Fred said that Nancy Guthrie’s keynote was his favorite one from the Peacemaker Conference—so that’s a ringing endorsement if you ask me! (‘Course, I think pretty highly of my hubby.) Here it is for you to enjoy (and learn from and be encouraged by—man! that’s a lot of phrases ending with a preposition, my AP English teacher, Dr. Charmian Poe, would not be pleased …): Hope as You Trust in Him    

In his post over on our RedeemingChurchConflicts.com blog, Dave Edling writes a powerful piece regarding today’s infamously tragic day: 9/11 and the Twins We check each others draft posts (a help, by the way, which I am extremely grateful for!), and today he just would not let me say “my part” in his post. He (dear, sweet, humble man that he is) thinks my words are too flattering or self-serving. I can respect his opinion, of course! And I’m happy to honor his request. But he said I could POST AWAY on my own blog. And so I shall. I assume everyone over the age of five or six has…

PAIN DOES ITS WORK, AND GRACE TAKES OVER Written by Ajith Fernando while travelling abroad I left home on a trip abroad feeling very discouraged and hurt because of some problems. This is normal in the Christian life, and these are emotions I must not deny. Sorrow and pain must be permitted to do their work. They – deepen our commitment and mould our character, especially teaching us patience; – lead us to confess sin and show the fruit of repentance; – prepare us to face greater suffering; – bring us closer to suffering humanity; – make us more effective ministers; and – increase our joy by causing us to…

Last week, Sophia asked me if it hurt to die. I told her that to the best of my understanding, sometimes it did and sometimes it didn’t. For example, our friend died recently in a head-on collision with a semi-truck. I believe that one moment Kirk was alive and the next moment, he was in glory. His injuries were so catastrophic that I simply cannot imagine that he felt any physical pain. But we also have two friends who have valiantly fought cancer for years and who just recently shared with us that they are entering into hospice. So unless the Lord chooses to work a medical miracle, they will…

I still think that his booklet, Pleasures, is one of the best things Dr. Powlison has ever written. Today I was reviewing his three broad categories of difficulties that tempt us toward guilty pleasures: 1. You are bored, lonely, with nothing to do. 2. You are stressed, frustrated and worn out. 3. You are hurt, betrayed, and treated unfairly. Perhaps you’ve lost someone or something you loved. Any or all of these situations can tempt us to sin. We “grab for anything that will protect, soothe, comfort, or save us” because we are seeking to escape pain. How do we know when a pleasure has become a “guilty” pleasure or…

(Don’t forget to have Finlandia playing in your heart as you read the words! 🙂 ) Be Still My Soul “Be still, my soul, the Lord is on thy side; Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain. Leave to thy God to order and provide; In every change He, faithful, will remain. Be still, my soul, thy best, thy heavenly friend Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.   Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on When we shall be forever with the Lord. When disappointment, grief and fear are gone, Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored. Be still, my soul: when change and tears are…

I am praying daily for Nancy Guthrie and for all of the speakers at this fall’s Amazing Grace 360 conference. Here is just one example of her excellent, Christ-centered ministry. It seems particularly on-point to my blogs this week: Is Your Church a Safe Place for Sad People? Learning to Walk with Each Other Through Loss How blessed we are to learn from such a gifted and insightful teacher! Hope you have a restful and enjoyable weekend— Yours,  Tara B. PS Nancy is also a keynote speaker at this year’s Peacemaker Conference: Hope in Brokenness. If you have the ability to be in Orlando in September for this conference, I’m…

One of the strangest parts of this (low energy? depressed? just “off”?) season I am currently walking through has been my inability to find words to describe it. Regular readers of this blog have no doubt noticed that because, well, I haven’t had words to blog. Fred has noticed it because I simply cannot describe my experience. I’m there. Present with the children and him. Yet something (difficult? painful? distracting?) is churning away inside of me. In one way, it’s like there is a wall around me and I can see my real life; I’m going through most of the motions of my real life. But there is a disconnect.…

A great read by Pastor Tchividjian: Where to Look When You’re in Trouble Here is just a snippet to encourage you to click through and read the entire post:   “When you’re on the brink of despair–looking into the abyss of darkness, experiencing a dark-night of the soul–turning to the internal quality of your faith will bring you no hope, no rescue, no relief. Every internal answer will collapse underneath you. Turning to the external object of your faith, namely Christ and his finished work on your behalf, is the only place to find peace, re-orientation, and help. The gospel always directs you to something, Someone, outside you instead of…

Today my wonderful sister reminded me of an important truth … When someone is struggling with depression or any other major life challenge, it is not a good time to be making large-scale evaluations of anything. For me, specifically, this means that I really need to put a halt to my (despairing) self-evaluations as to the state of my marriage, parenting, service at church, relationships, etc. Why? Because I’m not really thinking straight right now. The (physical, spiritual, emotional) crises of the moment are fairly all-encompassing and I simply don’t have what it takes to grade my own report card as it were. So. This is a good day to…