Month: November 2016

What a better way to show love for your mom, then to write a tribute to mom blog!  If you are a young mom this will give you hope for your future joys and if you are a child this will be a hint as to what your mom wants from you!

Happy Birthday Mom,

I have come to better understand your joys, the older my children have gotten.  The other day your 18 year old grandson needed shoes and asked if I would go shopping with him.  We went and looked for shoes, tried on a few (read 2) pair and I convinced him (easily) to let me buy him both pairs!  I was so full of joy in that moment and then I remembered the joy you had taking me shopping for way more than 2 pairs of shoes and how much you loved that!  You are a generous mom and I thank you for teaching me generosity! P.S.  I’ll shop with you anytime  

Today is your birthday.  It’s a milestone birthday, a bit older than 50 but not 90:)  And today you are cooking the family a full on Thanksgiving Dinner.  As I pondered the political correctness of you cooking a feast on your birthday, you reminded me it wouldn’t be the first time you cooked on your birthday and what you wanted most was to have the family together.

I know that your greatest joy is your family. You love your two kids and your grandchildren more than anything else.  To have everyone gathered at the table, full of love and laughter, exhibits the picture of the very reason to live.  

Today, we celebrate you and the love you have given us all.  We honor you with our love for each other and we bring you happiness by letting you cook the turkey, while we eat dip. It’s so crazy but I get it!  You are a mom and you will always be mom.  Cook on!

You love when your family gathers in the same pew at church.  There is really nothing more like seeing the smiles, hearing the giggles and worshiping your savior.  You have taught me that devotion to Jesus is number one and that cousins trying to get kicked out of Christmas Eve service is number two.  HAHA!  Seriously, though, you brought our WHOLE family together every Christmas Eve to a church service where you played the organ and we worshiped the Savior.  You somehow still draw all us “heathens” in the family to church, out of tradition and I believe it is out of tradition that relationship is born.  Jesus will get them all yet….Every knee will bow and every cousin, aunt, brother, sister and uncle will shake their head and laugh someday!

You love dad.  He had surgery the night before Thanksgiving this year and you tended to his needs.  You postponed the family gathering in lieu of loving the man God gave you to tend.  Thank you for your perseverance and dedication to marriage.  You are an example to us all on how to love well, even when loving well is hard to do.   Dad made the best decision of his life when he picked you to be his bride and for that I’m thankful!

Thank you for teaching us what to love, what is important and where to place our energy. You are wise and beautiful and when I grow up I want to be just like you!

Looking forward to that feast today!  Thank you for your selfless love of our family!

I Love  You!

Tracy

 

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Whose baking???

I am a recipe baker.  I need the exact measurements and directions.  I am not a “little bit of this and a little bit of that” baker. This morning I was up at 5 a.m. (because I couldn’t sleep) to bake some rolls.  Adding each single ingredient one at a time, measuring, mixing, rising, waiting, hoping, dreaming, coffee (the most essential ingredient to add to your body at 5 a.m.

If you mess up the ratios or knead too much, or salt on the yeast or wander to far from the recipe, it is a pending disaster…..or at best not a great tasting baked good.

Yesterday, I told you I had been taking some time to ponder, what steals joy and what adds to it?

It was actually in the baking of the pumpkin pie yesterday that I asked myself: Why don’t I follow a Joy recipe in life?  I just add a little bit of this and a little bit of that and often times it turns into a big mess that no one wants to touch.

In Bible Study, “Redeemed: Grace to Live Everyday Better Than Before” by Angela Thomas-Phar, we were taught that some of Jesus’ last words to his disciples showcased the fruit of the Spirit JOY!  I had never seen this before and I bet you missed this too….

These things I have spoken to you, that my JOY may be in you, and that your JOY may be full. John 5:11

This comes after the whole “I am the Vine you are the branches”….abide in me…yada yada yada…..THAT MY JOY MAY BE IN YOU AND THAT YOUR JOY MAY BE FULL.

Jesus could have capitalized on any of the fruits: Love, joy, peace, patients, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…..why did  he pick Joy?

I know you want the answer to be…because he loves us and wants us to be happy.

Um, no….get this….

Remember in Hebrews it is written: “Who for the JOY that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame” ( Hebrews 12:2 ).  and then there’s this “Count it all JOY, my brothers,^[a] when you meet trials of various kinds,³ for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.⁴ And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.(James 1:2-4)

Oh my, Joy is not happiness.  Joy is the fruit of obedience.  Joy is a constant.  It does not vary with outward circumstances, Joy is the result of a choice. Joy is the product of a deep abiding relationship with God the Father.

There is a recipe for Joy!

A little-bit (read COMPLETE) obedience to God’s word
and a little-bit (read CONSTANT) abiding in the vine,
mixed together with rejoicing in all circumstances.
(John 15:9, 10, 14; 1 Thes 5:16-18)

Hold the comparison and self-pity.

 

John MacArthur said “Jesus is the example of the perfect abiding life resulting in full joy. In the midst of all that Jesus suffered, He still had full joy because of His abiding relationship with the Father. When you abide in Him, you’ll have the same joy. A Christian’s joy should be so full that it has a controlling influence on the rest of his life. Unfortunately, I don’t know too many Christians who are. I meet many grouchy Christians that don’t experience joy because they aren’t fully abiding in Christ. A Christian who is temporarily not abiding is usually easy to identify by his negative, defeated attitude.”

Ugg!  Anyone have a defeated attitude?  Yep, me too…It leads me to a defeated countenance and then everyone (read My Husband♥) wonders what is wrong with Tracy.  I do a pretty good job of keeping my defeated attitude to myself but dear Brek Daniel is the one to call it out in me, he is faithful.
So, we fight for Joy.  We obey and we abide.

John Piper has a LIST or a recipe for JOY:

1. Realize that authentic joy in God is a gift.

2. Realize that joy must be fought for relentlessly.

3. Resolve to attack all known sin in your life.

4. Learn the secret of gutsy guilt – how to fight like a justified sinner.

5. Realize that the battle is primarily a fight to see God for who he is.

6. Meditate on the Word of God day and night.

7. Pray earnestly and continually for open heart-eyes and an inclination for God.

8. Learn to preach to yourself rather than listen to yourself.

9. Spend time with God-saturated people who help you see God and fight the fight.

10. Be patient in the night of God’s seeming absence.

11. Get the rest, exercise, and proper diet that your body was designed by God to have.

12. Make a proper use of God’s revelation in nature.

13. Read great books about God and biographies of great saints.

14. Do the hard and loving thing for the sake of others (witness and mercy).

15. Get a global vision for the cause of Christ and pour yourself out for the unreached.

I leave you this Thanksgiving day with the words of Jeremiah.  May you EAT well today!

Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts. Jeremiah 15:16