As I write this, I’m in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Imelda. If I tell you I live in Beaumont, TX, enough said. I don’t have to look far to find examples of people encouraging one another. In fact, a media personality from outside our region said he couldn’t tell the difference between those who were flood victims and helpers. Our faces didn’t look like victims.

That pretty much proves my point that with Jesus, we are capable of having a grin on our faces, because of the peace in our hearts. That doesn’t minimize the heartache, though!

There are always always always going to be people around us who need to be encouraged. What can we do to help?

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The post Ministry of Showing Up first appeared on Kathy Carlton Willis.

When I worked in children’s ministry, we had a ministry production called Caraway Street, which was very similar to Sesame Street. We had a theme for each “show.” What fun, creating hilarious human characters and unique puppet personalities. It took a lot of work to make the puppets really talk!

I love thinking of words that go together that start with the same letter of the alphabet. In today’s study, we could say, “This episode brought to you by the Letter E.” Exhort. Edify. Encourage.

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The post Encouragement first appeared on Kathy Carlton Willis.

Every weekend, my husband and I watch home renovation shows on television. We own a mid-century modern home, and previously owned historic homes — fixer-uppers. We notice a trend with these home shows. The team loves tear-down day. They get carried away with throwing hammers, demo forks, and pry bars. Sometimes they demolish something that was meant to stay. It’s easy to lose track of what is being destroyed. It’s not that way with the rebuild. Each action is intentional and methodical. It takes strategy. It’s obviously easier to tear down than to build up. And so it is with human buildings. Let’s determine to demolish tear downs and plan our builds.

For the next few weeks, we’ll study the words EDIFY and EXHORT. I looked up these words in the King James Version of the Bible and then found what those verses say in the NLT. In our study, you won’t actually see the words EDIFY and EXHORT, but those are the background meanings for these verses.

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The post What Are You Building? first appeared on Kathy Carlton Willis.

August in Texas is notorious for being a scorcher, making flower gardens wilt or worse, die. So you can imagine our delight when we see buds and blossoms blooming! One way I keep a focus on the positive is to capture these beauties with my camera as a reminder that even when life heats up, beauty abounds.

It takes a lot to have pretty flowers in our yard. We have the worst soil, the worst weather, rocks, roots, cypress knees, you name it! Then there are the squirrels whose sole mission seems to be stealing our blooms right at the peak of their splendor. These furry robbers jump up, snatch the blossom, and run off, separating the bloom petal by petal, not even eating their booty. They leave them decimated in a pile, a reminder of their former glory.

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The post Gardening to Transform first appeared on Kathy Carlton Willis.

I love collecting church cookbooks because they have some of the best recipes. I know they include ingredients I have on hand or are easy to find at the store. Some of these recipes are favorites at church fellowships. Some churches call them potlucks, because we’re in luck when we discover what’s in each pot—a whole lotta yum!

Recipes work because they build one ingredient upon another, step by step, until we get to the completed dish. The ingredients by themselves usually aren’t that delicious, but when you pull it all together, it works. God is at work growing his virtues in our lives, step by step. Let’s look at that today by focusing on one passage.

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The post Grow Godly first appeared on Kathy Carlton Willis.

When we think of learning, we often think of going to school. I just came from a trip to New York, where the students didn’t get out of school for the summer until the third week of June. And I came back to Texas, where school supplies are already for sale in the stores, so we can start back to school in August.

As a kid, I couldn’t wait to get the class list of school supplies so we could go shopping. Even as a grown up, I get giddy when I see aisles of school supplies. The rest of the year, I get that same fix by going to office supply stores and browsing. Just this week I ordered a backpack and can’t wait for it to come in. I guess you could say I’m a lifelong student.

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The post Growth Track first appeared on Kathy Carlton Willis.

When I was growing up, we kept track of “reaching new heights” by marking our height on the doorframe in the kitchen. When my nephew went to visit Mom every other year or so, they’d mark his height, albeit in different houses from our childhood home.

When my husband and I moved into our Midcentury Modern home, one of the doorframes contained a similar growth chart from the former owner’s daughter. I can’t bring myself to paint over it! Growth is a big deal. And so is our spiritual growth. The day we stop growing is the day we start dying. The day we stop helping others to grow is the day we stop living.

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The post Growing Pains first appeared on Kathy Carlton Willis.

We explored the woods we owned behind the fence of our Kentucky home. Russ cleared out the brush to create various paths. One thing he didn’t weed out was the wild blackberry brambles. During the entire process we eagerly watched the blackberries mature and ripen. First, we saw the blossoms, then the fruit appeared, and finally the mature fruit was ready to be picked.

I noticed blackberries don’t all mature at the same rate. Some berries ripen slower than others. Some of the fruit were smaller than others. Worst of all, some fruit never ripened, but died on the vine before it ever matured into a plump juicy flavorful berry.

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The post Rooted to Grow first appeared on Kathy Carlton Willis.

The discipline of exercise has impacted me in a big way. It’s exciting to look at my “before” photos to see how far I’ve come in my weight loss efforts. I still have a long way to go!

I cherish the time devoted for exercise. I can clear my mind and have “alone” time. It helps me refresh my focus. The benefits of exercise are vast. Not only does it tone me, there are health benefits, and it gives me a natural high. Whether you choose water exercise, walking, taking a class, working out to a video, or something else, you will be glad you made the time.

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The post Growth Trajectory first appeared on Kathy Carlton Willis.

When I was a young girl, I had quite an imagination, and just as many fears. For example, I was convinced there was a monster under my bed. I just knew he had several knives positioned to pierce my sleeping body at any moment. I’m not sure how many times my mom reassured me that there was nothing under my bed but a little dust!

Fears are sometimes imaginary, just like that monster under my bed. Other times, the object of our fears is quite real. There’s no way I’m going to say all fears are fictional, because I know too many victims beaten within an inch of their lives to tell them fearing their aggressor is “False Evidence Appearing Real.”

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The post Fear the Lord and No Others first appeared on Kathy Carlton Willis.