I don't know how many of you knew that the song "You are So Beautiful" was actually written about our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. 

Listen to it again, performed here by Phil Driscoll.  I bet you'll never hear this song the same way again.

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P.S.  Was out of town a few days... will post another blog entry soon.  In the meantime, enjoy the video and visit Phil's Mighty Horn Ministries at www.MightyHorn.com. 

¹ The word of the LORD came to me: ² "Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem:
       " I remember the devotion of your youth,
       how as a bride you loved me
       and followed me through the desert,
       through a land not sown."

How many times have you heard about relationships getting stale?  Men stop holding their wife's hand; she hears that she's beautiful less and less often; he doesn’t think to tell her how much he needs and appreciates her love and support.  Women stop crawling into their husbands arms; he hears more nagging about what he hasn’t done than thanks for what he has; she doesn’t think to tell him how much she needs and appreciates his love and support.  Why do we stop showing the kind of affection that we did in the beginning?  I don't want to sound too cliché, but once you get comfortable in a relationship it's easy to lose the fire. Something happens over time. The excitement of a new relationship inevitably fades and we start to take for granted that the person we love knows that we love them.  We might still say it with regularity, but it only occasionally comes out with the same feeling or in the same way that it did in the beginning.  I guess we just get caught up in responsibilities, trials, life in general, and stop taking the time (or making the time) to express how we feel.  And, for the most part, if you’re not expressing your feelings, you’re not feeling your feelings. 

On the flipside, if your spouse is not hearing and being reminded that you love them, you’re not hearing and being reminded that you love them either.  Every time you take the time to remind your spouse of how you feel about them, you’re reminding yourself too. You need it as much as they do!  Regularly expressing affection for your spouse helps you overcome the flesh and avoid becoming impatient, angry, neglectful, dishonest… all the things born of selfishness and pride… and makes it easier to sacrifice, surrender, minister, comfort, and care for the one you love. 

This week God said to me… “Tracy… I miss how as a bride you loved me.” 

Do I not tell Him that I love Him like I used to?  Have the moments when I do tell Him become rote? Has it become more a habit of words than an actual expression of feeling?  I guess I have.

Would I be better at avoiding temptation and become less likely to hurt Him if I spent more time just telling him how I feel about Him?  Okay, that was sort of a ‘Duh!’ question.

But you know what really hit me? What made me feel incredibly loved and incredibly sorry all at the same time? God missed me.  The Creator of the Universe… the King of Kings… the Great I Am… the Lover of My Heart… missed me.  He missed the way I used express my love for Him when I was His young and passionate bride.

I hope He never misses me again.

Hello, world!

I'm so excited about this new blog.  It's an opportunity for me to express myself in a way I've never tried before.  First, I guess I should introduce myself.  My name is Tracy, and I can't wait to talk to all of you.  I'm the proud mother of three wonderful teenage boys and have been married for almost 20 years.  I'm a Christian under construction and I hope I always will be.  I continue to learn and grow every day and can't wait to see what the Lord chooses to do with the rest of my life.  I was raised Southern Baptist and currently attend a Baptist church, but really consider myself non-denominational.  I'm a political junkie and when I'm not listening to contemporary Christian music, I'm usually listening to talk-radio.  I'm one of those people that talks back to the radio like the person I'm listening to can hear me!  My father used to tell me I think too much.  He was probably right.  I'm usually thinking too far outside the box for friends and family to want to debate a topic with me, but talking through a thing and playing devil's advocate (usually with myself) helps me feel more rooted to a decision and more confident in my way of thinking once I arrive. 

Have you ever seen a young woman wearing one of those Sex and the City t-shirts that says "I'm a Charlotte" or "I'm a Carrie"?  If you've ever watched the show, you really can get a quick sense of a woman's secular world view and, to some extent, her personality type by comparing her to one of the four main characters.  If I were to do the same from a Christian perspective and compare myself to one of the twelve disciples, I'd be a Thomas.  It's not so much that I doubt, but I question.  I question everything.  Too much for my own good, I'm sure.  But I serve a patient God.  He made me the way I am.  He gave me this inquisitive and questioning mind, so I can only assume He saw it coming.  Turning doctrine on its head or scripture inside out, shaking it for all its worth, and talking over what falls out is how He proves Himself to me.  "Test Me," He says.  And so I do.  And so he proves Himself every day.  Over and over He proves Himself.  He proves Himself faithful but challenging, marvelous and mysterious.  And still the questions come.

I started this blog because I was looking for an outlet.  An outlet where I could express my thoughts and opinions, pose questions and ideas, and get feedback from anyone out there who might want to comment.  Every day I encounter situations that test my faith and reveal how my beliefs influence my world view.  At times, I know exactly what I think or how I feel about a topic or course of action.  Other times, there seems no real right answer.  More often than not, I'm just looking for solid ground.  If you want to look for it with me, subscribe to my blog or post comments and let me know how you feel.  I'll be blogging about everything from parenting to politics, ancient scripture to modern science.  Anything that challenges my world view or sparks my curiosity about Christ.  

I can't wait to get started!