Saturday, March 26, 2011

Tears in A Bottle

"Tears In A Bottle" is the title of my 2nd book, which is now available on Amazon as a Kindle e-book. "Tears In A Bottle" is a collection of articles, some previously published elsewhere, that display my walk with God in a genuine and transparent way.  These articles show some things I've struggled through, including my son's two deployments to Iraq.  One article, "About Letting Go," is under consideration to be a tract to be produced en mass, then distributed to families of our military men and women.

I hope that a few people will buy this easy-download e-book and receive a blessing!

No Kindle is required - you can download a free Kindle app for your PC, iphone, ipad, etc.

Thanks!
~Tricia

Friday, March 11, 2011

Why I'm Against Prayer in Public School

Whoa!  What a title!  Someone could read just the title of this blog and label me as a liberal who should not dare call herself a Christian.  However, if anyone takes the time to read this entire blog post, they will realize a more honest assessment.  Let me explain.

Don't get me wrong, I am all for prayer.  I just don't agree with prayer being pushed in the schools.  In a nutshell, here are my reasons for not supporting prayer in schools:

1. Christians don't need the world's permission to pray.  If a Christian student wants to pray, he or she can simply pray.  When prayer was banned for Daniel in chapter 6 of his book, he didn't seek permission to pray, he simply prayed as he had been praying.  Without fanfare. Without announcement.  Without permission.  Yes, it still caused him some trouble, but he did  it anyway.  He did not fight against that trouble, but simply trusted God to deliver him out of that trouble - and He surely did.

2. Our goal as Christians is not to fight for our "rights."  We have no rights.  Any benefits given to us are blessings from God, even if they are packaged in the world's wrapping paper.  Our goal is specifically given in Mark 16:15 - "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature."  If we are busy fighting for our rights, it's highly unlikely we'll be preaching the gospel at the same time.  We come to the world with a message that saves and this should be our focus.  Demanding prayer in school saves no one.

3. Who's to say what type of prayer is to be prayed in the schools?  If we require prayer in school, your child may well be led in prayer by a member of a false religion praying to a pagan god.  There is no guarantee.  This would be their opportunity to spread their doctrines, no matter how far removed they are from yours.

Keep praying at home, in secret, in your closet, behind closed doors, as we are admonished to do in Matthew 6:6.  Keep praying at school, on your way from one class to another, on your lunch break, for your fellow students and opportunities to share the good news of the gospel with them.  Keep praying at work, on your coffee break, on your lunch break, on your way to and from work.  In secret.  Keep praying, but don't require the world to pray.

If we reach the world with the gospel, they will pray and no one will have to tell them to.
This is a very condensed version of my thoughts on this subject.

~Tricia