Reflections From the Road

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My recent retirement prompted a personal move from Illinois to my home state of Wisconsin—which meant my awesome nine-year-old quarter horse mare and I also moved to a new barn and horse trainer. All of these changes resulted in prepping, practicing, and praying for success on a brand-new horse show circuit this year. We agreed to an aggressive schedule of shows that would take us from Wisconsin to Oklahoma City for our first event; onto Las Vegas for our second show—The Silver Dollar Circuit—and then to Scottsdale, AZ for our final event, the Sun Circuit. This was my first series…

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Dreamy Ideas

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Where do you get your ideas? We writers know, love, and sometimes hate this age-old question. My Jo Oliver thriller series started with a desire to write compelling stories of triumph, choice, and the power of emergent faith and community. Each story was fueled by a strong character, a plot idea, or an idea of what justice might look like via a twisty series of events. And while I am playing around with my next installment, I find myself distracted by new dreams. For the past year or so, I’ve been toying with a new story that I finally had…

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A Conversation with CAN Prayer Warrior Donn Taylor

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Happy Friday CAN Members! Catherine Finger here with the great privilege of interviewing CAN Member Donn Taylor. Donn is a prayer warrior and serves our CAN members through his tireless prayers and encouragement. His faithful organization of the weekly online CAN prayer group blesses us all. When he’s not praying, Donn can be found inspiring others in person and via his daily Facebook posts. His wisdom, warmth and good humor is revealed in a new way today. Thank you for joining us today, Donn! And thank you for your tireless service of prayer over the members of CAN and encouragement. We…

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Subsequent Inspiration

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Subsequent Inspiration by Linda Rondeau “The remarkable thing about spiritual initiative is that the life and power come after we ‘get up and get going.’ God does not give us overcoming life—He gives us life as we overcome.” — Oswald Chambers Chambers wrote these words a long time ago. How did he know I’d be so tired today I couldn’t think straight? How am I supposed to inspire others when I can’t get inspired about what to make for supper? There are days I think inspiration has permanently left the building.   I’m a cancer survivor. Chemo and radiation treatments left me…

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New Release: Daily Wisdom for Women 2018 Devotional Collection

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Daily Wisdom for Women 2018 Devotional Collection by Barbour Publishing Month of November written by Darlene Franklin Release date: November 1, 2017 ISBN: 9781683222118   About the book:  Experience an intimate connection to your heavenly Father with the Daily Wisdom for Women devotional collection. Featuring a powerful devotional reading and prayer for every day of 2018,this beautiful volume provides inspiration and encouragement for your soul. In these pages you’ll find comfort, challenge, and spiritual blessing as you experience an intimate connection with the Savior all 365 days of 2018.   About the CAN contributing author:  Best-selling hybrid author Darlene Franklin’s greatest claim to…

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A Weak Writer’s Prayer

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Bob Hostetler here, offering another prayer for writers: Abba, I am a weak writer: insecure, inadequate, in over my head. But you chose Ehud because of his weakness. You used him, not to mention Moses, David, Jeremiah, Paul, and others (though I did just mention them; see what I mean?). So grant me the faith to believe that you can choose me and use me too.

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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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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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Make Reasonable Resolutions

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Hello from Kathy Collard Miller, writing from the beautiful desert near Palm Springs, California. It’s the New Year and I’m going to have to remember to write down 2017. And along with a new year often come the traditional resolutions. I’d like to encourage you to think a little differently about those. For instance, have you ever said things like: I’ll never get angry again.  I’ll always show love toward that person who is unlovable.  I’ll never be discontent again.  I’ll always be joyful in every circumstance.  I’ll have my devotions every day? It’s easy to think that such determination will…

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Advent Family Project You’ll Love

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Hello from Kathy Collard Miller in the Southern California desert near Palm Springs where it’s finally cooling down. I’m looking forward to our “winter” that is never a winter wonderland, but still wonderful. Years ago I created an Advent family activity I called, “Box of Blessings.” It helped our family’s thoughts focus on the true meaning of Christmas. Here are the directions to create it. Wrap a large box with Christmas paper, wrapping the lid separate. Gather 24 visual aids, wrap each one individually, write out tags for each with an object lesson, Scripture and discussion question. (On each tag,…

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