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    Yield to the Vehicle without 4WD

    I should’ve gone out and gotten a picture when the entire street was packed with two feet of snow. It’s much more dramatic then. But I’ve been meaning to show you what I think is one of the stranger realities of living in a snowy state when the city doesn’t plow the roads. We end up with THREE TRACKS in the street. Yes. THREE (not four as you might imagine). It’s kind of like those kiddie rides at carnivals where the children get to “steer” the car but REALLY the tracks keep the cars on the road. Except that there are only THREE TRACKS because the CENTER ONE OVERLAPS: Now,…

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    Update on Baby Micah

    Thanks again, for keeping little Micah in your prayers, friends. I just learned that during the surgery yesterday, they found out that the cancer had metastasized, so the doctors ended the surgery and are putting together a treatment plan. Hope you and yours are having a great Christmas! Apart from our sadness and burdened hearts re: little Micah, everything is lovely here.   Yours, Tara B.  

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    Please Pray

    I can’t believe I am putting up another crisis “please pray” post in such a short time, but I am really asking all of you to please, please PRAY for our friend’s little boy who was born last night and has a life-threatening medical concern. He and his mother have been flown to the Children’s hospital in Colorado and his father, brother, and grandparents are driving there right now. The problem may be fixable or it may be fatal. We are praying for the former! Please join with us, won’t you? The father is a beloved staff member at Peacemakers. I just can’t believe we have another Peacemaker staff member…

  • Momma Tara~Parenting

    Encouragement for Mothers Whose Husbands Don’t Attend Church

    This post is a beautiful reminder of why I respect (and enjoy!) Pastor Anyabwile so very much: Encouragement for Mothers Whose Husbands Don’t Attend Church Such humility. Such a high view of women and such a deep appreciation for how God made us to be women, not men. What a mind at work! What a churchman. Most of all—what a Christ-centered, Christ-believing, Christ-proclaiming pastor.   I just love Pastor Anyabwile and I’m grateful for his ministry, not only to his church in the Caymans but to us all through his writing, blogging, and speaking ministry too.  

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    Social Media Do’s and Don’ts

    Steve Cornell directed this post at pastors, but there is wisdom in his words for everyone: When Pastors Update and Tweet (Do’s and Don’ts) Challies pointed me to that post as well as to this great Brian Croft post (again, directed at pastors, but I just loved it even as a layperson!): How Do You Care for Parents of a New Baby in the Hospital   Challies also reviewed a new book on marriage that I’m wondering if Fred would be interested in (even though we’re almost 16 years away from the “awesome” first year of marriage the author references): Put the Seat Down (and other brilliant insights for an…

  • Hope in Suffering

    Why Did I Weep?

    Yesterday, I spent almost the entire 90 minutes of Kirk Thornburg’s funeral weeping. It was embarrassing, really. Not a few polite tears. Weeping. (The unattractive need for vast amounts of tissues accompanying my red-faced, mascara-washed-out-eyes didn’t help things.) In reflecting on why I wept, I realized a few things: – Kirk was the polar opposite of me in so many ways. The memorials before the sermon described him as “kind, content, always even tempered”; “easy to be around”; “patient”; “not easily agitated or annoyed”; one who “never demanded to be the center of attention and never drew the spotlight.” Yeah. Seriously. Could you have a less apt description of ME?…