Tina The Storyteller

It's been way too long since I've done a Thankful Thursday! I'm here today though 😃 I'm thankful for my amazing husband. He's wonderful! We've been reading Lead Your Family Like Jesus lately. He's been such a trouper with that. Love that man! I'm thankful for my daughter. She seems to be growing up more and more lately. I often pray that I'm giving her all that's required of me. I can't wait to see what each new day holds for the two of us. I'm thankful for hard work with good results. We did quite a bit of hard work this past weekend and the yard looks pretty darn good because of it. No more crazy tree in our side yard and I think the terrible bushes have all been evicted. Even ended up finding some lavender that I thought for sure was dead and gone. Now to see if the butterfly plant will recover. I'm thankful for personal worship and for family worship. Two things that have been coming to the forefront lately. It's tough to mak...

It seems like I've been running into grace a lot lately. I guess that's what happens when you read things like Romans and 1 Corinthians at the same time. My take is that Paul felt grace every day, so it was something that was as vital to him as air is to most folks. I can see though, after being hit over the head with it a few times lately that grace should be right up there with air for me, too. You see, I'm a student of the law. I've been studying the law for as long as I can remember, not the ones set up by any particular government, no the law of "do right." As a little girl, I preferred to do right instead of deal with the consequences of doing wrong. I loved do right laws, so I learned as many as I could and obeyed ALL of them. It has even persisted into my adulthood. For example, in South or North Dakota, there are areas of no speed limit or if there is, it's something ludicrious like 80. I went about 70 through there, tops. My do right laws often...

Insourcing by Randy Pope is a call to discipleship. Pope has spent the last forty plus years discipling people with a very specific method. A few years ago, he introduced the idea wholesale to his church so that more folks could participate in the leadership part of what he has been doing. In the process of taking something personal and making it corporate, Pope learned somethings. Insourcing is Pope's lessons learned and his manifesto for how we can become fishers of men. One of the statements I liked the best in the book was, this is the way we do it, it might not be what's best for you or the best at all, but it works; find your own way that works. Within the book is a fictional account of life on life missional discipleship to show how the leader interacts with the group, as well as how personal worship can be displayed in a group setting. Pope does a good job of laying out an argument for life on life discipleship. The book refers to the curriculum that his church ha...

Have you seen the KFC commercial where the guys are hanging out, talking about how good the chicken is and then one guy starts freaking out, yelling "I ATE THE BONES! I ATE THE BONES!"? Go ahead and watch it if you haven't already I share that because this last week, Hannah wanted me to make some boneless chicken with crust like that. I remembered something that I had pinned and made before. It was easy, skinless, boneless and tasty. The recipe is from Our Life Uncommon. You can find the link to it here . It was a great success. In the middle of dinner I started screaming "I ATE THE BONES!" My only advice would be to not cook it for the whole forty minutes. If doing tenders, 30 maybe sufficient. Flipping is critical, regardless of how long you cook them. I think I might try it with flax meal instead of flour for a super low carb dish next time, but I don't feel too bad about the little bit of flour that is on this. Hope you enjoy!

If you've been to my blog before or if you know me, then you know that I'm reading a book. The one that I'm reading right now is Insourcing by Randy Pope. It's about discipleship. One thing in particular that I'm interested in implementing right now is 21 days of personal worship. Sounds pretty easy, right? Well, here is the catch, if you miss a day, you have to start over from the beginning. In order to give you some guidance, I'm going to share with you a journal entry. It should take about 5-15 minutes, depending on how long you linger. I guess with that concept, it could even take much longer. I see the purpose of this time as a pause in your day to check in with God, to see where your heart is and where it could be. This is not something that I expect you to share with the world, it's a PERSONAL worship challenge. Even though there may be a group of us doing it, you will have to find the time that works best for you and give it ago. The best part is tha...