Hi! Welcome to our new home. We’re so excited to show you around the place.
As you can see, we’ve got new wallpaper, new pictures on the walls, and each room is full of girltalk resources that we hope will serve you.
On our home page, the picture of Caly enjoying "Sweet Summertime" is a doorway to fun and useful ideas for your summer.
Just below that, you’ll see the most recent post from our Current Series. What--you didn’t know we were in the middle of a series? Last week Mom began to answer the question: “Why do we blog about biblical womanhood?” We’ll pop in and out of this topic in the days ahead.
We love to read almost as much as we love to talk, and you’ll find our latest Recommended Reading on the front page as well. A review of Womanly Dominion is coming later this week.
Head on over to the Resources room and you’ll see a directory of Blog Posts. Now you can actually find that article you’re looking for!
You’ll also find a collection of Books and Audio messages. Our stuff is there and we’ve also created a library of biblical womanhood essentials.
And, we’re excited to now offer new girltalkSeries PDF’s for personal use or group discussion.
Finally, we hope you’ll visit the Contact Us room often and send us your comments and questions. Oh, and if you want to follow the conversation on facebook or twitter you can do that now too. Your thoughts are a vital part of the girltalk discussion, so let us hear from you!
The main wing of the girltalk site is now complete but we’ve got a few additions coming in the days ahead, so please keep checking back.
Thanks for the new girltalk website actually goes to two talented guys: Phil Gallo and Ryan James. If you think anything is beautiful or well-organized, it’s thanks to them. Anything you don’t like so much, you can blame on us.
Our humble prayer for this new site is that in all our girl talk we “may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior” (Tit. 2:10).
Our sincere hope is that you’ll feel like our new home is your home too.
So grab your drink of choice and have a seat at Mom’s kitchen table. Let’s talk!
2009 at 7:53 pm | by Janelle Bradshaw
Filed under
Fun StuffFriday Funnies
I just can't get enough of cute kids singing. So here's another for you to enjoy. Thanks to Laura for passing it along.
Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend! Janelle for the girls
2009 at 11:21 am | by Kristin Chesemore
Filed under
HomemakingRecipes
Janelle was having a cookout a few weeks ago and asked me what she should have Mikey grill. When I told her ribs were easy to prepare, she didn’t believe me. But then she tried this recipe and discovered her big sister was right once again. If you don’t have a plan for your Memorial Day cookout yet, give these ribs a try. They are super yummy, and yes, Janelle, super easy too!
(We use reviewer Bonnie12's instructions, which is first when you sort by "Most Helpful." And then we slather the ribs with Bulls Eye or Sweet Baby Rays BBQ Sauce)
Place ribs in a large pot with enough water to cover. Season with garlic powder, black pepper and salt. Bring water to a boil, and cook ribs until tender.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
Remove ribs from pot, and place them in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Pour barbeque sauce over ribs. Cover dish with aluminum foil, and bake in the preheated oven for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until internal temperature of pork has reached 160 degrees F (70 degrees C).
I never dreamed of being a writer. I never aspired to publish my thoughts—anywhere, ever. I don’t like to write, and I don’t think I’m especially gifted to write. Just today I happened upon a blog by a woman who is a gifted writer. She’s clever, she’s funny, and she has a way with words.
It made me wonder, what am I doing writing a blog? Why do I drag myself to the computer each morning to do something I don’t really want to do?
The answer is simple. I have a passion to promote biblical womanhood.
And why do I care so much about biblical womanhood?
I care about biblical womanhood because I love God’s Word. I care about biblical womanhood because I want to spread the gospel. I care about biblical womanhood because I long to promote God’s glory.
You see, Scripture, and what it says about Who created woman and what he created her to be and do is under assault from our post-modern, feminist-fed culture—at every point.
They belittle a woman’s calling in the home, marginalize motherhood, sneer at modesty, and abhor wifely submission. Yet these qualities are all an intrinsic part of God’s perfect, exquisitely beautiful design for women.
And so, I write. I write because I want to do whatever I can to promote the qualities of biblical womanhood that keep the Word of God from being reviled (Titus 2:5).
I want to contribute my measly bit. I can’t do everything. I can’t do much. But by the grace of God, I want to do what I can.
You might find your “measly bit” as unappealing as I find writing. It may seem as insignificant to you as this post does to me. But our measly bits, by the grace of God, can champion biblical womanhood and so adorn the doctrine of Christ our Savior (Titus 2:10).
So, together, with God’s help, let’s do what we should do, what we must do. Let’s do what we can.
I came across this post by Nicole from a couple years back and thought it was well worthy of a re-post. I trust it will encourage you today as it did me.
“Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation. Selah." (Psalm 68:19)
I’ve been suffering from various mild ailments for what seems like a month now. This is an especially busy week for me and I have been tempted to self-pity over my lack of strength.
This morning my husband prayed this verse for me. The note from my Reformation Study Bible sent me to Isaiah 46:1-4. Here the Lord contrasts the “bearing ability” of idols to that of the One True God:
"Bel bows down; Nebo stoops; their idols are on beasts and livestock; these things you carry are borne as burdens on weary beasts. They stoop; they bow down together; they cannot save the burden, but themselves go into captivity. 'Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.'"
What is your burden today? They come in countless shapes and sizes—from clingy colds to crushing cares. But one thing’s for sure: our idols cannot bear their load. Leisure and escape don’t provide true rest. Sinful anger cannot relieve the pressure. Even friends are not strong enough to bear up under their full weight.
But have we forgotten? We have been borne by Christ since birth. He carried us from the womb and will not stop even when we are old and bent and gray. He alone has borne the full weight of our sin, and He alone can bear the burdens of life in a sinful world.
He doesn’t pop in once a week or every month to relieve us of our heavy load. Daily, everyday, today, He promises to bear us up. He will carry and he will save. Today. So big or small, let’s cast our burdens on Him. God is our salvation.
You’ve been expecting it. And here it is. Our annual Spring modesty post.
This year we want to point you to a recent message by Janelle, given in March to the girls in the Covenant Life Church youth ministry. Her talk was short (only 15 minutes or so), but in typical Janelle style it’s packed with humor and biblical conviction. Let me encourage you to download, listen, and discuss with a friend. And moms of teenage daughters: this is a great one to talk about with your girls.
In my family, I have a reputation for living by this motto when it comes to things that I don’t like to do. It’s usually simple tasks like making a phone call or putting my laundry away. I tend toward procrastination—or, more biblically—a selfish delaying of duty.
I think this flaw of mine bugs my sister Nicole the most. I have to say, she is the opposite of a procrastinator. She can get more done in a day than I can in a week. And when she is waiting on something from me (like she was recently) it’s almost more than she can bear.
So she jokingly offered me some advice. “Janelle, remember when we were little and Dad and Mom would make us eat our vegetables?” (Yes, I remember, terrible memories those are!) “We could either eat really slowly and gag our way through the process or we could just hold our nose and eat our broccoli. That’s what you need to do. Hold your nose and eat your broccoli. Hold your nose and put that laundry away. Hold your nose and make that phone call.”
We laughed really hard. But you know, the image stuck with me. Now when I’m faced with that unpleasant task, instead of putting it off and then slowly gagging my way through the unpleasant chore (nice picture there, huh?), I just try to hold my nose and eat my broccoli!
Today, with two loads of clean laundry waiting to be done, I have an immediate opportunity to apply my sister’s wisdom. Thanks, Nic!
UPDATE, Wed. May 13: We’ve never done this before. In almost four years of blogging we’ve never missed a weekday. But we are going to suspend posting for the rest of this week. That’s how much we want everyone who comes to this site to watch Rachel’s video. We guarantee that if you take five minutes to check it out, you will want to find another fifty to watch the whole thing. It’s that powerful! So please, watch the video or listen to the audio; and please, tell everyone you know—your spouse, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends—to watch it too.
PS - Parents, we highly recommend you show this to your teenager!
We had a post ready for today, but we’re not going to put it up. This afternoon, we received an email from a girl talk reader named Shaila, in Vancouver, Canada. Her best friend, Rachel Barkey has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Rachel is a wife, a mother of two children, and she is not expected to live to see her 38th birthday.
Several weeks ago, Rachel shared a message with a group of women entitled “Death is Not Dying: A Faith that Saves.” We were so affected as we watched this video that we wanted to share it with you right away.
Many people have asked Rachel, “Why? Why is this happening to you? To Neil? To Kate and Quinn? To your family and friends?”
“I don’t ask ‘why?’” says Rachel. “Because I know.”
Please watch or listen and learn what Rachel knows.
The sentimentalism and commercialism of Mother’s Day has Dr. Al Mohler thinking that “Mother’s Day is a bad idea.”
“Christians must resist the reduction of motherhood to sentimentality,” he insists, “and particularly that sentimentalism that undermines what mothers are truly to represent—nurture, fortitude, courage, dedication, faithfulness, discipline, and trust in God.”
“Mother’s Day is a bad idea,” he concludes, “because it subverts the reality of faithful mothering and robs faithful mothers of their true glory.”
