Cloud and John Townsend and I saw grace from a fresh perspective.
![CLOSE](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66283b732542aa2ad26a0fca/1715130096813-GXMSQV5U89G25GNVRNVZ/Blog+10.jpg)
CLOSE
The hardest trial has been the loss of our daughter Hope, unexpected and sudden, just prior to child birth. Hope was our rainbow baby. When we found out we had lost her at the hospital it was the day of the birth plan and we had just finished our bump photos a few hours before. This day I will never forget – “I am so sorry, there is no heartbeat”.. What do you do in a situation like that?
![GRACE & THE IN-BETWEEN](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66283b732542aa2ad26a0fca/1715130017796-XW8YOEC4NS1BFLIJI7RW/Blog+9.jpg)
GRACE & THE IN-BETWEEN
The last 2 years have been one of the toughest seasons of my life, from tragically losing my son (only child) to suffering multiple miscarriages and trauma. Grief has forced me into an “in-between” place where everything I thought I knew about God has been questioned.
![MESSY GRACE](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66283b732542aa2ad26a0fca/1715126202232-ANVDKDP5XR0H78229JB3/Blog+8.jpg)
MESSY GRACE
Grace is such a pretty word and conjures up pretty images in our minds but the reality in my Christian walk is that as true grace works in my life it isn’t always pretty, it can even be messy. I spent so many years in “survivor mode”. As a solo mum with 3 very young children everything became about my ability to get things done, to provide, to protect and to create some kind of security.
![SO MUCH MORE](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66283b732542aa2ad26a0fca/1715125948905-7KIHZGLM91IJGL204AK0/Blog+7.jpg)
SO MUCH MORE
I learnt the worldly definition of grace long before I experienced the biblical definition. I remember a time in my teenage years, when I was far from God, stumbling upon a blog post where a christian woman wrote about what grace meant to her and I was confused when smoothness, elegance and saying a prayer before dinner weren’t mentioned. As it turns out grace can be a tricky thing to articulate and hard to put a finger on
![GRACE IS…](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66283b732542aa2ad26a0fca/1715125868847-24QLJP2JSHP4W7WCGPSJ/Blog+6.jpeg)
![GRACE](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66283b732542aa2ad26a0fca/1715125652906-RATSDF3CQRQ1645GYCBB/Blog+5.jpg)
GRACE
One of the first things the flight attendant says when we are seated for take off is, ‘in the event of any emergency, put your own oxygen mask on first, before helping others”. If oxygen isn’t flowing into our own lungs first, we are in no position to help others get access to oxygen either, so both our lives are at stake.
![GRACE – THE VERB](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66283b732542aa2ad26a0fca/1715125440825-1RK3NG0PJ9JMCXN6JIID/Blog+4.jpg)
GRACE – THE VERB
Grace. Not just a noun or name we would have given our firstborn if he was a girl. Grace is a word that can be used in many scenarios and sentences, all of which can alter the meaning of the word. When researching the root-meaning of Grace in Hebrew I found it can depict: Graciousness, favour, prettiness, mercy or pardon, help, finding refuge and/or salvation.
![SUFFICIENT](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66283b732542aa2ad26a0fca/1715125337979-9K0EG5Q1NE96Q6F1WCWZ/Blog+3.jpg)
SUFFICIENT
I was at a prayer meeting this year, where Ps Audrey encouraged us to get prostrate and ask God if there were any idols in our lives. As I lay there, face down to the carpet there was a quick response…”Perfection.”
![EXPRESSIONS OF GRACE](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66283b732542aa2ad26a0fca/1715125306382-X4RECXMWNRIUMHA4UOFB/Blog+2.jpeg)
EXPRESSIONS OF GRACE
John Wesley defined grace as “the undeserved, unmerited, and loving action of God in human existence through the ever-present Holy Spirit.”
He believed that Grace pervades all of creation and is universally present.
![GRACE WALKS](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66283b732542aa2ad26a0fca/1715124594112-QUKYLZ25NOPOICCIA01Q/Blog+1.jpeg)
GRACE WALKS
She walks into a room
without a thought of what she might encounter.
Breathing life into those long dead
She sings a song of freedom.