Romans 7:18-25 -- "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do---this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God---through Jesus Christ our Lord! II Corinthians 12:9b-10 -- "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." Ephesians 2:8-10 -- "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith----and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God---not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." In my own humanity, I fail miserably. Even as a Christian I fall flat on my face and give in to my sinful nature. Instead of rubbing my face in my own sin, God extends His loving tenderness to me. He reminds me, as a loving mother, not to cry---He has paid the penalty for my sin (Hush baby, don't cry/Just try to remember the time /When all your pitfalls and fears/Became mine)! He will forgive me and love me in spite of my mistakes. It's this tenderness that gets me out of that "swan dive" into sin, and headed back on the right track. Grace is a truly amazing thing. - Ian