Real Grace

Today marks the two-year anniversary of the day that would launch me into a transformational time of experiencing real grace in my life. It's not like I hadn't ever known real grace, it's just that it took a head-on collision to help me slow down and recalculate. It was just what I needed. And that was no accident, because that experience is exactly what I'll be drawing on as I prepare to talk about unmerited favor of the real kind at this women's retreat in March. Check it out; 

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Real grace ... and gratitude. Today I'm grateful for the many speaking opportunities that are coming my way, opportunities to plant seeds 

of inspiration and joy. 

Tomorrow I'll be talking with the newest inductees in our local National Honor Society and their teachers and parents. I am delighted about this invitation because Friendswood High School is the first high school where I taught when I moved from WI to TX. I recently found a picture of the day thirty years ago that I started that journey south.

I drove to TX without a job but quickly found a Jr. High where I could teach Spanish as a sixth-grade rotating elective, eighth-grade Spanish I and English as a Second Language. A year later, a Spanish position opened up in Friendswood, but I was having trouble getting the Principal to even call me back for an interview. I'll never forget begging his secretary to please, just let me talk to him for one minute. She acquiesced and put me through to Mr. Wilson, who told me in no uncertain terms that he'd found someone for that job and would be offering it to her that afternoon. Then, in a gutsy move, I said, "I could come by right after lunch." There was an awkward pause, probably because he wasn't exactly sure how to answer that, then he told me to go ahead and make it 1:00. He gave me real grace, and then he gave me a job. I taught Spanish there from 1986 until 1995.

Tomorrow will also be special because our son, Joshua, will be one of the students at the NHS ceremony. What would you say to these amazing young leaders if you were given fifteen minutes with them?

I'm thinking about including this, because with real grace ...

Next Monday, I get to spend two hours with a group of elementary physical education teachers in Clear Creek ISD, then the following Monday I'll be reading from my book at a Family Literacy Night in Alvin ISD. In February, I'll be working with the elementary counselors in Pasadena ISD and later that month, I'll be a luncheon speaker for the Bay Area Alliance.

Real grace and gratitude continue ... 

I can't wait to inspire and challenge my audience 

to unplug and plug in,

to live in the moment,

to find blessings in their burdens,

to apologize and forgive,

to express gratitude in all things,

and to always appreciate the gift of grace.