• Uncategorized

    Unlimited copyright is going away for sure

    Just wanted to let you all know that Fred told me late last night that Peacemakers has made their decision and the copyright allowing you to print or xerox unlimited copies of the 104-page study guide for my DVD video series is for sure going away. In the future, you will have to buy the guides from Peacemakers and Fred is estimating that the cost will be around $8 or $9/ea. Of course, if you already own the original version or if you buy a copy before my remaining stock is exhausted, you’re set for life. The unlimited copyright of the original version will hold even after the Peacemakers version…

  • Avoiding Inadvertent Retraumatization,  Child Protection / Abuse in the Church,  Trauma Recovery

    How NOT to Respond to a Friend Who Tells You She Has Been Assaulted

    I am always honored to write for the PCA Women’s Blog, enCourage, and this post was hard–but no exception: When Your Friend Is Raped or Beaten We have a strict word count–so this article doesn’t have all of the biblical citations and encouraging quotes that I wanted to share. We also have a very limited length for a title–and this one was hard to do. What I really wanted to call it was: “Oh My Stars! Have You Ever Had Your Friend Tell You Something SO Hard and SO Painful for Her that You Were Momentarily Frozen??!! You know … you want to wrap your arms around her, but you’re not sure physical touch…

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  • Hope in Suffering,  Redeeming Church Conflicts,  Relationships & Peacemaking,  Surviving a Childhood of Neglect and Abuse

    Boundaries? Or Wisdom + Love? (Careful! You cannot raise these issues casually.)

    Since my current life situation is giving me some SERIOUS temptations to move in the direction of self-protection; and since I KNOW that any level of overly-self-focus is never a good thing, I turned to an oldie but goodie article this evening to help reorient my heart … Ed Welch’s (excellent!) writing on “Boundaries” in the Spring 2004 Journal of Biblical Counseling is a total keeper. I re-read it often and I thought you might enjoy a few of my notes too. Here are just a few highlights: – Even “Christian” books will encourage you to “set a personal boundary” and “just say no.” But is that how we should think about such…

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  • Uncategorized

    HUGE Sale on all books and videos: $10/ea for 10 Days (with FREE Shipping to the USA)

    In honor of the TENTH anniversary of my first video series: Living the Gospel in Relationships, and to try to get the word out a big on my second (ASL Translated) video series: Becoming Who You Already Are, Fred and I are offering a HUGE sale on all of my books and video series: $10 for any book or video series for 10 days (with FREE shipping to the USA)! Quantities are limited–especially for the Spanish version of Peacemaking Women and for Peacemaking Women itself. But we want to bless as many people as possible, so please consider helping to get the word out. Oh. And if you use ASL or you have…

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  • Child Protection / Abuse in the Church,  Momma Tara~Parenting

    Child Abuse in the Church: Justice Can be Grace

    I greatly appreciated this link from Challies and I urge you to read it and listen to its counsel:  Safeguarding Against Abuse in the Church The only thing I would add is that it’s never too young to (age-appropriately) begin talking with children about these things. Let me give you an example … When Sophia was little, my assigned task at our little homeschooling co-op was theology and parties. (Great job I have, eh?!) One Christmas Co-Op Party sticks out in my mind because that week, a dear friend had shared with me more details of how she was sexually abused for years by her own father, pastor, and other church leaders (many of whom are in…

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  • Actually Setting Your House in Order

    It’s Time. Name Guardians, Sign Your Powers of Attorney, and Get Your Basic Estate Planning Done (!).

    Tonight I will meet with some friends to help them finish a task they’ve been meaning to do for, well, years: Get a Will Name Guardians for Our Children Figure Out What the Heck Powers of Attorney & Living Wills Are and Maybe Get One? Or Two? Maybe some of you can relate … You’re adults. You have young children. You know you should have those basic estate planning documents, but oh! Those pesky lawyers are so expensive. And you’re just barely living month-to-month financially, so what does it really matter anyway? It. Matters. Not just because you have young children–but because so many of the financial medical issues that you may be facing one…

  • Uncategorized

    Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile’s Comments on the Peacemaker Women’s Study (My DVD Series)

    I was looking through Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile’s blog today for an article on leadership that I wanted to re-read and I stumbled upon two posts he did a few years ago on my video series: The Gospel and Peacemaking Women The Gospel and Peacemaking Women Part 2 I was so blessed by his comments and I thought they might be helpful to you if you are trying to think through whether this study might be a good fit for your church’s women. (Plus, honestly, our family could use a little income to help with some upcoming, kinda scary, bills so it’d be a blessing to us if you click on…

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  • Relationships & Peacemaking

    The Person May be Doing their Part Behind the Scenes

    I very much appreciated this recent article by Pastor Kevin DeYoung: Say Something Right Now Or Else In it, he talks about the pressure that people in public positions sometimes have to comment on, well, everything—doctrine, politics, biblical manhood/womanhood, education choices, organic food, recycling, cats versus dogs, tea versus coffee, whether The West Wing was a terrible show or a great show. (OK. OK. I’m making 99% of those examples up—Pastor DeYoung’s were only the serious ones. But hopefully you get the point.) This is actually a topic that I have tried to come to a prayerful, principled position on—especially as regards my opinions on certain Christian authors and speakers.…

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  • PCA LiveBlogs

    “I felt nervous and laughed as my husband led our family devotions. And he never led them again.” Susan Shepherd at the PCA Women’s Leadership Conference

    I know that many of you are not on Twitter and it may feel daunting to click on the “replay” mode of the LiveBlogs, so here are some of my favorite lines from the first plenary session of today’s PCA Women’s Leadership Conference. (These are the lines I tweeted @tarabarthel @pcacep #pcalt.) BTW–The last two quotes (and the title of this post) are like a punch in my gut. I gasp at the honesty and rawness of what Susan Shepherd shared. She could only do so if she were assured of her forgivenss and her standing in Christ. And she is! I truly believe that the ripples of her testimony will…

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  • Uncategorized

    COPD and Heart Failure

    It’s been so good to be here in Michigan with my mom (Kathy) and stepdad (Charlie). I’ve been able to hear first-hand from her medical team what is going on and that, coupled with my copious note taking, is freeing them up from having to keep track of all sorts of numbers and details and report back to other family members. In addition, while Charlie could head home and catch up on some much-needed sleep, I had the privilege of helping my mom through a shower, getting her tucked into clean clothes and linens, do her hair, etc. etc. So that’s great. Overall, the immediate crisis seems to have passed.…