Category: Encouragement

Child-Training Boot Camp 2 Begins on Sunday!

I love being outside, but I’m definitely not the athletic type. Gardening is my outdoor “sport” – a nice quiet form of exercise and relaxation that has helped provide food for us over the years while getting me outside to enjoy the sunshine. My very first garden was a whopper. I tried growing just about everything I could find in the Burpee’s seed catalog. I learned as I went, with […]

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Why Good Friday Isn’t Black

I’ve talked to more than one person over the past few days that accidentally referred to Good Friday as Black Friday. We chuckled, and at the same time wondered why Good Friday is good instead of black, and why Black Friday is black instead of good. On this Saturday, wedged between Good Friday and Resurrection Day, I want to share this wonderful post, “WHY WE CALL THE WORST FRIDAY ‘GOOD.’” In […]

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Thirty Days in James 1, Day 18: Illustrations

Every trial we face in life is not only an opportunity to move forward; it’s also an opportunity to go backwards. We can either persevere and move forward toward maturity when we fall into trials, or we can move away from God, away from growth, and away from blessing, as we give in to despair or bitterness. Verse 12, with its promised crown of life for those who love God, […]

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Thirty Days in James 1, Day 17: Love

James opens his letter, helping us see that God wants to bless us with growth and maturity when we encounter trials. “The trying of your faith works patience.” Now, as we reach verse 12, we see once again that God wants to bless us through our trials, this time with future rewards. “…when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to […]

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Thirty Days in James 1, Day 10: Endurance

Trials test our faith. Our response to them shows whether we actually believe and trust God, or if we only say that we do. They help us see what we really believe. But God is not like one of those teachers who makes a test as difficult as possible to see how many people will fail it. He’s not giving us a test to see if we pass or fail. […]

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30 Days in James 1, Day 1: Let’s Begin!

Are you ready to spend the next thirty days (or more, if you choose) in James 1? I’m excited! We have so much to look forward to as we study together! When Jesus became a man and lived a perfect life, dying on the cross to pay the penalty for sin that we could never pay, and rising from the dead to conquer sin and death, He accomplished far more […]

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New Study on James 1 Starts November 1!

I have a very vivid memory of stepping into the shower — my alone-space where maybe I could think two coherent thoughts in a row — in total despair over some end-of-my-rope issue with some under-age-five child. He (or possibly she, I don’t remember which child it was, but I can make a pretty good guess) was clearly resistant to any approach we had tried while addressing his (or her) […]

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Unless the Lord Builds the House

We’ve been trying to build a house for two years — two years of ups and downs, trees cut down that no one wanted to help us haul out, a road that devoured over a hundred loads of gravel, a water line that kept breaking and finally had to be replaced, the rainiest winter in years for rainy Oregon, dozens of new houses being completed on every side of our […]

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The Winner of Our Giveaway!

Sharon with comment #494 is our winner, with her suggestion to study Esther in a future Busy Mamas Bible study. Congratulations, Sharon, and thanks for your suggestion! Thank you all so much for your feedback! Thanks for your kind words, the encouragement you offer me as you share how God is working in your lives through His Word, your suggestions for improvements, and your ideas for other passages to study. […]

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Thirty Days in John 15, Day 35: What’s Next?

Abiding in Christ includes His Word abiding in us. If we don’t know the Word, we won’t really know Jesus — who He is, what He has done and what He continues to do, what He has promised — and we won’t know how to respond to all that God sovereignly brings into our lives. That’s why i’m driven to keep writing Busy Mamas Bible Studies, no matter how crazy it […]

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