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{{It is Friday. Today I link with Lisa Jo Baker for Five Minute Friday. Here is how it works…. One word prompt. Five minutes. No editing. Lots of women. Everyone writes on the same word. Equals a great time.}}

And the word for today is ……. GRACE.

I sat looking at the screen – grace. I wondered where my thoughts would take me. It did not take long for me to hear the tune in my head. Paying attention to the tune, the words to the old hymn came flooding in:

Mercy there was great, and grace was free;
Pardon there was multiplied to me;
There my burdened soul found liberty at Calvary.

That was the chorus. But then I remembered it said even more about grace….

Oh, the love that drew salvation’s plan!
Oh, the grace that brought it down to man!
Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span at Calvary!

Grace was given to me freely at the Cross. Grace was what brought it to me. And yet, I wonder……

{{How many times have I withheld giving grace to others?}}

As the question quickly went through my head, I remembered an old quote, written in the back of my Bible:

Grace binds you with stronger cords than the cords of duty or obligation can bind you. Grace is free, but when once you take it, you are bound forever to the Giver. Like produces like. Grace makes you gracious, the Giver makes you give.            (E. Stanley Jones).

Like produces like. {{Ouch}}.

My prayer today…Lord, make me more like You. May I be gracious – freely and to all those who are around me today.

ID-10013955(Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net/bela_kiefer)

Today I linked with …. Five Minute Friday and Fellowship Fridays and Friendship Friday and Faith Filled Fri. and Fun Fri. and Faithful Fri. and Fri. Flash Blog and Essential Fri. and Womanhood With Purpose and Weekend Bloggy Reading .