This Is The House That Tracy Built

Welcome to Traces Space....Yesterday I had a flashback moment.  Mike and I were out and about and as we came back towards home we passed a house that I always had my eye on...It was a dump back in the day, it had been abandoned and really looked as if no one would ever care for it.  I use to say to everyone on the school bus as we drove past this particular house, that's my dream house, I want to buy it and fix it...Something about that house caught my eye, even as a teenager.
As the years went by the house remained empty and unkept.  Finally someone purchased it and saw potential in this house.  The buyer totally refaced the outside, new windows, sandblasted the brick...new doors...took something that was ugly, appeared to be falling down and made it new...
Isn't that what God does with us? whether we are a work in progress, or we have somehow found ourselves being forgotten or unwanted, left to fall apart.
2 Corinthians 5 

[ Awaiting the New Body ] For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. ...

This physical body is not our forever home...This place that our soul and our spirit reside in is not the place that it will remain for all eternity. That is hope.  In that we recognize that no matter how broken or ruined we become, this isn't forever.  We do not have to rely on ourselves to make it through, that this a new body created by God Himself awaits us.  In that dwelling place there will be no more pain, no more death, no more tears, no more of the brokenness that this earth has for us.

While we are here, it is our responsibility to take care of our houses, our temples that God has provided for us, by staying healthy and being in communion with each other.  We can not take what God has provided for granted and we can not abuse it either.  So we are charged with taking care of it and  taking care of the potential that each and everyone of us has.
See the appearance on the outside isn't always what its all about...You truly can not judge a book by its cover.
So this old wrinkled version of Tracy is in need of repair.  But I have potential.  I can get myself physically fit as well as spiritually fit, and it is my responsibility to take on the challenge of "home" improvement.  As it is with each one of us.
This is the house that I have built here on this earth, and I need to own it...I do not always want to be the fixer-upper.  See like that house, God has come along in order to show us what needs to be fixed, what needs to be done until we can dwell with Him forever.
Today I pray that each one of us recognize our responsibility, but also that we see the hope that we are not living in our forever home.  That we are a work in progress, just in need of repair...
See you soon.

The Bird Is Not The Word

Welcome to Traces Space...
So since the beginning of the New Year I have been trying very hard to immerse myself in the Word.  I have a really difficult time focusing and am very easily distracted, so I decided the best plan for me was to do weekly devotionals, no pressure...Well at least I thought the pressure would be off.
Every study over the past couple of weeks has lead to some new challenge in my rather interesting walk.  One in particular though struck a cord, "One Word That Will Change Your Life".  Yes one word...this study which was only five days encourages you to seek God and find one word that you can focus on for the entire year that will change you.
So needless to say I became a woman of few words when meditating on what it might be that God was trying to tell me, then like a slap in the face it came to me, the word, and the word was "response".
In every area of my life this is the one thing that I really struggle with.  I struggle with body language, facial expressions, words...all of it.  I wear my emotions on my sleeve, good or bad.  There really is never a mystery on how I am feeling and some times transparency is not a good thing.
Now I don't believe you should lie about how you feel, but also there are times you need to harness your feelings and well process them before you react, especially if you have grown weary, or frustrated in the said situation.
I could write a novel these days on the things that irritate my soul, but I am sure if you are reading this you already know, so that would be senseless.  It seems as if I have come to this place where I feel that everyone needs to know of my dissatisfaction with life and family and God and well... you get the idea.  The grating on my every emotion is becoming exhausting.
So here we go, response.
So I believe that God wants to take care of it.
So what is the plan?  First of all I need to accept that this is the word for me.  That I do because it is causing me great stress, I recognize this monster for what it is.  I also have to accept that there is a whole lot of ugliness in me that is going to be revealed, and also that I am going to have to be able to just let a whole lot of stuff go.  I have to learn to also accept that I am not responsible for the actions of others and in reality I can't control those actions and well folks really don't want me to.  I will also have to learn that when people are joking about life here at my house that I can't change who I live with and or what they do, its not my job...well in a whole lot of areas its not my job.
I can't fix nobody but MYSELF.
I have to leave the past in the past, and pray a whole lot that the future is going to get better.  I can not allow the things that have already happened define the "response" to the things yet to be.
And finally I have to let go and really let God.  For the first time I have to fully surrender to Him because this isn't going to be easy, this is a change of my entire being.
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength!
So I challenge you...explore your spirit and soul and search and seek your "word".  I honestly believe it could be life changing.
See you soon!

