Stephani

Bearing Burdens Internationally

Reichstag in Berlin

German Parliament Reichstag © sborisov – Fotolia.com  If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world [...]

Practical Practices – A Ministry Mindset

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© rnl – Fotolia.com By Contributing Writer, Stephani This past school year I led discipleship courses for young ladies at a local homeschool academy. A recent assignment required each student to submit a personal question they wanted to discuss during an upcoming class period. One fourteen-year-old girl submitted this question: What are some practical things [...]

Love is Not a Facade: 1 Corinthians 13:6

Two masks

© fotovika – Fotolia.com By Contributing Writer, Stephani Dignity & Love For the past three years my family and I have been attending a wonderful church in Minnesota. I have been stretched and blessed in so many ways by the teaching, worship, fellowship of believers, and the godly women surrounding me. How many times have [...]

Battling Winter Ailments with Lemonade!

Citrus

© flucas – Fotolia.com By Contributing Writer, Stephani Attempting to live a germ-free, completely sanitary, uncontaminated life is a naïve thought in the thick of a cold winter season – especially when family members leave home, later rejoin the family, and then accidentally share their newly-acquired germs! I live at home with my parents and [...]

Singleness – A Season of Suffering?

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By Contributing Writer, Stephani January’s theme at Visionary Womanhood is Suffering. There have been tremendously insightful posts written over the course of this month relating to so many areas of life.  I began thinking about another season of life – singleness. Is singleness a season of suffering?  Singleness Would Be Easy IF Would it be [...]

A New Year to Taste and See

2013

By Contributing Writer, Stephani New Year’s celebrations follow swiftly on the heels of Christmas. I enjoy looking back on a full year of memories and then looking ahead and planning for the next season of life. However, I don’t want to pack up Christmas and move into the New Year as if it is a [...]

Blessing Dad With Time, Helpfulness, and Joy!

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By Contributing Writer, Stephani The sun wouldn’t rise for another hour or two, yet I could hear Dad flick on the light switch. “Good morning,” he said, encouraging me to lift my eyelids and prepare for a chilly day in the branches of a tree. In less than 40 minutes I was dressed, had a [...]

Abiding in Christ… Extraordinary Ordinaries!

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By Contributing Writer, Stephani Today is an ordinary, extraordinary day… The seemingly ordinary… I wake up. I shower. I read my Bible. I study. I work. I eat. I play with little siblings. I run errands. I e-mail. I blog. I cook. I teach. I read. I spend time with my family. I brush my teeth. [...]

Anticipatory Servanthood

Sunny day

By Contributing Writer, Stephani   Our Great Need Gazing on the unending jewels of the gospel transforms the way I think about life, people, problems, and “growing up.” I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. –John 10:11 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay [...]

Joyfully Investing in Younger Siblings’ Education

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By Contributing Writer, Stephani Upon graduation I had four younger siblings. Now I have six. Two of my sisters have graduated high school, another sibling is in junior high, and the three youngest are all under the age of 6! You guessed it… my parents will be homeschooling for years to come… Impacting the Next [...]