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Fighting on Family Vacations (??)
Do you ever find yourself tempted to FIGHT when you are on a family vacation that is supposed to be FUN? Fred and I had a few minutes of that temptation this morning when, on his day off, we started to fall into this TRAP: Tara: “Fred, how would you like to spend your day off?” (Wanting to bless him.) Fred: “Oh. I don’t know. What would YOU like?” (Wanting to bless me.) Tara: “Well, we could hang out at home after gymnastics and violin. Or we could go for a hike. We could be productive or totally relax and just veg out / play games / read. What would…
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Easter Morning!
Ahhhhh … Easter Morning! Fresh air blowing through the window. (Hooray for NO snow! Those pesky April blizzards sometimes get me a little down.) A sweet daughter snoozing away in her room. A kind husband snoozing away next to me. A baby kicking away in utero and my Golden Retriever awake at my feet. Yes, yes, I am a blessed woman and I am rightfully embarrassed to think about how often I fail to be grateful. But of course, I am most grateful that God saved me from my sins and adopted me into His family 24 years ago when I was just about as messed up a teenager as…
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Four Signs of the Fear of Man
Can’t remember if this is from the Sonship materials or “When People are Big and God is Small” … But here are four signs of the fear of man: 1. I want credit for the good I do. 2. I am defensive. 3. I compare myself with others. 4. Reputation fixation—I want my performance to prove my righteousness. Eek! Makes you grateful for the Cross, eh? (A little Canadian “eh” thrown in there in honor of my cross-cultural day today. 🙂 )
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Making Mistakes (HT: FindingGrace)
FindingGrace has a sweet gospel-soaked post that I encourage you to read: Making Mistakes
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Basic Estate Planning
Here are my notes for today’s “(Actually!) Setting Your House in Order” Sunday School class. We’re tackling the topic of BASIC ESTATE PLANNING: INTRODUCTION 1. Disclaimers/Goals: a. It’s been a long time since Tara has practiced law as an estate planning attorney—and even when she was actively licensed: a) it was in Illinois, not Montana; and b) she practiced in a highly specialized area of the law (high net worth/charitable estate planning), not general practice. Therefore … b. This Sunday School Class is NOT going to provide you with any specific legal advice. Either you will research, prepare, and execute your documentation yourselves (without legal counsel) or you will need…
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Responding to Attacks (by Ajith Fernando)
A THREE-PRONGED RESPONSE TO ATTACKS by Ajith Fernando How should Christians who are a minority in their land respond when fellow Christians and churches are attacked? I have thought about it a lot because churches are often attacked in Sri Lanka too. One thing is certain—never should our motivation be one of tit-for-tat or revenge. I want to suggest a three-pronged response. LOVING OUR ENEMIES We live in a region where the understanding of the concept of honour requires that if someone hits us we must ht back. In some countries the so called ‘honour killings’ are even sometimes ignored by the authorities. This is totally different to the Christian…
