EVERYDAY BRAVE Blog Tour Giveaway. You Could Win This New Book!

And the winner is Rhonda Roemer-Stephani!!! Wow! Congratulations Rhonda. I prayed God would pick the right person, I mixed up all the entries, shut my eyes, and chose. There you were! Please private message me your address so the publisher can send the book to you.

When Waiting Takes Courage and Trust

It’s difficult waiting for anything—a medical test result, school grades, an acceptance letter, a prodigal returning, the sale of a home, a move, a job offer, a baby, family arriving safely on a wintery night, a phone call, a predicted storm, restored health, Christmas, or a birthday. I know you can think of more waits that are difficult. I’ve had them too.

When I was writing Everyday Brave and asked women to share the bravest thing God ever asked them to do, many answered “wait” and “trust God.” Who hasn’t waited and trusted God to answer a prayer request, but how many of us considered waiting as brave or courageous, even though there are many verses like, “Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous” (Ps. 27:14 nlt).

We’ve all experienced times in our lives where it took sheer grit to wait on the Lord patiently, without impatiently taking matters into our own hands? Some women mentioned surrendering their will to God’s will as the bravest thing God ever asked them to do.

Waiting on God’s Timing

When we put our concerns and requests before God, we never know for sure how or when He is going to answer. It’s easy to say, “Trust in the Lord,” but when you’re on the waiting side of things it’s not so easy. Waiting requires stalwart courage and bravery to trust in the Lord’s perfect timing.

Waiting can fill us with anxiety, apprehension, angst, anger, and worry—or anticipation, awe, expectation, eagerness, hope, and trust. Depending on our personality, we might experience a combination of many of those emotions. I know I do. I don’t like waiting. I want answers now. The only way I calm an anxious heart is to pray about the situation, and then go about daily activities keeping my mind focused on other things, trying not to dwell on the looming object of my wait.

Don’t get me wrong, calm doesn’t come easy for me. I actually chose “Calm” as my word to focus on one year. My husband laughed when I told him my annual word because I’m not naturally a calm person. Descriptions more appropriate of my personality are excitable, energetic, eager, and enthusiastic—anything but calm!

Trusting God with the Wait

It’s hard to trust God to take care of everything for us while we wait, even though Jesus reminds us: “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes” (Matt. 6:34 msg).

Elisabeth Elliot wrote about brave waiting in Passion and Purity, “I do know that waiting on God requires the willingness to bear uncertainty to carry within oneself the unanswered question, lifting the heart to God about it whenever it intrudes upon one’s thoughts.”

Still, we’ve all been there. Sometimes we feel brave and courageous and can flow with whatever the future brings. Other times, we feel weak and weepy like Hannah in the Bible when she waited to have a child. But when we read Hannah’s story, we see she was distraught before she gave her burden to God, and then she seemed willing to bravely accept whatever he decided was best for her, whether it was a child or not. She became peaceful and content in God’s waiting room. (1 Samuel 1:1-2:11)

Hannah trusted God and waited on him to decide whether she would become a mother.

We’re all waiting for something every day.

When you prayerfully and patiently wait on God, you’re braver than you know.

What helps you be brave in times of waiting?

*Any excerpts from Everyday Brave used with permission of Leafwood Publishers.

Janet Thompson is an international speaker, freelance editor, and award-winning author of 20 books. Her passion is to mentor other women in sharing their life experiences and God’s faithfulness. Her new release is Everyday Brave: Living Courageously as a Woman of Faith.

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She is also the author of Mentoring for All Seasons: Sharing Life Experiences and God’s Faithfulness; Forsaken God? Remembering the Goodness of God Our Culture Has Forgotten; The Team That Jesus Built; Dear God, Why Can’t I Have a Baby?; Dear God They Say It’s Cancer; Dear God, He’s Home!; Praying for Your Prodigal Daughter; Face-to-Face Bible study Series; and Woman to Woman Mentoring: How to Start, Grow, & Maintain a Mentoring Ministry Resources.

Janet is the founder of Woman to Woman Mentoring and About His Work Ministries.

Visit Janet and sign up for her weekly blog and free online newsletter at womantowomanmentoring.com.

Join Janet:

facebook.com/Janetthompson.authorspeaker

linkedin.com/in/womantowomanmentoring/

pinterest.com/thompsonjanet

twitter.com/AHWministries

Instagram.com/janetahw

About Everyday Brave: In Everyday Brave, Janet explores the extraordinary bravery of fifty ordinary women in the Bible. Twenty-eight women of today also give testimonies of realizing their strength and courage through God’s love. As Janet shares the stories of these women, she reminds us that the real heart and substance of bravery comes from unconditionally placing our hope in the only One who can give us the courage to stay the course.

Any who leave a comment will be entered to win a free copy of Everyday Brave! Give away ends and drawing will be announced Sunday, September 29, 2019 at 7:00 p.m. 

