There but for the grace of God go I...

Yes, I've heard it. My take on the meaning is that if it weren't for God, you wouldn't be here, walking this Earth and living your life. It can also mean, I feel, that you've survived some disaster at God's grace, because He's protecting you. Everything good in your life, including your existance, therefore, is at the control of the Supreme Power. He created you, watches over you, protects and guides you through life. Brightest Blessings.

The only time I heard that expression was its use as a song title & song line of a one-hit wonder. That was back in the previous century - 1979, to be more precise. The band contained Thomas August Darnell Browder (who is more commonly known as August Darnell). He was the producer of that song, & one of the two songwriters that wrote it. Here's the track on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K151uTX-AOQ If bits & pieces of the song seems familiar, the song was sampled quite a lot. Also, you can hear August Darnell himself on the second verse. If his voice seems familiar, it's because after Machine disbanded, he went on to form Kid Creole & The Coconuts.

No, I don't say things like this but I had a grandmother that did. To me it means that if not for gods grace you would be in trouble, I haven't heard the saying in a long time though.

i never really liked that expression, because to me it implies that God's grace touches some more than others. "There but for the Grace of God go I" yet the same thing happened to someone else... I think it's pretty arrogant and boastful for me to say that because of God's grace it happened to them, and not me. How does the person it happened to, feel? How do their loved ones feel? I think it implies some kind of judgement.

God--sdfjhkljhklasghkg;akl=--Mylot! I typed, what in my opinion was a touching and honest response, and as it randomly does, mylot lost it! AAAAAAAAAArgh, even if I recatch the essence of what I said, the exact wording is long gone!!! &^%%^&&%$ incompetent programmers! Sigh, I should not have to spend my life cutting and pasting so as not to lose a mylot thread response... in nutshell: Don't judge. Be grateful.

For me it is the fact that many times in my life I have nearly made a very bad decision and something stopped me. Call it a 6th sense, intuition, luck or the Grace of God. I think we all go through things and later wonder how we made if through those difficulties. Or we see some friend or co-worker do something stupid or wrong and realize we almost did the same thing.

Yes, I've heard it, and thought about it when I've seen people in situations I'd rather not be in. I've also overheard variations of it from people referring to me. One of life's little ironies is that we often look at others and think, "at least I'm don't have it as bad as them"... but we don't usually imagine the "them" in our thought thinking the same about us. "There but the grace of God do I" can be said in with a few different meanings. You can look at someone and realize that you could someday be in their shoes, or you could look at them and be glad your not in their shoes. Both of them assume that the person who "the grace of God" somehow turned against thinks of themselves as worse off than you. There is a flipside to the sentiment; one that I think is a bit more positive... It's the situation where you decide to help someone because they seem to be in need of it... and they are planning to help you because you seem to be the one in need of help.

Hey Miamilady. I see the homeless or people that are in bad shape and I think this. Great saying. Says so much. I think it is humbling and really should make a person think.

I think that this saying is a very good one. I do very often think it to myself as I am a mother and a wife, I only have to go to the shops to see mothers of young children giving in to tantrums and buying their children the sweets the child is screaming for. My children were always walked out of the shop very quickly to be told that that kind of behaviour did not get sweets. Very often this was after a sharp smack on the behind after they had been picked up off the floor. With both children, this only ever happened the once with both of them. Children do learn very quickly if they want to.