One Year Celebration!

This month marks the one-year anniversary of my little blog!

*sniff!* This is where it all began.

Writing for you here has been a pleasure and a blessing for me. In celebration of AlisonRoseWrites' one-year birthday, I'm taking a look back.

Here are my top five most-read posts:

1. Misguided Missions: The Culprit is Me (...and You?)

This post was part of a short series I did on the evolution of my views on short-term mission trips. If you're interested in this topic, I recommend you skip my blog posts and go straight to the book When Helping Hurts.

2. In the Style of Dave Barry: Night at the Caucuses

This post provided me with my favorite (ok, only) celebrity encounter. I am using the word "celebrity" here in the sense of "humor columnist."  Dave Barry (the celebrity in question) wrote a bunch of humor columns on the Iowa caucuses, and this post was my attempt to answer his columns in his own style. I tweeted it to him and he re-tweeted it! My night was made! I got more readers than usual! Which is still not very many! But that's okay, because DAVE BARRY read my article and he is the ONLY READER THAT COUNTS.

*Note: The above blurb is also written in my best Dave Barry imitation.*

3. Go...Sit...Stare: A Singles' Guide to Weddings

4. Singles' Holiday Guide

I had a ton of fun writing "advice" columns for singles.  If you read these articles and are somehow still single, I can only assume it's because you haven't been applying enough of my useful tips.

5. In Which I Test the Courage of my Convictions on Marriage

Rounding out the top five is one of my more serious pieces, a response to the legalization of gay marriage in America.

Thanks for reading and for giving me a place to write where I feel at home. If you'd like to join me in my walk down memory lane, please check out the archives, using the links on the side to find the topics you like best.

Cheers!

Taste the Grace

Anyone remember the 1990's Skittles ads where rainbows sprang up and rained down Skittles?

Here's the best example I can find: 

(Taste the rainbow!)

Lately I've been thinking about God's grace, and these Skittles commercials always come to mind. Skittles just came raining down! No one earned them or worked for them or made them or bought them. All those people did was open up their mouths and fill them with tasty, colorful candies.

Grace is like that!

Grace is God's undeserved favor and generosity toward us. We didn't earn it or work for it or make it or buy it. We just have to open up our hands and receive it. Ephesians 2:8-9 says:

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 

In that old Skittles commercial, you can see the man's wonder and amazement. If we understood God's grace toward us, we would feel the same way. That's why it's called amazing grace!

I'm so thankful for God's grace in my life, not just in saving me from my sins but also in the many gestures of lovingkindness He shows me daily. This has been a season of life where God is showering me with grace, and I am reminded that I am loved by a generous God! John 1:16 says:

For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

Grace upon grace, my friends. Taste and see that the Lord is good!