You're going to find out . . . throughout your life . . . what grace actually is. At first you'll have no idea someone's offered it to you . . . you'll just take it and move along. The reality, however, is that few people in your life will actually offer it . . .
God's grace, of course, is most important. After all, you can't get to Heaven just by being good . . . His son died in your place . . . wearing man's sin through His final breath.
But this post isn't going to be that heavy.
When we moved to Spain my mother allowed us to choose whatever extra-curricular activities we wanted during the summer months while we weren't in school. From the get-go I knew I wanted to be a swimmer! I loved the water! I was also a natural athlete.
So I joined the base swim team.
For most of the summer we competed against each other, but sometimes we competed against kids stationed in other places. Six and a half hours north of us was an Air Force base, Torrejon . . . with a swim team of their own. We got to travel up there when I was 7, and I was allowed to go with the team . . . Mom and Dad stayed home.
I can't tell you if we won or not . . . I don't even recall if I won any of the individual events. What I do remember is that I bought souvenirs for my parents and my sister. I remember that I found a beautiful pair of gold and black dangly earrings for my mom . . . she loved them. Pretty sure I came back with a Spanish doll for my sister . . . she would have wanted a doll.
For Dad . . . who was sort of hard to buy for . . . I purchased a really cool t-shirt with a jet on it . . . a shirt that, for some reason, he wore inside out. At the time I was baffled!
By the time I reached my teen years I figured out my faux pas . . . Dad was Navy . . . the shirt came from an Air Force base. Yeah, when you're one branch of the military, you develop a friendly "disdain" for the other branches.
But he wore it . . . the shirt with the jet and the Air Force insignia . . . inside out . . . wore it so he wouldn't hurt my feelings.
My dad offered much grace through my life . . . it's what parents who love their children do.
The insignia of each branch does have an eagle, but that's where the similarity ends. I have no idea what was going on in my 7 year old mind.
By the way, I mastered all of the swimming strokes except for the butterfly . . .
. . . nearly drowned myself trying to get that one down!
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