• Relationships & Peacemaking

    Forgiveness is better …

    Earlier today Sophia, Choza and I headed out to run a couple of errands and bring Fred some soup for lunch. (There is an AMAZING little cafe in Billings run by these two Dutch brothers and their wives and on Fridays they have the world’s best tomato basil soup. It’s out of this world! If you’re even in Billings on a Friday, I’ll buy you a cup.) ANYWAY … one of the laborers who is installing our new doors apparently had to run out too and as Sophia and I were driving down our little avenue, this kid JUST ABOUT BROADSIDED US BECAUSE HE COMPLETELY RAN A STOP SIGN (!!!!!).…

  • Grace in Daily Life

    What a friend …

    This morning I called up a woman in my church that I really don’t know very well–but I’ve always wanted to get to know more. (She has ministered grace to our Body in such humble, sweet, intelligent ways … well … she just seemed like the kind of person everyone would always want to spend time with.) It was … funny / strange / a little embarrassing to call her, though … “Ummm, Hi! How are you? Hey–would you ever consider visiting with me for awhile? I’d like to seek your counsel and wisdom on some heart issues and I was wondering if we could visit and maybe, you know,…

  • Uncategorized

    first snow!

    A friend wrote me an email today and mentioned in an aside that it’s 80 degrees where she lives. Can’t say that about Billings. Here are a few pics from our morning …    

  • Uncategorized

    Scout & Samara Visit!

    Sorry I haven’t been able to post anything … I’ve been busy (having fun!) because Samara and Scout arrived last night for a visit! What a blessing to get to be with friends. Hope you enjoy the pics! G’nite and God bless, Tara B.    

  • Sin & Repentance

    Is it REALLY possible to CHANGE?

    I am deep into preparations for my new (“advanced” / “alumni”) women’s retreat. (A church in Texas has already had me teach my “standard” retreat and they asked me to come back next month for another event. So I’m preparing a new set of teachings on Becoming Who You Already Are: How the Gospel Transforms Our Lives and Brings Us Peace.) Does anyone else find it strange (hard? painful? frustrating?) that whenever we have to pray, study, and prepare to teach on a certain topic we invariably start to STRUGGLE regarding it? That has surely been my experience lately. As you may have picked up from some of my recent…

  • Singleness & Marriage

    Personal Testimony Regarding Adultery …

    We have been blessed to hear a personal testimony from someone regarding our previous posts/discussions on adultery. Since I know that not everyone reads all of the comments on every post, I thought I’d move her testimony up to a new blog (and to our discussion board) to make it more accessible for everyone. Let me give you a recap of the discussion so far and then I’ll include her testimony … 1. Original Question: “If two Christians are friends and commit adultery with each other and then repent of their sin of adultery can they still remain friends? Can they be restored to a chaste, pure relationship and reconciled…

  • Relationships & Peacemaking

    Andree Seu on Forgiveness

    Have you purchased Andree Seu’s book yet? If not, I urge you to do so today! Mrs. Seu is simply one of the best writers I have ever read. Let me tempt you with just the opening paragraph from her recent essay in World Magazine: “Forgiving is the hardest thing you will ever do. That’s why most people don’t do it. We talk about it, cheer for it, preach on it, and are sure we’ve practiced it. But mostly the illusion of having forgiven is that the passage of time dulls memory. The ruse will come to light with hair-trigger vengeance when fresh offense hurls in to empty the gunnysack…

  • Just for Fun!

    Welcome to my blog!

    I’ve been receiving quite a few personal emails from people who are visiting my blog this week for the first time, so I thought I’d give a little “tour” to (hopefully!) introduce some key components to you. – FrapprMap & discussion group: In the upper right-hand corner, you’ll see a button that says, “Where are we?” and a link to our discussion group too. If you would like to visually SEE where we are located, the FrapprMap is a fun, free tool that you can join. I’ve also tried to make our dialogues more convenient for you by setting up a discussion board that allows YOU to choose the topics…