Grace Covers Everything

“May the words of my mouth and meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer” —Psalm 19:14, NIV.

The verse is a “grace” verse.

Many of us have been trained since childhood to say a blessing before eating our meals. We often call it “saying grace.” I’m not quite sure where the name came from, since “grace” means “undeserved favor.” Of course, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the freedoms we enjoy, are all undeserved. Why should we be so blessed when others aren’t? So perhaps there is god reason to call it “grace.”

But the food we eat is only a small part of life that needs to be “graced.” “Bless this food that we are about to receive and make us truly thankful” stands shoulder to shoulder with: “Bless everything I say today. I thank you for the ability to communicate. Sprinkle my words with kindness, understanding, courage and wisdom. May every word come from you.” If you are like me, that kind of prayer is usually reserved for those moments when, faced with some kind of crisis, I need to say something profound and Godly. It’s more a panic prayer than a practiced prayer.

Then there is  the second part of the phrase, “the meditation of my heart.” How often do we commit to God what we think before we’ve “thunk it?” Here again, a “grace” prayer is needed. Just as we thank God for physical and spiritual blessings (the body and soul), we need to thank him for what is the “mind” part of us. “Bless this food we are about to receive and make us truly thankful” walks alongside: “Thank you, Lord, for being able to reason, to think, to meditate. Take each thought I think be taken captive by your Spirit today so that every use of my mind will be pleasing to you.”

Saying “grace” just got a whole lot more meaningful. It is sprinkled, not only over the food we eat, but over the words we say and the thoughts we think. It acknowledges that source of all these blessings—God Himself. It is the attitude of one who understands that every good gift  that makes up body, soul, and mind, needs to be returned regularly to its Master.