• Uncategorized

    Let your tiredness be an occasion to increase your joy in the Lord!

    When preparing for our summer women’s study on disordered affections this week, I came across this classic essay by our family’s dear friend, Ajith Fernando. If you are feeling weary tonight (as I am!), I hope it is a blessing and help to you as it has been to me. G’nite, Tara B. **** COMBATING WEARINESS WITH ALTERNATE FORMS OF EXERCISE (Written after a short visit to Ukraine when I preached 13 times in four days) by Ajith Fernando A few decades ago the cricket-loving world was shocked when a popular and brilliant English cricketer said that the pressure of having to perform according to people’s expectations and the resulting stress often…

  • Redeeming Church Conflicts

    It is naive to deny that professing Christians are quite capable of gossip, innuendo, spin and outright lies when engaged in conflict …

    Many thanks to our friend, Dr. Tim Lane (formerly of Westminster/CCEF, currently serving as President of the Institute for Pastoral Care) for his insights and endorsements of Redeeming Church Conflicts: Redeeming Group Conflicts I particularly appreciated this note: “It goes without saying that Christians are quite capable of gossip, innuendo, spin and outright lies when engaged in conflict. To deny that professing Christians are capable of this is naive. When you combine group conflict with perceived hurt, character scrutiny or doctrinal rectitude, the terrain can be challenging to navigate …”  Amen, brother. And thanks again! Tara B. PS If you’re not yet familiar with Tim Lane, I hope you will click through to his website…

  • Redeeming Church Conflicts

    Why do adults throw tantrums over seemingly trivial provocations?

    There is an excellent article by my friend, spiritual father, and co-author, Dave Edling, over on our Redeeming Church Conflicts blog: What Rules Govern Your Interactions with Others? (Especially in Your Church Conflict) In it, he cites some (perfectly fine) ideas from a Wall Street Journal article about business communication. But then he goes further—just as the gospel calls us to do. Let me tempt you with just a brief excerpt … “If your goal is to simply not feel so bad about yourself following your behavior the researchers have some good coping tips for you: Picture a scenario that is likely to trigger your anger, and imagine a calm…

  • Logic for Children

    Specific Resources for Teaching Children Logic

    In response to a question on Facebook (Hi, EH! 🙂 !), I was trying to think through exactly what resources I have used for teaching logic to children. For my 5th and 6th graders this year, I was basically winging it (creating handouts and outlines based on where our discussions took us each week and based on old logic textbooks that a college professor gave me in the late 1980’s—does that make me sound ancient or what?!). But we were also helped by: This (wonderful! free!) “Thou Shalt Not Commit Logical Fallacies” poster. (The creator of which contacted me this spring because he is doing a TED Talk on teaching…