No Shame On You
Laycie Costigan
The truth about grace is that wrestling to understand it and
accept it can feel like trying to sprint in waist-deep water. You
know the motions, yet there's a force that keeps you from running
freely. But working to increase your own understanding of grace,
you'll only enrich what you pour into your children's
ministry.
Brennan Manning, a long-time student of grace, says in his book
The Ragamuffin Gospel, "My deepest awareness of myself is that I am
deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or
deserve it." Manning calls God's grace "scandalous" because it's so
contrary to our understanding-and yet it's the thing that saves us.
Is your deepest belief about yourself that God loves you? That kind
of belief takes childlike faith to trust God at his word simply
because he said it. It seems kids have something to teach us, too.
Allow grace-not shame-to own you, and you won't be able to stop it
from spreading throughout your ministry.
Excerpted from Children's Ministry Magazine. Subscribe today!
