Home with Tracy

Our family has experienced a March Madness of a different kind.  Yes, my husband does participate in filling out a bracket every year with his college friends, but that is not the March Madness I am talking about. This has been our month of March so far .... 1 - On the same day, my husband and I both received calls from Michigan that we had ailing grandparents.  We decided to take an unplanned trip up to Michigan.   2 - The day before we were to leave for our unplanned trip to Michigan, my husband accidentially backed into a car in a parking lot and the owner insisted on calling the police.  There was no damage to our van, and only a small paint chip on her car.  Both my husband and the other driver received tickets for No Proof of Insurance (it was at that time I remembered the proof of insurance was on my desk at home) 3 - Upon returning from Michigan we realized there was something wrong with our van.  We took it into the service station whe...

I am slowly reading through the book Feminine Appeal Seven Virtues of a Godly Wife and Mother by Carolyn Mahaney .  The chapter I am currently reading is on Kindness.  In this chapter it addresses the hindrances of kindness.  Hindrance number one is anger.  Hindrance number two is bitterness.  When I started to read the section on bitterness, I did not think it would have the effect on me that it did.  Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.  And be kind to one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.  Ephesians 4:31-32 The section on bitterness talks about how hurt feelings can rapidly turn into bitterness.  When we think of how we have been wronged over and over again we tend to go into self-pity mode.  I am extremely guilty of this.  I have let my childhood hurt feelings turn into bitterness which then effected my adult relationships.  I then let my adult hurt ...

My oldest son has a strong mind and a loving heart.  He loves to do things that he knows will make his dad and I proud.  His love language is definitely Words of Affirmation. One day I asked him to go to his room and read two books.  Grudgingly, he went to his room and I went about my daily tasks.  A little while later I noticed him come out of his room, go get the vacuum and take it back to his room.  A few moments later he came out of his room, put the vacuum away, came back and said "Mom, come look at my room.  It is all clean."  As I looked into his room, he was right.  It was cleaner than I have ever seen it.  I told him that he did a great job and I really appreciated all the effort he put into cleaning his room.  I then asked him which two books he read. He proceeded to tell me that he didn't read the books because he was too busy cleaning his room for me.  I told him that while I appreciated his clean room, it is not wha...

I used to think if I was serving either in a ministry or by going on a missions trip that I was doing what God wanted me to do.  After all, I was serving Him.  I was telling others of His love.  I was showing others His love.  But, was I being called or was I making the call?  In the summer of 2009 my husband lost his job.  I was a stay-at-home mom at the time and had been for two and a half years.  That summer our church was hiring an Administrative Assistant in the Preschool/Children Ministry.  I have always had a heart for children and love working around them.  I ended up being hired in July of that year.  I was excited.  I was going to be helping in the ministry.  This is what I was being called to do - or so I tried to convince myself.  In November of that year, our Preschool/Children's Minister resigned.  I was now taking on a bigger role.  I was running the Preschool Ministry.  I must say, even wit...