Everyday Grace by Jessica Thompson

I like meat.  Yes, I do like steak and pork and venison, but in this instance, I'm referring to intellectual meat.  Very densely packed, intellectual nourishment.  This book, Everyday Grace:  Infusing All Your Relationships With the Love of Jesus by Jessica Thompson, is definitely meaty.

Grace is a really simple, but is ridiculously hard to implement in our lives and to understand all the nuances of.  Especially in today's culture, and even some circles of Christian culture, we don't believe treating others with grace is the best way to interact in our relationships.  We feel like grace should be reserved for those who "deserve" it.  Unfortunately, in God's eyes, without Christ, none of us deserve it.

I don't think anyone could walk away from this book thinking that we should withhold grace from anyone.  For one, I love how Thompson starts this book by having the readers take a look at themselves and then at God, followed by a chapter on how to change.  All spiritual problems in the life of a believer start with somehow messing up the idea that God is big and we are little.  Spiritual change only happens when we reinforce that belief over and over again until we sink it deeper and deeper into our thick skulls.  With that as a foundation, Thompson then explores how to extend grace to others in various relationships in our lives.  It is Bible heavy text with little fluff.  Yes, it gets a little repetitive, but remember, grace is a simple concept that is ridiculously difficult to implement.  

I recommend this book to any and all Christians.  Some may be turned off by the meaty nature of the text, especially those who like Max Lucado's style of writing, but the messages are Biblical and highly important.

I was provided a copy of this book by Bethany House in return for my honest review.