For the past eight months I’ve gone out to the garden daily to harvest the fruits of the earth. At first, it was bouquet after bouquet of spring flowers - tulips and lilacs filling my garden and my home. Then it was the spring veggies, which gave way to months of summertime bounty of all kinds.

In a six week time frame last autumn, our world unraveled. My husband’s mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died. My youngest son took a helmet to the neck in a football game and spent the next four weeks convalescing. I ran over someone’s dog. Our neighbor fell off his porch, broke his neck, and died. We left our church due to an intractable conflict and we got bed bugs. It was our worst fall on record, hands down.

I’m probably the only woman whose appreciation for her husband looks more like a stock market graph than a smooth incline. Up, down, up, up, up, down, down, tanked, up, up a little higher…Boom! He surprises me by doing the dishes. Annnd then he drops the refrigerator on my finger. Long story.

So, you've taken that step to launch your Women's Bible study. Now what?

Many women today crave a deeper understanding of God’s Word, a sense of belonging, and the knowledge to live into a life of God’s grace. They long for something more.

Our host and teacher introduced herself and told us that our two days together would be all about learning how to lead ourselves well so we could lead others better. At the time it seemed a simple enough statement, but as our conversations took us deeper into ourselves, it didn’t take long for us to see not only how profound her statement was, but also how challenging.

There’s this scene in Acts where Paul and Silas have just been thrown in prison. The “inner prison”, to be exact, which sounds even deeper and darker than “regular prision.” There’s no details on how it looked, how it felt, how it smelled… but we know that around midnight, the boys are bursting out into song. They were “singing hymns to God” in the inner prison.

My husband works as a pastor. Practically speaking, this means we don’t see much of him between Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening. Our three sons play all manner of sports, predominantly on these same weekends. The only possible way I can accommodate their schedules is to ask lots of other parents for help.

"Has your life or faith been impacted by an Abingdon Women Bible study or author?" was the question I saw posted on Facebook. Should I respond to this question? Is this post for me? "Yes. Yes, my life and my faith have been impacted. Yes. I will respond."

“I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

Jeremiah 17:5—8: This is what the Lord says: “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans and turn their hearts away from the Lord. They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, on the salty flats where no one lives. But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried about months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they go right on producing delicious fruit.”

Don't forget, sign ups are now open for our next studio audience event on Wednesday, November 6th in Nashville, Tennessee. Join us for the taping of the newest Abingdon Women Bible study, Broken and Blessed.