And the winner is Rhonda Roemer-Stephani!!! Wow! Congratulations Rhonda. I prayed God would pick the right person, I mixed up all the entries, shut my eyes, and chose. There you were! Please private message me your address so the publisher can send the book to you.

Mentoring is not a Suggestion. Mentoring is a Command!

Mentoring! Mentoring! Mentoring! I keep hearing the word "mentoring" at conferences, in conversations, in books, and speaking invitations.

Jayme Hull, author of Face to Face: Discovering How Mentoring Can Change Your Life  interviewed me recently on her podcast. Seehttp://www.jaymeleehull.com/podcast/ep-17-encouragement-marriages-elaine-w-miller/

Michelle Lazurek asked me to speak on mentoring at Coudersport Alliance Church's Spring banquet.

A month ago I commented on a blog and won Janet Thompson's book Mentoring for All Seasons.

All right God. You have my attention.

Janet Thompson's Mentoring for All Seasons opened my eyes to truth. Titus 2 doesn't encourage us to mentor younger women if we feel like it or we can fit mentoring into our busy days. 

Mentoring isn't a suggestion. 

Mentoring is a command! 

   "These older women must train the younger women 

to love their husbands and their children,

to live wisely and be pure. . . " 

Titus 2:4-5 (NLT)

Please notice the words "must train." Not perhaps train or find time to train or feel qualified to train but "must train."  

We must step up to this task and obey God's command to train the younger women. For if we don't, who will? Social media? Hollywood? satan? They will and they do. 

Let us not sit back trusting God for our Christian sisters and daughters 

while the world equips them with and encourages them towards ungodliness.

Mentoring  for All Seasons  takes the fear out of mentoring as a complete easy-to-understand, fun-to-read mentoring handbook. Janet Thompson walks the reader through every season and possible circumstance of life, making mentoring easy with tips and testimonies, Biblical examples, questions to ask, and resources to use. Thank you Janet Thompson for an excellent resource as well as admonition to reach younger generations for Christ. 

Psst: Did you notice Titus 2 says, "train the younger women to love their husbands"? In Mentoring for All Seasons, Janet Thompson encourages us to sit down with young wives and mentor them in marriage. She recommends We All Married Idiots: Three Things You Will Never Change About Your Marriage and Ten Things You Can as a book that would be fun and easy to  use to mentor wives and those who hope to be wives. Thanks Janet for the shout out. What a sweet surprise!

Splash some serenity on a younger woman and mentor them towards God! You'll feel some of those splashes too. Promise.

Mentoring in the Marriage Season Guest Blog

In her powerful book Mentoring for All Seasons,

 Janet Thompson writes of the value of mentoring through all seasons of life, 

including the marriage season. 

I was thrilled to learn Janet recommends my book 

We All Married Idiots as a resource for mentoring marriages.

 If you desire your life and marriage to grow into the likeness of Christ, 

give Mentoring for All Seasons a read. 

Thank you Janet Thompson for writing life-changing books

 and agreeing to share words straight from your heart.

Learn from Janet Thompson's wisdom as a mentor and a mentee:

"That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.—Genesis 2:24

As women, we’re continually coming out of one life season and going into the next. You may have experienced the blessing of having a mentor in the changing seasons of your life, or long for a mentor. Those with experience in a season can reach out and offer counsel, support, prayer, and God’s wisdom. Mentoring is that easy.

Some women have had the blessing of the same mentor from newlywed years to seasoned married years, and others have found mentors for specific phases of the marriage season.

Newlywed to 50+ Years Mentoring

Maybe you looked at this heading and thought: Needs are different for newlyweds than couples married twenty-five or fifty years. True. The specific details will differ, but the basic truths keeping a marriage on solid ground remain the same regardless of years together.

The marriage season covers a wide spectrum, but the principles of mentoring remain the same because God’s Word regarding marriage, communication, finances, family . . . never changes . . . and God’s Word is the foundation for every mentoring relationship, which is always two way.

I once heard a mentor say her mentee was a newlywed, and since she herself had been married twenty-five years, she expected to be sharing tips about married life with her mentee. But with a wink, she said the mentee taught her a few things about putting a “kick” back into her own marriage!

Marital Problems

Marriage is between two imperfect people, who will always disappoint and disillusion each other unless they keep perfect Jesus at the center of their relationship. That might sound like a bold statement, and certainly many Christian marriages fail, probably because they didn’t keep Jesus at the center of every decision, discussion, and disagreement.

Many issues subject a couple to divisive onslaughts attacking a marriage: finances, parenting, jealousy, in-laws, personalities, loneliness, illness, outside attractions, work . . . daily life. Statistics of crumbling marriages—even among Christians—indicate Satan is winning the spiritual battle in many homes because couples haven’t armed themselves with the only effective offensive weapon—the sword of the Spirit—the Word of God.

How many marriages might elude divorce if spouses had mentors praying for and with them, teaching them how to study their Bibles daily, and showing them how to put God back on the throne in their marriage and family?

