When I was a freshman in high school, I was a complete and utter jerk. All I wanted was to fit in with “the cool crowd.” I let a boy I didn’t even like or respect kiss me just so I could wear his football jersey on a game Friday. I gossiped and giggled with girls who were mean—just because I wanted them to not be mean to me. And one day, one terrible day that still fills me with regret, huddling on a school bus, laughing that wicked laugh that only comes from a soil that has been fertilized with the stench of rotting, dead, vile words, I said…

I hope that I can live like this man. We don’t call them The Greatest Generation for nothin’ …  (HT: Challies) (Oh! And for the first time in my life, I actually watched the little ad that I could have skipped AND I BOUGHT (well, my sister bought) the item advertised: Goldie Blox and the Spinning Machine. It seemed like a perfect fit for my daughters who are SO into math, science, design, and engineering these days. I’ve been looking and looking for things to inspire and delight them in these spatial, “hard-science”, quantitative areas that I am so particularly weak in.) 

I’m SO sorry—I just learned that my blog software has been blocking all of your comments. Yeek! No wonder we’ve had even LESS comments than normal these days. Would you PRETTY PLEASE try one more time to Enter our Family’s Current WIN FREE STUFF GIVEAWAY by clicking through and leaving a comment on this post? I would be ever so grateful. If you enter today (Saturday, November 30, 2013)—OR if you try and let me know if you’ve been foiled again. (Grrrrr.) I’ll give you TWO entries to (hopefully) make up for the inconvenience that my broken software has caused you.   Thanks, friends! G’nite, Tara B. 

      I can’t believe that Crossway is giving away Paul Tripp and Tim Lane’s (phenomenal!!) book, How People Change. But they are!   This book would be in my list of the top ten books that have changed my life. I strongly urge you to get it now.     

I was searching for an old blog entry to respond to a conflict coaching request and I came across this old Kevin DeYoung article: Distinguishing Marks of a Quarrelsome Person It is so convicting! But so helpful too. Let me tempt you to click through to read the entire article but summarizing just a few points. You are a quarrelsome person if:   – You defend every conviction with the same degree of intensity. You don’t talk about secondary issues, because there are no secondary issues. – You are quick to speak and slow to listen. You rarely ask questions and when you do it is to accuse or to continue prosecuting…

As you may recall from an earlier post, the leaders at Peacemaker Ministries are graciously and generously trying to help our family with some extreme medical costs we are facing (over $10,000 in cashflow needs!) by allowing us to earn revenue from an extreme, EXTREME sale on all of their video series.  I cannot commend these resources to you more highly. I have personally gone through the Ken Sande Small Group Study numerous times and when it is offered again at our church (as I’m sure it will be), I will be quick to sign up again. I need all of the reminders I can get and Ken is, of course, a great…

(Since I couldn’t both give the keynote and LiveBlog the keynote, I’ve done my best to serve you by including the video of what I actually said and my notes—of what I meant to say—in the LiveBlog replay mode. I hope these are a blessing to you.)   ** Please note: Because I was the speaker, this LiveBlog is nowhere near the level of my normal LiveBlogs. I hope you will give them a read even if this one isn’t a great fit for you. Thanks so much! ** 

Bishop Mouneer Anis – Peacemaker Conference General Session 3 

At next year’s PCA Women’s Leadership Conference, I will have the joy of co-teaching a workshop with (the brilliant and wonderful!) Ellen Dykas of Harvest USA. Interestingly, we will not be teaching on biblical peacemaking (me) or bringing the power of Christ to people broken by sexual sin (Ellen). Instead, we will be talking about intentional friendship, especially for women in leadership/public ministry positions. This is our working description: Seeking (and Giving!) Intentional Feedback: Many Scriptures call us to seek out and listen to wise counsel, but few of us actually do this on a regular basis. It is hard to confront (and be confronted). No one enjoys having their weaknesses…