Tracy's Blog

I prepared my 3 1/2 year old for trick or treating today by explaining that everytime someone gave him candy, he was to say "thank-you". We practiced it and he seemed to understand - or so I thought. Apparently I was wrong. The lesson obviously didn't sink in because house after house I had to instruct him to say thank-you to the person who had generously given him candy. Why was this? Well, I can't go into Timmy's motives but I can think about myself. When do I find it hard to remember to say thank-you to others? to God? Often it is because my attention is so much on the gift and not the giver. Or I'm thinking of what is ahead now that the current obstacle is overcome. Luke 17:11-19 tells an interesting story about thanksgiving. It's a story of 10 lepers who cry out to Jesus for pity and he tells them to " Go, show yourselves to the priests ." (17:14) As they go, they are healed and one man - a Samaritan - upon realizing that he was healed, came...

One of the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. His response? Luke 11: 2 He said to them, “When you pray, say: “‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread. 4 Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation." The Lord's Prayer teaches us that when we come to God in prayer, we can ask for what we truly need: food and forgiveness. It also teaches us that when we approach God, we can call Him "Father" indicating a close, dependent relationship. The familiar prayer is followed by a story similar to the persistent widow (see Luke 11:5-8 ). This one is a little different. Food, not justice, is needed and it is to a friend, not judge, to whom the seeker goes. But what is similar is the boldness and persistence of the asker. So, as we think about the words we are to pray, don't lose sight of mode of prayer. Verses 9: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you...

Everyday I speak words to many different people: my husband and children, friends and aquaintances, supermarket clerks, telemarketers and even myself. But today I want to write about the words we speak to God - specifically petitions we bring to Him in prayer. For some of us, asking for things from others is difficult. We are independent or we are shy. We can feel we are unworthy to be making such a request or, if we hold the opposite perspective, we can feel that we shouldn't need to ask as others should "just know" what we need since they should be spending their energies attending to us! When it comes to praying our requests to God, our fear and/or pride can really get in the way. Here we are speaking to the Most High God who we are unworthy before. He is the one who does know what we need even before we ask. And it is before God that we are confronted most keenly by our independent spirit and pride when we must humbly come before Him and admit how needy we are. But wh...

I talked with a group of children about encouragement this week using part of 1 Thessalonians 5:11: "Encourage one another and build each other up." My inspiration was a Steve Green's kids' song "Encourage One Another" ( see lyrics ). We marched around to the song and then did a craft colouring a picture of a hammer. The hammer represented our words. Like a hammer, words can destroy or build. The Bible is clear: we are to build each other up with encouraging words. But what is it that we are to encourage each other with? What message brings strength to our souls? Let's take a look at 1 Thessalonians 5 Paul is writing to the church in Thessalonica as they are concerned about believers dying before Christ returned. What happens to them? Paul explains that no one knows when Christ will return but that they need to be ready whenever He comes. He goes on to explain that " God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Je...

Now that we are done with double-mindedness, I want to move onto a series about the words we speak. We talk all the time....well, some of us do!.... and what we say is a significant part of our lives. Over the next several months we will focus on topics and phrases that we are to speak as followers of Jesus. Today, it's encouraging words! Yesterday, my daughter and I were hiking through some beautiful forest when we got pretty tired. We had a goal to reach and we did! But when we reached it, we had to turn around and come back and that wasn't easy. So, I started to encourage her saying things like "keep walking", "you can do it"; and "we will get there". Then we started to think about words that would discourage us. A phrase she came up with was, "you should have known better than to push yourself so hard, now you aren't going to be able to make it back". Hopeless and condemning, discouragement drains the life out of us while encourag...