Lipstick Grace: Glimpses of Life, Love, and the Quest for the Perfect Lip Gloss

Lipstick Grace: Glimpses of Life, Love, and the Quest for the Perfect Lip Gloss

The Just-Right Shade of Grace Hmmm….Kissable Kiwi or Fire Engine Red? To hold your child tight like you desperately want to, or let him go like he needs? Every woman grapples with such life issues and intangibles as faith, mercy, grace, and hope…but few have the ability to dress theology in blue jeans and flip-flops like Nancy Kennedy. A compilation of witty weekly columns written by Nancy for the Citrus County Chronicle in Florida, Lipstick Grace contains many musings–not all of which wrap up in nice, neat packages (because the important things in life rarely do!). In this reflective collection, you’ll find the sufficiency of God holding you steady. It’s big enough for all of you: your greatest fears, your deepest doubts, and your bathroom drawer full of all the wrong shades of lipstick. “ Lipstick Grace is so beautifully written that I experienced a great understanding of god’s matchless, endless, all-encompassing love and grace for each of us — in spite of who we are and what we do. Definitely a must-read and share-it-with-your-friends book.” Thelma Wells Women of Faith conference speaker Author of God is Not Through With Me Yet “Nancy Kennedy nailed me on the first page! In reading this collection of Nancy’s perceptive, amusing, and extremely honest newspaper columns, I felt like I was captured and taken on an enthralling journey — a journey where the ordinary happenings of our lives become filled by the wisest, most unexpected insights. I know I’m never going to look at lipstick the same way again.” Shaunti Feldhahn Bestselling author of For Women Only Nancy Kennedy has been awarded first place in Excellence in Religion Writing several times from the Florida Press Club over the past fifteen years on staff at her local daily newspaper, the Citrus County Chronicle . A member of the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, Nancy is a sought-after speaker for women’s conferences and retreats, and has appeared on radio programs including Family Life Today and Renewing the Heart . She lives in Inverness, Florida, with her husband, Barry. PUTTING on MY LIPSTICK and MY DANCING SHOES IN MY DREAMS, I am a dancer, gliding across a polished wooden dance floor in three-quarter time. I’m agile and smooth, my every movement flowing and fluid. I’m lithe and nimble, graceful as a gazelle. In my dreams, that is. In real life, I trip over my feet more often than not, even while standing still. The truth is, I can’t dance. I got no rhythm. Can’t waltz, can’t tango. Can’t fox-trot, can’t jitterbug, can’t watusi, can’t do-si-do, can’t do the electric slide. I tried line dancing once and kicked some lady in the knee. I’m woefully lacking in grace. Grace deficient. Grace doesn’t come naturally to me. But I want grace! I want to be graceful. To be full of grace. I want to receive it, give it, live in it, wash in it. I want to immerse myself in grace–amazing, glorious grace. It’s what we all want, whether we know it or not. The problem is that grace is a nebulous word, like faith and love . You can define it (“unmerited favor”) but still not understand what it means. Some words are best glimpsed. Don’t tell me about grace–show me what it looks like in everyday life. That’s what I’ve attempted to do in Lipstick Grace: Glimpses of Life, Love, and the Quest for the Perfect Lip Gloss. I’ve attempted to show you what grace looks like: saving grace, sufficient grace. Common grace, sanctifying and redeeming grace. Grace that comes through faith in Christ. Grace that draws sinners to the Cross again and again and again. We can never get enough grace. If there’s such a thing as a favorite theologian, Martin Luther tops my list. A sixteenth-century German monk, Luther stumbled upon the concept of grace while reading the apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans: “The just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17, KJV). Up until that time, Luther had spent his life trying to atone for his own sins, beating himself and spending hours on his knees confessing his sins, and then agonizing in case he forgot one. But once the lightbulb went on and he realized that it truly is by grace alone that we are saved and by grace alone that we live, he became one of the greatest grace teachers of all time. The just shall live by faith, which comes solely by grace . As the story goes, someone once said to Luther, “Grace, grace, grace, all you ever talk about is grace.” To which Luther replied, “That’s because grace is all there is.” I don’t know if that’s a true story about Luther–I heard it in a sermon once. If it’s not true about Luther’s conversation, it’s still a true statement about grace. Grace is all there is. Grace is God’s invitation to dance with Him. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17). That all the whosoevers who would believe in Him would not perish, but dance with Him forever. Apart from grace we are helpless and