Leading Women Who Wound

Today is my 600th post to this blog! Whoo-hoo. I'm celebrating with some nifty links for you today. First up is this moving story about a thrown-away dog who saved his little owner's life. The pic for today is of the two of them.

Next is an article for your funny bone from TIME Magazine. It's called Why Facebook is for Old Fogies, and boy, is it true! It completely nailed my Facebook usage!

Harlequin Books is celebrating its 60th anniversary, and they are offering 16 books for free download! That's $60 of books for free!

B&H Books is offering a free download of Jamie Carie's book Snow Angel to announce the release of her new book Wind Dancer. Just sign up for the contest, and you get a pdf of the book for free!

One more quick note: I picked up Doogie's senior pictures today. They are amazing! I'll scan some in this weekend and post so you can see them. On the way home, it hit me hard that he's leaving home very soon, and I couldn't help crying. I can't believe how fast this year is slipping away.

Leading Women Who Wound by Sue Edwards & Kelley Mathews is an essential tool for every church. The authors focus on a problem that causes harm to so many churches: women members fighting and attacking each other. As Christian women, we are not supposed to engage in gossip, rumors, or backbiting, but every church suffers from it at one time. I left the church my family had attended for over 80 years because of women who had wounded me, so I could relate to the stories the authors share about the damage women do to each other. They do a wonderful job of explaining the difference between women who are "dragons" and live to stir up trouble versus good women who are sincere about their beliefs and don't intend to cause a problem, but can't see anyone else's point of view. By giving specific examples of several different trouble-making behaviors, the authors help readers to see where problems may arise and how to deal with them. In my reading, I discovered that there have been some times where I have been guilty of not following the Matthew 18 rules about how to deal with discord within the church, and I will be far more careful in the future. Matthew 18 states that when someone has a problem with someone else in the church, they should speak together privately. If the problem is unresolved, two or three witnesses should be involved to help settle the dispute. If that is unsuccessful, the dispute should be taken to church leaders. The authors provide step by step instructions on how to make the system work as smoothly as possible. There's also a chapter specifically for male leaders within the church to help them settle disputes between female members while respecting the women's point of view. I think this book should be on every church bookshelf to encourage Christian women to work together rather than tear each other apart.

The winners of Outlaw Marshal were Kimberly Bailey and Stephanie Meyer. Congratulations to both of them! I'll be starting a new contest on Monday, so I hope you'll be back then!