John 13:34-35 – I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for another. (NRSV)

In the last couple of years, our family has been observing fish, and we have been learning a great deal. It all started a couple of years ago when we gave our (then) seven-year-old a small five-gallon fish aquarium with a couple of fantail goldfish. We had varying success with his goldfish.

My husband has always had a fascination with tropical fish, so for his birthday, we gave him a super-deluxe thirty-gallon fish aquarium. We read up on all the different kinds of fish, but one fish we knew we just had to have was the beautiful Neon Tetra. They are small, but they have a bright orange line going down their back. They really are a beautiful fish, and they travel in schools, so we brought home about half a dozen. Then gradually, we added different varieties with the Neon Tetras. As you can imagine, because we were complete novices, before long, we discovered what the book means when it says that some fish are more aggressive than others. We had introduced a couple of Black Skirt Tetras to our Neon Tetras, and the Black Skirts spent their day running after the Neons and nipping their tails. One thing was for sure: these two do not mix, so guess what? Now we have another thirty-gallon fish aquarium for our more aggressive fish. But even in that tank, we have one Blue Tetra bully that everyone has told us is not supposed to be aggressive, but he is definitely the boss of the tank.

As we sit and watch our fish communities, I can't help but compare them to our church. How often we come across people in our church who seem to be like the Black Skirts, nipping on our tails. Whatever we do, it never seems to be good enough for the Black Skirts. So, what's the answer? I think, sometimes, we end up doing what we did with our fish when we bought another fish aquarium. So often, we see people leaving our church because they get tired of being nipped. But Jesus says, "Love one another." He calls all of us, and we come in many varieties. He calls all of us to come together in love. We have to learn to appreciate the differences in each other and to know that each of us is special and that we are loved.

Prayer: Loving God, we thank You that You have made us different from each other but special in Your sight. Help us to love one another and to be more accepting and loving to all our brothers and sisters in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

The words "Pro-D Day" (or "PD Day" in some places) will certainly stir up different feelings with anyone who has children in the school system. "Pro-D Day" stands for "Professional Development Day", and that is the day that the children get to stay home because there is no school for them. So of course, this is also the day that parents, especially parents who work outside the home, have to figure out what to do with the children.

I realize I might be in the minority here, but I really do look forward to Pro-D Days. I do work outside of my home but I'm also fortunate enough to have the type of job that I can schedule around days like Pro-D Days. I see Pro-D Days as another opportunity to do something special with my children.

However, it doesn't always work out that way. On our last Pro-D Day, I did have to schedule a meeting, but at the house. And the minute that person was out of the house, my mind was quickly turned to the children. We then headed down to Subway® for a sub and then over to pick up some groceries, then to the Dairy Queen® for dessert, and on the way home, we picked up some videos to watch. As you can tell, we didn't do anything that special, but what was special to all of us was that we were together. The icing on the cake, for me, was as we sat around watching one of the videos, the phone rang. It was a friend who wanted to do something, but my son said, "No, I'm watching a movie with my family."

I often wonder what we are passing down to our children, what they are picking up from us. Just as in today's verse from 2 Corinthians, our children really are our letters, known and read by everybody. There's one very simple thing that I do every day with our children, almost without thinking. Whenever they leave to go to school or anywhere, I always say, "Love you," and they always respond, "Love you, too, Mom." It's just a simple thing, but I've noticed lately that my nine-year-old son has caught himself saying to his friends as they leave our home, "Love you"; then, realizing what he's said, has said, "Just kidding!" I had to chuckle; a nine-year-old boy saying "Love you" to another nine-year-old boy is not the accepted thing these days, but if our children can grow up knowing they are loved by us and by God, maybe their friends will grow up knowing they are loved, too.

We are called to be a living letter, known and read by everyone around us. Do you know what people are seeing when they read your letter?

Prayer: Loving God, it is an awesome responsibility to be a living letter for You. Help us not to miss any of the opportunities You put before us to be that living letter for You with those around us in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Editor's note: Pro-D Days are also great opportunities for grandparents to do something with their grandchildren. Many school districts will be having a Pro-D Day this Friday, February 14, in advance of Family Day on Monday. Check it out!

Jesus often ended His parables with this phrase: "He who has ears, let him hear". I have a friend who has just returned from a family vacation in Hawaii. She was commenting on how she would sit on the beach in the early morning for her "alone time" with God, with the large waves crashing on the shore. But during the day, when she was busy with her family, she realized that she didn't even notice the sound of the waves. They were still there, but if she didn't stop to listen, she wouldn't hear them.

This made me think back to a time in my youth when I would go and visit one of my friends in Nova Scotia, Canada, whose home was next to the train tracks. For the first couple of nights, all I would hear was the trains going back and forth, but after that, I discovered that I would sleep quite peacefully and not even hear the trains at night.

I wonder how often we miss hearing God's voice in the same way. Maybe, we have to stop and listen. Just like the waves crashing against the shore or the noise of the train, God is with us — He hasn't gone away. Let's take the time today to stop and listen to His voice.

Prayer: Lord, we thank You that You are always with us. Help us to stop and listen to Your voice in our lives. Help us not to get so busy with the affairs of our life that we forget to listen to Your voice. Amen.

