How Can We Make a Difference in This World?

My daughter, Bess Tracy, painted this for her niece
(my granddaughter), Samantha Tracy to encourage her
destiny and dreams. "Let her sleep, for when she
wakes, she will move mountains." What a
declaration to wake up to every day!
(Author of quote is unknown.)

I think most of us want our lives to count for something. We truly want to make a difference… to make life better for someone… to be remembered… to do good with our talents and possessions.

One night I could not sleep. Thunder and a full moon had me wide awake at 2:30 a.m.. I ended up “talking”on Facebook with Tom, a friend from the United Kingdom we met at Bethel Church where my husband and I attended ministry school. It was mid-morning in London, and Tom, a young dad, was writing an essay and studying for his degree in Theology. He told me he was struggling due to dyslexia. I simply told Tom in my text that he had a kind heart and the world needed him. We made declarations of healing over his problem. We wrote a bit more and then signed off. He told me he knew why I wasn’t sleeping…that I was awakened to minister to him. He needed encouragement. My part was so simple. The Holy Spirit, (who hangs around Facebook, don’t ya know?), did the rest.

Few of us are called to be missionaries or traveling evangelists or pastors of a local church. Most of us work in the marketplace, we're raising children at home, and we gather with friends who are believers as well as pre-believers.

So…what can we do to make a difference in this world? How can we bring the beautiful light of heaven into people's lives?

The answer? Just be available. Listen to and watch what God is doing. Encourage a child. Help a neighbor. Show Jesus’ love and compassion to a hurting person. Use your culinary or athletic gift to gather friends. Build relationships. Give a $20 bill to a corner homeless person. Support a missionary. Give an unexpected gift. Make a new friend. If you're young, bless an older person. If you're old, encourage a young person. Pray silently for someone next to you on the highway.

You may never know how far your acts of love and compassion may go. You could be making a big difference to a person who will make a difference to his daughter who will make a decision for her own life that will change the world.

Inventor, dreamer, artist, writer, carpenter, friend, sibling, parent, grandparent…you already make a difference. Now do it some more! Do it intentionally. You have been blessed to be a blessing!

“Find out who you are and do it on purpose!” - Dolly Parton

I hope you will find out who you are and what you are called to when you read my book Tapestry - The Divine Design for Your Life. Be encouraged. God will meet you when you seek Him. 

Available now in digital download and print. Click here to order

Opposites Overcome

What if…… .

- We thought about our blessings and stopped dwelling on what we don’t have yet?

- We focused on what is right about our health and not what is wrong?

- We spent our time being intentionally joyful and turned away from sadness?

- We began talking about what is right with the world instead of what is wrong?

- We spent most of our time affirming good behavior instead of giving negative attention to poor behavior?

- We started making things better, rather than complaining how everything is hopeless?

- We started really believing that God is in control instead of us?

- We focused our mind thankfully on the 95 percent of our body that works well instead of fretting about the 5% that doesn’t?

- We told our heart and soul to grab onto life instead of fearing death?

Fear, anxiety, negativity, stress, and much of the internal and external sickness around us is the fruit of faith in the wrong god. Isaiah 59:19 teaches that when the enemy comes, the Holy Spirit comes in like a flood to defeat him. I like that. We are overcomers!

My encouragement to you today is to go after love and life and truth and health and light  with all your might, rejecting anything that is opposite of those. Amen!
My book, "Tapestry - The Divine Design For Your Life," is now available for pre-order! Go to:  http://christinetracy.tateauthor.com

Take Another Little Piece of My Heart

Did you know that God talks to you? He is always talking to you. Are you hearing? Are you listening for Him?

I was praying the other day and I heard in my heart Janis Joplin singing her famous “Take Another Little Piece of My Heart,” and it made me laugh. God knows that I need humor and joy in my life, and He sometimes uses what is familiar to me to teach me something. I asked Him what that was about. And soon something was in my thoughts I would never think up myself.

I felt like God was saying “When you cry out to me for help, I will respond. When you give me a piece of your heart, I will replace it with a piece of mine.”

We are made in the image and likeness of the Godhead – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He wants to go deeper with you. Can you imagine how I felt when I understood that every time I sought God for help in my circumstances in the past, He was exchanging my heart with His? His Spirit lives in those who have made Him their Lord. Our own spirit is able to communicate with His Spirit. The Bible says that our prayers are lifted up to God and the Holy Spirit presents them with utterances that God will understand – even when we ourselves do not know what or how to pray about something.

What a mighty God we call Father.

Papa God – you can have another little piece of my heart today, and tomorrow, and the next day.