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Welcome!
The Garden Post is designed to share news and information specifically for women, offer spiritual encouragement and insight, and provide resources and connections for wise living.
I welcome the opportunity to connect with you and want to hear from you. Stop by my BLOG periodically or give me a call. Email me any time with a question or suggestion.
I'm thankful for the gifts of friendship and want to share them. Do you think about the unique role you have as a woman in your home, your community? Do you have a question about your faith? About God?
Let's connect today... Louann
Louann Rodgers
lkrodgers@comcast.net
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Women's Bible Study Begins This Week!
ALL are welcome. Download Study Choices.
Talking with God Study Track -- please have Session 1 of "Lord, Teach Me to Pray" completed.
Parenting and Prayer study Track -- please have Week 1 of "The 5 Love Languages of Teens" completed.
Join us as we study God's Word for wisdom, grace and understanding. Explore answers to tough questions. Share in dynamic discussion of spiritual truths and insight. Connect with other women and enjoy meaningful
friendships. . .
Choose from 3 weekly study sessions: Tuesday Evenings, 7-9p.m. and Wednesday and Thursday Mornings, 9:15-11:30 a.m.
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Your Life Simplfied
1) Disconnect from technology...set boundaries for when you check email and voicemail.
2) Lessen information overload... limit the number of web sites you visit & reduce the number of publications you receive.
3) Reduce the time your spend watching TV... no need to elaborate here!
4) Eliminate a good amount of the paper you receive. Reduce junk mail by writing to:
Mail Preference Service
DMA
P.O. Box 9008
Farmingdale, NY 11735-9008
5) Schedule a private sanctuary... reserve moments of rest and solitude to be quiet before The Lord. Know that He will see the desires of your heart. |
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Home School Support
Meeting at the home of
Elaine Dadd, 456 Caswallen Drive, West Chester
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Prayer for a New Year
May God make your year a blessed one.
Not by shielding you from all sorrows and pain,
but by strengthening you to bear it, as it comes;
Not by making your path easy,
but by making you sturdy to travel any path;
Not by taking hardships from you,
but by taking fear from your heart;
Not by granting you unbroken sunshine,
but by keeping your face bright, even in the shadows;
May God's love, peace, hope and joy bless you for the year ahead. |
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525,600 minutes...
"How do you measure the year in a life?"
These simple words from the popular theme song from the musical "Rent" strike a chord with all of us at this reflective time in a new year. We turn the calendar with thoughts of fresh starts, new beginnings and vigorous resolutions.
There's something about new beginnings that inspire us to pursue the best. A fresh journal, a newborn child, a new home, a new relationship, a blank canvas... All waiting to be filled with our thumbprint that says we were here, and that we left something memorable behind.
But despite our human attempts to make marks in time, we know that each of us has been blessed by this universal gift -- each new day, each precious moment... 525,600 minutes, a year in a life... unearned and undeserved, ordered by the Master Creator and measured and numbered before we are born.
Each moment a gift of grace.
The old year passes, and like each moment of every day we are renewed by the mercies of God. Every past is past, but the good news is that every minute is a fresh beginning because of grace. It's humbling to set our eyes on Christ, while the forgiveness of God washes over each step that we've taken before. His Words of forgiveness and grace gently nudge us along.
This year I pray that His message of grace will continue to move you along. That you'll stop to hear it, in those moments of guilt and despair. I pray that it will inspire you to leave His thumbprint behind--a message that says, "He was here."
"This I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." - Lam 3:21-23
"Look carefully then how you walk, not unwise, but wise, making the most of the time." - Ephesians 5:15
Let's each walk each moment in this new year in grace and wisdom... 525,600 moments, PLUS the 1440 extra moments we will enjoy in 2008 (it's Leap Year!). |
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Questions for a New Year
...that we all need to consider.
Even those most faithful to God occasionally need to pause and think about the direction of their lives. It's so easy to bump along from one busy week to another without ever stopping to ponder where we're going and where we should be going. The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to stop, look up and get our bearings.
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What's one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?
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What's the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?
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What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?
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In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?
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What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?
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What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?
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For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?
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What's the most important way you will, by God's grace, try to make this year different from last year?
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What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?
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What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in 10 years? In eternity?
www.RootedToGrow.com |
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HOME FOR CHRISTMAS...
My personal blog posted December 17, 2007
When I was a little girl, a big part of Christmas was music and blue lights. Yes, blue lights everywhere -- in our windows, on our bushes outside, some even with reflectors on our tree that set a haze of soft color across the entire front of our house.
Mom and dad loved to play the old favorite records, back then they played on a simple player that crackled with the dust. One of their favorites was I'll be Home for Christmas, a classic sung by Bing Crosby. The Elvis song I'll Have a Blue Christmas Without You was another favorite. Every time I hear these songs I can picture our old living room, ready for the holiday with it's blue lights, sparkle, and familiar set of trains below our tree. But the biggest part of Christmas for our family was the family gathering. All of us together, joining in with traditions we have come to love, brought to life by an enthusiastic and exuberant father.
My father went home to be with The Lord last week, following a long period of difficult illness. His presence and energy at our holiday events will be greatly missed. His laughter and familiar hugs already are.
Two weeks before Christmas, in the middle of the sounds of Christmas Carols, school concerts, and other calendar events and festivities, our lives paused to take a different road of preparations this year. When I heard today that familiar song, I'll be Home for Christmas, the words were somehow changed, because truly, dad is home. We are sad and still have tears, but his home-going is a reason to celebrate. Dad is free of the pain and suffering of illness, free of the cares and labors of this world. He's at peace now with Jesus, his Savior. Christmas was dad's favorite season, and despite our loss, it seems fitting that he's celebrating his first moments in heaven at the Christmas season.
Amidst all the efforts to make a special holiday sparkle with lights and traditions, my dad knew the real meaning of this holiday -that the birth of one child in a manger would change the world forever.
"This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son for us." (1 John 4:9-10).
Because of Jesus Christ, we know joy, peace and hope not merely for a season-but forever. This Christmas I will miss dad for so many reasons, and perhaps when I hear the familiar song from Elvis I will be a bit blue. But I know for sure that at this year, my dad is Home for Christmas. Home, at last.
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 Mark Your Calendar...
Snowflake Cafe - February 23rd, 9a.m.- 12noon.
Come in from the cold winds of winter and be warmed in the body, soul and spirit. This is a morning of friendship and encouragement for all ladies, a terrific time to bring a friend to enjoy Sparkling Sweets & Frosted Fruits...Warm Workshops... Inspiration and Spiritual Challenge.
This is a FREE Event, but we will need you to sign up so we can plan workshop space. Invitations and Registration will be available at the end of January. |
Wisdom: Gratitude
"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." ~ Melody Beattie
"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances..." - 1 Thess 5:16-18 |
| Connecting women to a generous God ~ "Rooted and established in love..." - Ephesians 3:17
Louann Rodgers, Director of Women's Ministries
lkrodgers@comcast.net ~ 610.431.0300 x109 ~ www.RootedToGrow.com
Christ Community Church.1190 Phoenixville Pike.West Chester, PA 19380
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