Susie Davis - The Grace Guide: Live Your One Beautiful Life

This book is presented to:

From:

On this day:

THE GRACE GUIDE

LIVE YOUR ONE BEAUTIFUL LIFE

Copyright 2019 by Susie Davis

All rights reserved.

No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission can be addressed to Permissions, The United Methodist Publishing House, 2222 Rosa L. Parks Blvd., Nashville, TN, 37228-1306 or e-mailed to .

ISBN 978-1-5018-9842-6

Interior design by Joy OMeara

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked The Message are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 2710 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

MANUFACTURED IN THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA

For Emily and Sara

who reminded me what

it feels like to be free.

This is a book about you.

I want you to know you. I want to hear your storyand for you to tell it to yourself again. Because inside your story, there is God-sized wonder. Inside your story, there is awe.

The kind of awe you feel when you look up at the big blue Texas sky. Or when you see the Colorado mountains standing sturdy and strong, sentinels to the glory of creation. The thing is, the grandeur you see in nature isnt just externalit is internal, too. Its tucked deep in your narrative.

Outside, I see Gods creativity and care everywhere in nature. Inside your story, well see his creativity and care, too.

This book is a guide to help you understand and celebrate your unique story. Inside your own narrative, youll find discoveries big and small that point to the God who loves you.

Id like to start with a small story of my own that often reminds me of how God shows his love.

Twice a year, my daughters and I make a trip to Round Top, Texas, to see the largest antique show in the state. We shop and play and spend some good time together.

A couple years back, our trip together was over my birthday. To celebrate, my oldest daughter, Emily, surprised me with something special and amazing: she made flower crowns out of delicate pink and white roses for me and her younger sister to wear. It was delightful. In the moment, I was giddy. The gesture was so kind and thoughtful and whimsical. It was the first time I can remember ever wearing a flower crown.

When we left the country cottage where we were staying to go shopping, I suddenly felt self-conscious as a fifty-year-old woman walking around with a flower crown on her head. Certainly, Ive seen women wearing them before but usually only at weddings or in fairytale picture books for children. But every time I started to feel awkward, I would just look over at my daughters and see them laughing, smiling, and happy. When I looked at them, so free in their joy, I would toss off the self-consciousness and sink into my own wonder.

The flower crown made me feel loved and free in the face of shyness, self-doubt, and preconceived ideas about who I was supposed to be. Who the world tells me Im supposed to be. And the flower crown became an emblem of grace for me: an unexpected gift that let me live more freely.

In your life and mine, God offers grace. Its all ours. But until we put it on and actually walk around in it, we dont experience the freedom.

As you are reading this book, and uncovering your story, you will be reminded that you are a dearly loved daughter of God.

His love for you started even before you were born, and his love follows you everywhere. You will see his hand of blessing all over your story and, I hope, wear that blessing like a crown of flowers upon your head.

Psalm 138:5 NLT

He converses and delights Himself with me incessantly, in a thousand and a thousand ways, and treats me in all respects as His favorite.

BROTHER LAWRENCE

In a small vintage suitcase on the top shelf of my closet sits a treasure trove of handwritten letters. Some are love notes from my husband penned thirty years ago, back when we were dating. Othersirregular shaped pages ripped from spiral notebooks covered in crayon marks and unsteady penmanshipare from my children when they were young. Of course, I have dozens of notes and letters from both my mom and my dad over the years. And then a few saved from my grandmother, mostly birthday cards when I was little. I love seeing her long slender lettering, ever always signing Lovingly, Grandma.

I keep old letters. And I read them when the world knocks my heart around. They center me. They remind me of the important things and the beautiful things. And more than anything, they remind me I am deeply loved. I am grateful that the people in my life took time to write me letters, because its tangible evidence that I matter to them.

God writes us letters, too. He doesnt slip them in the little suitcase at the top of the closet. He doesnt leave them in the mailbox to be discovered at the end of a long day. He leaves them outside all over creation and inside sprinkled into the details of our daily lives.

I am wondering... do you recognize the love notes he leaves in your life?

When I look back over mine, I see his love and care in my story everywhere. There is one incredible story with God and me concerning a tree my dad planted on the grounds of my junior high school. Another in the thoughtfulness of an older woman who invited me to her Bible study that eventually resulted in God starting a huge healing process in my life. I can look back and remember Gods kindness to me when, as a young mother in a new city, the ladies in my new neighborhood included me in their book club. In each of these instances, I felt seen, cared for, and loved.

I see his love in the way he answers my prayers. And how, even when I am by myself, I never feel alone. I look back over my life and see that its even in the way God brings little things into my life to delight me, like the yellow finches I see at the bird feeder outside my window right now. In all my life, God pads my path with little love notes, spreading his love and light through everything everywhere.