What Is Your Legacy?

Welcome to Traces Space...
Funny how a little football and the drama that has come along with it can spark a thought or two into my mind.  This whole "de-flate gate" has really stirred a question in me...What is or what will be my legacy.
One tends to go right to our children, or our belongings, or even our jobs, the memories of the things that we may or may not have gotten right while we have been on this life's journey.
The whole idea that our whole legacy can be dependent on one choice, one decision whether it be bad or good is kind of up to us.  And when looking at the whole scheme of things, we are all pretty superficial when we look at others and really critical  when we look at ourselves.
I thought about the legacy of that football team...Honestly it won't matter how many games they win or how great the players were...what folks will remember is the history of them being cheaters.  All over the choice to play of all things with deflated footballs.  Really its kind of funny.
What is it that I will leave here that folks will remember me by?  Will it be my writing, my singing, my wonderful ability of working with small children? My children and grandchild?  Or will it be my horrible driving attitude, or my inability to jump on board the cat train?  My uncanny sarcastic views? My faith?
What ever it is I hope is not defined in one second.
The bible is full of characters with well defined legacies. Really super good ones, and some not so good.  From the first couple to Jesus himself we see how life choices can mold ones final thoughts on someone.  We see how one person's choice can bring on what is called "generational" curses.  We see one persons choice to trust brings on deliverance.  Our choices effect the future generations.
David danced, but David cheated...David paid the ultimate price...but his legacy wasn't based on his cheating, it was based on getting it right with God.  Lots wife looked back, but Lot didn't.  I could go on and on, but I bet you know exactly what I mean...
Based on one choice it could sum up our whole life..."Could" being the important word there.
At this point I have no idea what I am going to leave behind that people will be able to see and say hey that was a Tracy thing.  But one thing I do know is what I would like it to be...
I would like my legacy to be that I was always fair, that I looked at both sides of every story, that I never for one moment felt that I was better or above anyone else.  That I loved my family with everything that I have, and that I always honored and praised God with extreme intensity.  Everything else just a bonus.
So what do you think your legacy will be? Have a good week...see you soon.

It Is Well...Is it?

Welcome to Traces Space.
When Peace like a river attendeth my soul.  What a profound lyric.  While its truth is prolific and full of itself, I found myself questioning the peace or lack there of I may actually have in my life.
I found myself doing a little research on the song writers, Phillip Bliss and Horatio Spafford.  The incredible stories surrounding their lives and the road that God would have them to travel... I found that these two gentlemen had a same, same but different type of existence, and withstood the ultimate tests of God. 
If you know anything of the story of "It is Well" you know that Horatio Spafford was a wealthy man who had lost most of his fortune during the Chicago fire...Then he had sent his family ahead of himself to England for a family vacation, only for he and his wife to lose their children in a ship wreck.  That is where the first four verses of "It is Well" came from.  The final verse was written many years later after he and his family had left their church because they were told that the reason they had suffered was due to  a "divine punishment"...but yet to him it still was well...He and his family never gave up on God...it just made the relationship with God Stronger.
Phillip Bliss came from nothing.  His family from Pennsylvania, he left home when he was eleven years old.  He left home to work laboring in the lumber fields, where he was exposed to music and also to God.  He eventually worked his way through and earned his teaching certificate.  He was then encouraged to teach music.  Eventually becoming a Evangelist.  He and his wife died in a train accident in Ohio, leaving behind two small children.
You see to me in the midst of their adversity they did not lose focus on God.  They walked in the calling no matter what the circumstance, whether it was having it all and losing it, or coming from nothing and making it work.  For them it was always well.
Fast forward to today...I have been really thinking about it "being well with my soul"...you see I believe that along the way in this life journey that we are all on that we have to somehow find peace in the midst of every circumstance...Not only to simply face it but to make it through it.  No matter how difficult the circumstance the end result is the "wellness" of God.  A good friend of mine always says she does not want to be "considered" as Job was, but yet God knew Job, knew his character and knew that Job in the circumstances that he faced and even the wrongful encouragement of friends would in the end pass the test and proclaim that "it is well".
So where ever you are in your journey, what ever the new thing is that you are facing have peace and hope in knowing that through Christ all things will be well...It is well with my soul...
See you soon