{"id":3527,"date":"2015-01-06T05:55:58","date_gmt":"2015-01-06T10:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/?p=3527"},"modified":"2015-01-06T10:56:47","modified_gmt":"2015-01-06T15:56:47","slug":"explaining-grace-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2015\/01\/explaining-grace-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Explaining Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/files\/2012\/10\/David-Hayward.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3201 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/234\/2012\/10\/David-Hayward-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"David Hayward\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>In the past weeks, I\u2019ve been going over some of the key words in our covenant relationship with God with the members of my community who are intellectually disabled. \u00a0Perhaps one of the most important words we use is grace.<\/p>\n<p>Most of us have learned and maybe we even remember<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>G<\/strong>od\u2019s<\/li>\n<li><strong>R<\/strong>iches<\/li>\n<li><strong>A<\/strong>t<\/li>\n<li><strong>C<\/strong>hrist\u2019s<\/li>\n<li><strong>E<\/strong>xpense<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is great explanation of grace and the first one I could readily remember. \u00a0However, it is a bit churchy sounding for many people.<\/p>\n<p>Then there is the wonderful explanation: \u00a0<em><strong>Unmerited favor<\/strong><\/em>. \u00a0I love this simple explanation that encapsulates the\u00a0amazing concept of grace \u00a0in two words.<\/p>\n<p>However, trying to explain grace seemed harder than I had imagined to our members. \u00a0They didn\u2019t grasp the whole acrostic idea. \u00a0And while unmerited favor seems simple enough, even the members who remember the two-word definition could not comprehend\u00a0what it meant.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, we worked our way into another definition that they understood and fully appreciated. \u00a0<strong><em>Grace is receiving a gift we don\u2019t deserve.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Receiving a gift we don\u2019t deserve is not as catchy at the acrostic or as short as \u201cunmerited favor\u201d but our members understand it and have grasped its meaning. The process of discovering a definition that they can easily understand and remember has also heightened my understanding and appreciate of God&#8217;s amazing grace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the past weeks, I\u2019ve been going over some of the key words in our covenant relationship with God with the members of my community who are intellectually disabled. \u00a0Perhaps one of the most important words we use is grace. Most of us have learned and maybe we even remember God\u2019s Riches At Christ\u2019s Expense&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3,674,49,16,8,4],"tags":[690,688,7,699,262,701,694,689,6,700],"class_list":["post-3527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-developmental-disabilities","category-grace","category-inspiration","category-intellectual-disability","category-mentally-challenged-community","category-simple-truths","tag-autism-spectrum","tag-christianity","tag-developmental-disabilities-2","tag-faith","tag-gods-grace","tag-inspiration","tag-intellectual-disability","tag-mentally-challenged-community","tag-simple-scriptural-truths","tag-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Explaining Grace - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2015\/01\/explaining-grace-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Explaining Grace - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the past weeks, I\u2019ve been going over some of the key words in our covenant relationship with God with the members of my community who are intellectually disabled. \u00a0Perhaps one of the most important words we use is grace. Most of us have learned and maybe we even remember God\u2019s Riches At Christ\u2019s Expense&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2015\/01\/explaining-grace-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-01-06T10:55:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-01-06T15:56:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/files\/2012\/10\/David-Hayward-300x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda G. Howard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Explaining Grace - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2015\/01\/explaining-grace-2.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Explaining Grace - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","og_description":"In the past weeks, I\u2019ve been going over some of the key words in our covenant relationship with God with the members of my community who are intellectually disabled. \u00a0Perhaps one of the most important words we use is grace. 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