From time to time, I make a statement that becomes quotable. This
section is a growing list of those quotes gathered from sermons,
teachings, meditions on God's word, and conversations. It is my prayer
that they will be fuel for thought and inspiration, perhaps a
jump-start idea that will lead to other ideas. All of these quotes are from Darryl Rodman

In our Oak Harbor home we have reoccurring problem. It started several years ago after we installed a large glass skylight to brighten up our Northwest winter days inside with natural light. There were no problems with the installation, and no problems with any leakage until a few years past. Then, after a long summer of no rain (Yes, it is known to happen in the Seattle area) we had a down pour that resulted in water dripping into our recently remodeled, nicely textured, freshly painted room. It was disgusting.

After a long frozen winter, or even a shorter season of frozen ground, and amazing season emerges. In the NE it is called "Mud Season". The solid frozen ground gives way to a spongy, soupy mess to any one or anything that is trying to cross it. I had a closeup encounter with mud season myself recently. I was moving rock from one place to another with a cart I have attached to my lawn tractor. I was leaving deep tire marks in the ground, but moving along pretty good until I tried a certain direction.

Prepare your minds for action. I Peter 1:13

In meditating on this Preparing Your Mind for Action scripture I found myself struggling and struggling to break through into the truths I knew God was trying to reveal. I felt like the wall was soooo thick I could never breakthrough. There was a strong temptation to say, “Forget it.” Flooding thoughts of “why bother?” crashed over me, wave after wave. After all what is the point? Who cares?

Suddenly it dawned on me; I needed to Prepare my Mind! I had hit the wall of discouragement. So how do you prepare your mind for dealing with the discouraging wall?

Dear single sisters and those that love them;

I am writing to you because I felt God wanted you to know that you are important to the Body of Christ. We appreciate you. We might not always know how to show our concern, our care or our support as best as we could, but we do need you and the value you add to our lives.

What a wonderful privilege it is to serve Him. The joy of watching others grow in Him due to our influence is so satisfying. At the same time, it is a sobering responsibility that we carry and it affects every aspect of our lives. I have been re-reading through the books of Timothy looking for the wisdom Paul shared with Timothy on how to be a good leader. These books are filled with guidelines, standards and encouragement on how to function as good leaders.

I hear the Spirit of the Lord say, “Do not cast away your confidence that you have in who I am. Do not put it from you in the midst of trials and tribulations. Do not look to the left and to the right when things begin to happen that you did not expect, but keep your confidence strong in me, says the Lord. Do not shelve it; do not set it behind you, but lay hold upon your trust and your faith in who I am.

In Spring of 2007 the Lord showed me the following vision. I have been encouraged by several folks to post it here for the greater good of the body of Christ. I believe it is primarily for the believers in the New England region (that is where I was when I had the vision), but the application is far reaching wherever the need may be. I present the vision here, and a bit of follow-up discussion in hopes that you or those you know will be encouraged to believe what the Lord is saying and respond to it in faith.

Dear Real Women Readers! September 1998 was the launch date of Real Women! I realized that we have added many new friends to our readership in the past few years—and I have neglected to re-state the vision.

Why Real Women! As a title?
The title comes from my sincere belief that God uses ordinary vessels to do extraordinary things! To become a woman God can use to the fullest extent, we must first be REAL. This is a process of learning to trust Him enough that we allow ourselves to be transparent first to Him and ourselves and then to others. A real individual is one who is authentic, one who is genuine, honest and sincere. She is true to herself and to her God.