A Creative Challenge

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A Creative Challenge: Try Something New By Jeanne Dennis Life for me has been changing rapidly. After 11 years of part-time caregiving and the deaths of several family members and friends, I’m finally coming up for air. I’m able to enjoy writing, art, cooking, and music again. One writing project especially challenges and excites me. My dad used to journal often and made me promise to do something with his musings. He died three years ago, but his journals and notes had been missing for five years, ever since my sister died. We thought they had been discarded accidentally with…

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Survival Kit for Desperate Places

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Dianne Barker here with encouragement for your journey. I don’t love disappointments, delays, or detours. Life would be sweet if we could just go our well-planned way, checking off finished projects one by one. But unwelcome interruptions are reality. I wasted a lot of life fretting and grumbling, allowing circumstances to disturb my peace and steal my joy. Not any more!

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Getting through the Storm

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Dianne Barker here, wondering. Where are you? It’s a beautiful, sunny day in Tennessee where I live, but last week storms battered our community. Maybe you’re in a sunny life-place. Or not. I’ve come through many life storms myself. Through is the optimum word.

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Blooms Bursting Out

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Blooms Bursting Out by Mary Hamilton Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement. Spring Is Sprung. So goes the saying I remember from my youth. What glorious sights springtime brings us. Masses of flowers blossoming in our yards, along our highways, and over our meadows and hillsides to delight our eyes and scent the air. The season of Spring is well named. Hope and encouragement springs into our hearts and souls with the sight of blossoms changing the barren landscape of winter. Our spirits are renewed. Our sense of expectation rekindled. Our creative energy replenished. Everywhere we look, we see signs…

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How Many Loaves Do You Have?

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Dianne Barker here spreading encouragement. I’m wondering…what’s in your hands? Only a few loaves of bread and some small fish? You’re thinking…these won’t be enough to feed a hungry crowd. In your hands, inadequate. But in Jesus’ hands, more than enough.

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One Gear—Forward!

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Dianne Barker here spreading encouragement. A television documentary on ship building surprised me with inspiration. The narrator said that massive vessel under construction had only one gear—forward.

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People Pleaser, Me? Couldn’t Be!

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Hello from Kathy Collard Miller in Southern California near Palm Springs. The weather is perfect this time of year and all our rains have brought out the wildflowers. I’m a People Pleaser. It’s hard to admit sometimes but the truth is, I’m motivated to please others for a variety of reasons and one main one is thinking I should never say “no.” Why? What is my thinking? 1. What will they think of me if I’m not the Super Woman who can say “yes” to everything? 2. If I don’t say “yes,” then I’ll miss out on the fun! 3….

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She Was Just an Interruption

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Dianne Barker here, spreading encouragement. I must ask—do you ever feel like giving up? Are you tired of the hassle…tired of spinning your wheels…tired of feeling stuck? Facing a bleak future and overcome by hopelessness, have you muttered to yourself, Why bother?

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Afraid God Won’t Help?

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Hello from Kathy Collard Miller, enjoying the beautiful winter in the desert near Palm Springs, California. During challenging times, we can begin to believe that God won’t help us. At times, He’s silent or seems to delay. We become afraid and hesitant to trust. Will God really come through for us? Hebrews 13:5-6 assures us God is our helper: “be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper;
 I will not fear; 
what can man do to me?” If we don’t believe and trust that…

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Search for Treasures in Unexpected Places

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Dianne Barker here, doing my favorite thing—spreading encouragement. I’ve chosen my verse for 2017. “…Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it” (Malachi 3:10b).

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