I like to cook, but food prep can be hard on your hands. When we moved into our first home in Florida, I placed an order for food prep gloves. The website indicated the minimum order was one box and each box held 10 packages of 100 gloves. I figured that one box of 1000 gloves would be more than enough to last me a year and I hit place order.

When the shipment arrived, it was larger than I expected and to my surprise it held ten boxes of gloves, each box holding 10 packages of 100 gloves. Occupying my entire kitchen counter were 10,000 food prep gloves! I had paid for one box.

At that point I called the company and told the customer service rep of the error. She informed me that they were discontinuing that product line, and they were mine to keep. I then needed to figure out a place to store 10,000 gloves which I calculated out at a pair a day would take me almost fourteen years to use up.

Fast forward to today, I notice my stash is dwindling. For over thirteen years, I have never thought about needing those gloves. Whenever I need them, they are there. They sit in the pantry waiting to help me prepare the next meal – for about another year anyway.

All that got me thinking about God’s grace. Grace leads us to believe in God and follow His expectations for us in life. And, when God holds a place of honor in our heart, His grace is always present. Unlike that dwindling stash of gloves, when we choose to live in joyful surrender to our Lord and Savior, we never have to worry about grace running out.

Why you may ask do I care so much about grace? Because, an endless supply of grace can help us to:

Be more responsible

Be more loving

Be more thankful

Be more honest

Be more forgiving

Be more courageous

Be more compassionate

Be a better neighbor

Be less anxious

Be less selfish

Make better decisions

Find joy even in suffering

Deal with disappointment     

Gain wisdom and understanding

Know we are loved even when we are alone

Find strength when we are weak

Overcome our weaknesses

Grow our faith, love and trust in God.

Grace helps us to be the person God created us to be. Now that is something we never want to run out of.

Let us then with confidence draw near to God’s throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16