Tracy's Blog

We moved to Manitoba in the summer of 2010 but it took us a long time to settle on a church.  Since the fall of 2011, we have been regular attenders at St. Margaret's Anglican  in Winnipeg.  But occassionally, we attend a little Anglican Church closer to home just outside of Selkirk called St. Clement's .  It's a very quaint church situated beautifully near the Red River with a well-kept graveyard (never can think too far ahead....) and a convenient service of 7:30 am which I like to attend when I'm on duty for overseeing the nursery at St. Margaret's.  This past weekend, however, I ended up there for the 11:15 am service which was an "Easter Festival of Readings and Music".  It was just what I needed to re-focus my attention on the Easter Season.... and the great joy and hope we have because of the resurrection of Jesus. One of the readings that has stayed with me this week is 1 Peter 1:3-8, 21 : "  3 Praise be to the God and Fathe...

We love our local library.  Every Tuesday morning, Timmy and I go to the library so that he can attend "story time" for 3-5 year olds and I hang out with other Moms and caregivers.  We take out books....lots of them as the limit is 25... and every week I return the set from the week before.  This keeps me on track and ensures that I don't have any overdue books.  Since the loaning time is 3 weeks, this shouldn't be a problem.  But when the program ends and I don't make my weekly trip to the library and the weeks fly by, sometimes I do end up frantically looking for my receipt that indicates when books are due. Last fall, I found out I had an overdue book so I called the library the next day to renew it and asked how much money I owed.  The librarian, a very friendly lady as this is "Friendly Manitoba" according to our license plates, told me that I didn't owe anything.  "There is a grace period," she said.  I thanked her and when I hung u...

Christ is Risen! I was pondering my life on Easter Sunday and realized that I've become less intense in some ways and I think this is a good thing.  On one hand, I'm more routined and am living my daily life with more discipline.  On the other hand, I'm less anxious and don't have to have everything figured out beforehand but am more able to trust God to help me make decisions and take action along the journey of life.  I'm living in a more grace-filled, less double-minded space and am very thankful for it. God is so good! This all being said, one of the results of my more low-key mindset is that I came to today - Monday - and realized that I don't have any idea what my blogs are going to be about... or if I'm even going to write them... in the next while.  I have some ideas brewing but need to do some Bible study first.  I have so many interests but limited time.  I thought I should let all of you who read this know I don'...

I don't know if any of you noticed but all of our themes throughout Lent have started with the letter “S”. Now that we've reached the last week of looking to Jesus as an example of spiritual disciplines during this season of repenting, I wanted to finish off with one more “S”..... Supplication. What it is? According to the Webster's Dictionary, supplication is “the act of supplicating”. Well, that doesn't help too much. Let's keep digging. “Supplicate” is “to entreat; to beseech; to implore; to petition with earnestness and submission.” Now we are onto something. Supplication is praying... or maybe more specifically, it is asking. I chose to write about this today because the fact that Jesus prays frequently – in the dark of early morning, in the garden in the evening, on the cross, etc – stood out to me as I've been reading the Gospels.  It's important for us to consider how we pray.  Do we ask or demand?  Are we flippant or sincere?  Are we ...