As usual, Dr. Mohler’s biblical insights cut through our culture’s cloudy worldview and provides a compelling alternative: Let’s not stop honoring mothers on Mother’s Day, but let’s not stop there—let’s give faithful, godly mothers appropriate honor all-year long.
You may wish you were only weary this Mother’s Day.
For you, weariness is merely the byproduct of numbing sadness. You don’t even want to think about Mother’s Day. A day that reminds everyone else of what they have, reminds you of what you’ve lost—as if you needed another reminder.
Maybe your child has rebelled and doesn’t want anything to do with your family. Or maybe you’ve lost a child through death.
I wish I knew the right words to say to you. If I could sit with you today, I would want you to know how inadequate I feel to comfort you. I know that no words of mine can dull the pain. But after I had grieved with you awhile I would remind you of the comfort of the cross.
There, God the Father sacrificed His only Son. This event did not seem to make sense either. But out of Christ’s unspeakable suffering, God, in His perfect wisdom, provided salvation for mankind. If He has purchased our salvation through the suffering and sacrifice of His son, we can trust that He is working good in the midst of our suffering.
May I encourage you to pour out your heart to the Lord of love? He knows, He sees, and he hears. Your tears are not lost on your heavenly Father. He is the compassionate Lord who urges you to draw near to Him. “I, I am he who comforts you” he declares (Is. 51:12).
It was said of Jonathan Edwards that even in the midst of being falsely accused and persecuted his “happiness was out of the reach of his enemies.” Your loss may be much greater, but the truths of the cross can also put your happiness out of the reach of your sorrows.
Because the Holy God sent His only Son, Jesus, into the world to live a perfect life and die a sinless death, in your place, for your sins, and rise again to conquer death, and because he has surely borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, and because He has reconciled us to Himself, called us His children, declared Himself our comforter—because of all this and more, may I be so bold as to wish you a Happy Mother’s Day?
Her children rise up and call her blessed. Proverbs 31:28
Do you have a hard time picturing this ever happening to you?
Oh sure, your kids “rise up”--all the time! Your baby may “rise up” and
call (very loudly) at 1:00 am and 2:30 am and 5:00 am. Your toddler
might “rise up” with temper tantrums or endless calls to meet his
needs. Your school-age child might “rise up” and call you to take her
to this activity and help her with that book report. Your teenager may
“rise up” in anger at your decisions and call you “strict” or “unfair.”
It may be very hard to imagine your children ever rising up to obey
you, rising up to ask for your advice, rising up to thank you, rising
up to follow your example, rising up to serve you, rising up to call
you blessed.
In fact, you’d settle for just fifteen minutes of not rising up
so you could get a nap! You’re plumb tired. Weary. Worn out. Frankly,
your idea of a happy Mother’s Day would be to sleep right through and
wake up on the other side.
Motherhood can be exhausting; doubly so if we don’t think we’re making
any progress. But we must remember the simple yet strength-infusing
truth that faithful mothering requires faithful sowing.
Ours isn’t a work that yields instant gratification. It requires a lot of sowing (and not a lot of reaping) for a lot of years.
But the rewards will come. Scripture exhorts the weary mom to “not grow
weary of doing good.” And Scripture promises the weary mom that “in due
season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9)
Read those words again: WE WILL REAP. It’s a promise we can bank on.
It might still be a Weary Mother’s Day. The “rising up” of sin and of needs won’t stop for the day. But it can be a Happy Weary Mother’s Day as your soul finds rest in the truth of God’s promises.
My six-year-old Jack and I just returned from our local library. Jack loves our weekly library date, especially when it is followed by a vanilla-milk at Starbucks. But he doesn’t understand why we can’t bring two-year-old Tori with us (she stays at home with my mother-in-law). I try to explain that there is a quiet rule at the library, and that Tori, who loves nothing better than the sound of her own high-pitched squeals, would get us thrown out in a hurry.
I am looking forward to taking Tori to the library--some day. But even when we’ve passed the screaming stage, I’ll still have the colossal challenge of finding books for her to read that promote a godly picture of womanhood.
I know, I promised we were finished shopping for time—but indulge me for one more day; because while we’ve been talking about time, Dad has been posting on productivity over at the Cheap Seats blog. We didn’t plan this, honestly!
It is the first Monday in May, and most New Years resolutions have been long forgotten. But here at girl talk we’ve been talking about making the best use of our time since the middle of January. Definitely our longest series yet!
And it’s time to move on.
Before we do, we thought a recap would be helpful. I know—we weren’t able to cover everyone’s season and we’re sorry about that! But we hope these posts encouraged all of you to “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Eph 5:15-16).