One of our Christmas traditions is to remember the whole Christmas story as told in Luke 2. Many people will have a creche in their homes, and some people will start by putting out the angels and an empty manger, and then, as Advent progresses, they will continue to add more pieces. By Christmas Eve, all the pieces will be in position for the retelling of the Christmas story.

Our Christmas tradition has more to do with the positioning of our creche. For us, the creche always has to be under our Christmas tree to remind us that we have already received the most important gift of all. I'll always remember one Christmas as we were putting a few gifts under our Christmas tree when our son said, "But, Mom, when you put all the gifts under the tree you'll have to move the creche." I could understand this rationale coming from a very excited child, and it is so common to hear this in our society today. Just as there was no room in the inn for Joseph and Mary when Jesus was born, often there is no room for Jesus on Christmas morning as we tear into all those nicely wrapped presents. So, if you were to come to our home for Christmas, you will find our creche under our Christmas tree to remind us that the greatest gift of all was given to each of us by God — the great gift of His Son!

Prayer: Lord, we give You thanks for Your Christmas gift to each of us. As we share our gifts with each other during the Christmas season, help us to remember Your gift of love to each of us in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Traditions are those things that we do which reinforce our family's personality and link us with our past and our future. We see these traditions when we come to celebrate Advent and Christmas. It is because of our traditions that we have such a rich inheritance to pass on to our children. Our house has been no exception, and it's often the voice of one of our children that reminds me that we haven't done something yet.

It is so easy to get caught up with all the hype and the fuss surrounding Christmas that we lose our focus on why we are celebrating. This is why the Advent Jar has become a very important tradition in our house. The Advent Jar is a pint jar with a cup of shelled sunflower seeds and seven walnuts. The sunflower seeds represent all the things we need to get done for the Christmas holidays — Christmas baking, gifts to be bought and wrapped, cards sent out, and the list goes on. The walnuts represent the Advent preparations we would like to include, like a birthday cake for Jesus, time together around the Advent wreath, making things that would tell the story of Jesus birth, and the list only needs your own imagination. The interesting thing about the Advent Jar is that if you put the sunflower seeds in first, you will soon discover that there isn't room for the walnuts, but if you put the walnuts in first and then pour the sunflower seeds in around the walnuts, they all fit in! Everything fits when we keep our priorities in the right place!

Having our Advent Jar around during the Advent Season reminds us what Christmas is about, and it helps us to join in with the psalmist to say that God is our Saviour and that the waiting or hoping of Advent is central to the Christmas message.

Prayer: O God, our Saviour, we give You thanks for the hope we have during this Advent season. We thank You for the many traditions which help us to remember what is really important, but most of all, we thank You for the gift of Yourself, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

One type of things that make personal computers easy to use are the little pictures on the screen called icons. Icons are interesting things — they take up almost no memory, and they exist for only one purpose: to point to the main program. All we have to do is to click on one of the little icons and we get a big program, hidden in the background, opening up a screen full of beautiful colours and sounds and all kinds of capabilities.

In today's verse, Matthew 5:16, Jesus is telling us to let our light shine so that people around us will see our good deeds, and they will, in turn, praise our Father in heaven. Jesus is asking us to be like computer icons for Him. He is asking us to point others to Him. We are not the main program; we are the "pointer" or the "computer icon".

Prayer: We thank You, Lord, that You are the light of the world. There is a lot of darkness in our world, and we need to see Your light. Help us to be like computer icons and point others to Your light. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

As I was doing some running along a lake path, I decided to do some off-leash training with my small dog, Miss Daisy. This is a path that often has a lot of runners, walkers, dogs, and even the occasional horse. There is a pretty wide path that goes along the lake, and then there are several smaller side paths as well.

What I noticed with Miss Daisy is that as we started our training, she would often head down one of the side paths, and I would have to call her back to the main path. Each time, I would say, "No Daisy, this way", and soon, all I had to say was "uh uh", and then I noticed that I didn't even have to say anything. When she saw me go past the path, she would self-correct and follow me.

This whole training period is not unlike our own Christian walk. When we first start out walking with God, there can be a lot of different distractions, and as we try to head out on our own, God calls us back to the right path and to following Him again. It can go on that way for awhile, until we almost know instinctively not to stray away from the known path. The key is to know where we are in relationship to the One whom we are following.

It reminds me of the well-known Psalm 23 where the psalmist talks about following His shepherd through green pastures and quiet waters and even through the valley of the shadow of death. For the sheep, it is about the relationship with their shepherd. For Miss Daisy, it is about her relationship with me. For us, it is about our relationship with God. If we stray away from the path or from where God wants us to be, we need to heed God's voice that calls us back. What is even better is when we are able to correct ourselves, like Miss Daisy, who was able to tell without my saying a word that she was headed down the wrong path.

It is good for us to take a look at where we are. We need to ask ourselves if we are on the right path. Are we where God wants us to be? If not, we need to listen for God's voice and get back on track.

Prayer: Loving God, we thank You for Your guidance in our lives. We thank You for all the times when You have been there for us even though we strayed away. We are especially thankful for the times when You have called us back to Yourself. Thank You for never giving up on us. Help us to find our way back to You. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.