Well … I’ve had a first. Sunday after church, our little “friend/prayer” group went SHOOTING. Clay pigeons at the rod & gun club … Lessons by deacon Vowell … Cheered on by our men … We did it! I have to say … I truly thought that the statistical possibility of us hitting ANYTHING (other than AIR) was like, ZERO … But unbelievably, I did hit two of the clay pigeons. In fact, I completely obliterated, annihilated, turned-back-into-dust one of ’em:   (Here I am “explaining” that it REALLY helps if you KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN while shooting …) By the way, how about that cutie-bear Fred shooting too? 😉…

Finally. One week later. A WHOLE NIGHT’S SLEEP!!!! I went to bed at 7:30PM and didn’t wake up until 7:10AM!!!! A typical “long” night’s sleep for me is six hours. Maybe seven. But almost 12 hours of sleep??? Oh oh oh … I can’t TELL you have different I feel now. Thank God for rest. I am so grateful.   “Let the light of your face shine upon us, O LORD. You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.” Psalm 4:6-8 Blessed Thursday, all!…

Just found World on the Web and I wanted to be sure that you all knew about it. Even more Andree Seu! Wow! We are a blessed lot. Thanks, World! And thanks, Andree! You minister so much grace to us all. Happy Friday– Love,  Tara B. PS In Andree’s recent post, one of the commenters (“Joel Mark”) put in two FANTASTIC Bonhoeffer quotes: ‘You can only learn what obedience is by obeying. It is no use asking questions; for it is only through obedience that you can come to learn the truth.’ Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The Cost of Discipleship (1937). ‘Realization is not our goal, participation is.’ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together.…

My friend Sarah Joy just OOZES wisdom. I love interacting with her because I’m always encouraged AND I learn stuff too. Recently she made a passing comment in an email that I don’t think she’d mind me sharing (let me know if you do, Sarah Joy! 🙂 ) … Reflecting on the HOORAY-ness aspect of my touching yeast (she was the friend who emailed me the pretzel recipe), she mentioned how she is learning more and more to say, instead of “I don’t know how to do that!” … “Can you teach me?” She said it’s a great way to start friendships with older women in the church who are…

A good day. Many reasons (as always) to give thanks to God. 10:30PM. Just back to the room and the alarm is set for 6:00AM–so I must run. Thank you for praying!   Love love love, Tara B.  

Next week, Fred will teach a workshop on “Worship Wars” at the Peacemaker Conference. I would imagine that the title pretty much says it all, but just to be explicitly clear … his workshop will discuss common conflicts related to worship styles/genres in churches. I was thinking of his workshop and praying for him in particular last night because I was overwhelmed with gratitude and happiness for how SWEET the corporate worship I am experiencing at this women’s conference is … AND how sweet the corporate worship I experienced last weekend in Florida was. Let me take just a moment to contrast them for you: – This weekend in California,…

Oh! I wish I had written down her exact words this morning at our prayer/friend group … but after I waxed on & on (who me? verbal? date mouth? “Why 5 words when 500 will clearly do” Tara?) about how God was blessing me with a renewed embracing of some relatively recent suffering in my life … (How, although I never would have chosen what happened; how being so long in a place of physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering brought me to my lowest place of utter despair; how HARD it was and how NECESSARY it was to GRIEVE … But honestly? I’m having such a renewed sense that I…

Thank you, Florida Gulfstream PresWIC (Women in the Church), for a wonderful, wonderful weekend! I was truly blessed and encouraged to spend time with each one of you. And many thanks to Lake Osborne Presbyterian Church too! I rarely get to attend worship services on weekends when I travel … and even though my flight schedule only allowed me to be there for the first hour of your service (SORRY to miss your sermon, Pastor Downing!) … thanks to the wonderful liturgy, hymns, confessions, and prayers, I was truly edified even by just the beginning of your service. In fact … sitting in your church this morning, I was overwhelmed…

I just spent a few hours with a remarkable woman (and her two wonderful children!) and I just have to say: Thank You, God, for answering prayers that I don’t even have enough faith (or awake hours or diligence?) to pray. Seriously–I was so blessed to spend time with this woman … AND … we MAY get to work together on a project to serve our little local church too! (Shhhhhhhhhh … have to wait on that one until we pray some and talk with our hubbies and they pray some and we check with some people in authority too. 🙂 ) But still … Even just the POSSIBILITY of…

(Originally posted in 2005–Sorry to be out of Internet contact for a few days.) Last week I completely lost it. Internally at least – I was just freaking out. (Funny – I’m sort of feeling that way this morning too.) Anyway, things were swirling & swirling, it seemed like no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t get on top of anything. I knew how I should have been (calm, happy, joyful, hopeful, godly, warm, loving, patient …), but I could barely breathe! My failures only intensified my messed-up heart. So what did I do? I grabbed my husband’s worship music folder and organized it. Yup. Right there in…