Mentoring for All Seasons

In Mentoring for All Seasons: Sharing Life Experiences and God’s Faithfulness, sixty-five women share their mentor or mentee testimonies, along with my own personal experiences, helpful tips for mentors and mentees will guide women in how to connect and nurture each other in mentoring relationships, as a mentor or a mentee from tweens to twilight years. There are Scriptures for each season to help guide the discussion to God’s Word.

Mentoring for all Seasons is a reference, application, and coaching tool for a mentor or mentee traversing life’s journey together as Titus 2:3-5 instructs us to do.

³ Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. ⁴ Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, ⁵ to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

Mentors don’t have all the answers, but God does!

Excerpts from Mentoring for All Seasons used with permission of Leafwood Publishers.

Janet Thompson is an international speaker, freelance editor, and award-winning author of nineteen books including her latest, Mentoring for All Seasons: Sharing Life Experiences and God’s Faithfulness, available at all Christian bookstores, online book stores, Amazon, and signed by Janet at her website store, where you can see more of her books.

She is also the founder of Woman to Woman Mentoring and About His Work Ministries. Janet and her husband Dave relocated their empty nest from Southern California to the rural mountains of Idaho, where Janet writes and they love watching the deer frolic in their yard.

Sign up for Janet’s Monday Morning Blog and online newsletter at womantowomanmentoring.com. You can also visit Janet at:

www.facebook.com/Janetthompson.authorspeaker

http://www.linkedin.com/in/womantowomanmentoring/

www.pinterest.com/thompsonjanet

https://twitter.com/AHWministries

Instagram: Janetahw"

Thanks for being my guest blogger, Janet. 

Mentoring and being mentored both bring splashes of serenity to our souls! 

Enjoy your mentoring journey and buy Janet's book!

Dear God, He's Home! Book Review and Give Away





Ha! I never knew when I agreed to review Janet Thompson's book, Dear God, He's Home! A Woman's Guide to Her Stay-at-Home Man how desperately I needed this book.

Dan and I prayed about retirement for months without finding peace. In September my Dan came home and announced he is retiring in August 2014. I was surprised. Can't imagine my man not getting up every morning and going to work. I plan to continue my writing and speaking career. How will our marriage work with Dan home and me writing?  I needed A Woman's Guide to Her Stay-at-Home Man.

Dear God He's Home! isn't just for those adjusting to retirement. Many factors can bring your man home:  illness, disability, unemployment, deciding to have a home office, home from military deployment.

This book deals with the emotional upheaval that comes whether a well-thought-out retirement or a sudden accident or a lay-off brings your man home.

Reminding wives that God is the solution, not the problem, Dear God, He's Home helps you find God's purpose, and say with a smile of contentment, "Thank God, He's Home!"

Leave a comment and you will enter a drawing for a free copy of Dear God, He's Home. Contest ends October 21. Winner to be announced October 22, 2013. Congratulations to Kathy Lytle, the winner of Dear God, He's Home! Be blessed, Kathy, with your stay-at-home man!




Back cover: "Your husband is now home 24/7 and you need help ASAP! Dear God, He's Home! is a practical and raw look at issues couples go through when — regardless of the reason — a spouse is forced to become a stay-at-home man. Sharing openly from personal experience and through Scripture, Janet will encourage you to joyfully embrace your God-ordained marriage. The book also includes personal thought questions, discussion questions for couples, and a small-group discussion guide."

About the Author:  Janet Thompson, founder and director of About His Work Ministries, is the recognized author of the "Dear God" series. Janet developed the Woman to Woman Mentoring Ministry at Saddleback Church, served as a lay minister for 12 years, and she continues to share the blessings of mentoring by training churches around the world. Dave and Janet have four married children and love being Grammie and Grampa to 11 beautiful grandchildren.


May God splash serenity on your marriage when you wake up and find him home — for better or for worse!

We All Married Idiots Book Give Away!

"Think about it. Fifty percent of our neighbors are headed for divorce." ~ Elaine W. Miller discusses how We All Married Idiots: Three Things You Will Never Change About Your Marriage and Ten Things You Can could change your neighborhood in author Janet Thompson's "Meet the Author" section of the April's edition of  About His Work newsletter.

You can read and enter a book give away at http://myemail.constantcontact.com/News-from-Janet-Thompson---About-His-Work-Ministries.html?soid=1101955573206&aid=v0X_ZS58atY

(NOTE: Congratulations to Jackie Edwards, the winner of We All Married Idiots. Idiots is in the mail and will arrive at your door! Enjoy!!!)

I laughed when Janet told me her husband wanted to read We All Married Idiots. He's a wise man!

Janet just released her new book, Dear God. He's Home! A Woman's Guide to Her Stay-at-Home Man. Check it out! Probably a good companion book for We All Married Idiots! Just teasing, guys! I know at my house I am the idiot-in-chief!

 

 

Splash some serenity on your neighborhood with a small group study of We All Married Idiots!