Month / May 2017

by tracymauro

A Mother’s Day Confession

So…. I have a confession to make. In recent years I’ve not been much of a fan of Mother’s Day. You see, my beautiful Mother has been in Heaven several years now and my husband and I have no children. It’s not that we didn’t want kids – just never had any. Because of all that…. my typical take on Mother’s Day has been, “Please…. can we just get this OVER with. STOP already with the reminders of what I no longer have and what I’ll never be!!!”. But this year is different. I am actually looking forward to Mother’s Day. Let me tell you why….

God has been talking to me a lot lately about value and purpose – through my small group at church, through friends, through life circumstances – lots of different ways. And the main theme of His Father’s #HeartTalk to me has been that I am loved, valued, and have purpose not because of what I’ve done or haven’t done, who I’ve birthed… or haven’t birthed. But I am loved, valued, and have purpose because I am the lovingly designed masterpiece of the greatest Artist/Creator of all time – well, of all eternity, actually. And He created me to have just the right and needed impact in my place and space in the world. And that place and space may not look like what I envisioned it to be in my younger days (a house full of kids and running a mission hospital in some far away land) – but I am truly where I am now “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14).

And, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the upcoming Sunday Worship Experience at my Amazing Church is based on that #BibleStory about #QueenEsther and themed #YouWereMadeForThis. So, if you’re in North Texas and have felt a little out of place and a lot out of sorts on Mother’s Day, please feel free to join me at Amazing Church. You’ll be in good company and no matter who you are and where you are on this life’s journey – YOU will be celebrated. Yes, Mom’s will be celebrated and babies will be dedicated but the celebration reaches much further than that. It will be a celebration of each of a #GoodGoodFather’s lovingly designed and #WellPurposed children.

So, this year, my level of dread around Mother’s Day has greatly diminished. I am looking forward to celebrating with my friends who have their Moms and their #PreciousChildren at their sides. But I am also looking forward to #CelebratingMe #JustAsIAm and the fact that I’m #SoVeryLoved by The Great I AM.

So….. Happy Mother’s Day to ALL! 

by tracymauro

Prayer for Lives of Simple Surrender

“How can I stand up before GOD and show proper respect to the high God? Should I bring an armload of offerings topped off with yearling calves? Would GOD be impressed with thousands of rams, with buckets and barrels of olive oil? Would he be moved if I sacrificed my firstborn child, my precious baby, to cancel my sin?  But He’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what GOD is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don’t take yourself too seriously— take God seriously.” –Micah‬ ‭6:6-8‬, The Bible (The Message paraphrase)

by tracymauro

An #Instaprayer on this National Day of Prayer

Today is recognized as the National Day of Prayer in the United States. So… in events and gatherings across the nation the words of the beautiful Bible verse, 2 Chronicles 7:14, will be recited and prayed.

However, I can’t help but wonder…. in the midst of our me-focused culture do we even have a clue of what it means to “humble ourselves” in true worship and prayer to our God? Or, are we so stained by our self-focused society, advertising, and entertainment that when we say we worship God we are really only worshipping a reflection of ourselves we have created in our minds? Could what Michael Card wrote in the early 1990’s still be true today?: “We’ve made You in our image so our faith’s idolatry.” (From Know You in The Now).

The words written so long ago in 2nd Chronicles are beautiful words…. But my prayer is that they will be REAL words today: in me, in you, in US! Please, Jesus…..

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” -‭‭2 Chronicles 7:14

by tracymauro

“Love Through Me” (Today’s #Instaprayer)

Today’s #Instaprayer was written in another century but is still so beautiful and relevant today because Amy Carmichael not only penned these words…. she lived them. She served as a missionary to India for 55 years with no furlough back to her home in Ireland. In 1901 she established Dohnavur Fellowship, a mission and orphanage still operating today. She lived, served selflessly, and died among people very different than her who she loved much. I’ve been fascinated by her from the time I was told her missionary stories in #SundaySchool and I think we could all do well by praying and living her words and asking God to #LoveThroughMe.

. . . . . . .

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” – 1 Corinthians‬ ‭13:1-13‬ ‭ESV‬‬

by tracymauro

My #Instaprayer Project…. Join me??

Today I started posting on Instagram a short prayer to go along with the Scripture focus on my heart for the day. Feel free to join me in applying God’s Word and praying it back to our Good, Good Father. Here’s today’s post:Today’s #instaprayer is inspired by James 2:1-4. “My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, ‘You sit here in a good place,’ while you say to the poor man, ‘You stand over there,’ or, ‘Sit down at my feet,’ have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?”