Starting Well in 2012 {Index}

Week 1:  Quiet Time … discipline in my spiritual life

• Devotions, Quiet Times, Personal Bible Study.  Is is really necessary?  “God is not interested in your quiet time or devotions or personal Bible study … His interest is YOU.”
  
• 10 Tips for a Great Quiet Time “Spending time in the Word is important … but how that happens and for how long on any given day?  I’m just not sure that is quite as big a deal to God as it seems to be to us sometimes.”
• Memorize, Meditate, and Meander:  Storing Up God’s Word  3 ways to spend time treasuring Scripture
• Tools of the Trade:  Resource Recommendations  Suggestions for Bibles, study aids, devotionals, and books on spiritual disciplines
• Chocolate, Paradise, and Every Spiritual Blessing  Guest post by Kathy Howard inviting us to join her online study, “Growing Up Together: A Study of Ephesians”

Week 2:  The Man … the 5 S’s of marriage

• Are You a Nagging Wife?  What we say about our husbands matters and HOW we say it may matter more.
• 10 Ways to Speak Well of Your Husband  Simple ways to build up your husband and to be an encouragement and support to him.
• The “S” Word  Three truths about sex in marriage and why it matters.
• The Other “S” Word:  Submission  Biblical submission in modern marriage.
• Sharing Your Husband?  Giving grace in our marriages.
• Tools of the Trade   My favorite books on marriage.

Week 3:  Crazy Kids … The 4 P’s of Parenting

• Parenting with Purpose  It is through our discipline – our training and instruction – that we guide our children from the folly of childish things into the wisdom of maturity.
• 10 Ways to Parent with Purpose  Simple ideas for parenting with purpose
• Parenting with Passion  When we do those things we love, we are more content, more encouraging, more energetic in the rest of our lives.   When we embrace our passions, we become better moms.
• Parenting with Praise  Two ways to encourage your children.
• Parenting with Prayer  Of all the gifts we give our children, it is parenting with prayer that reaps the greatest rewards.
• Tools of the Trade:  Parenting  My favorite books on parenting.

Week 4:  Ticking Clock … disciplined time management

• 24 Hours Is Never Enough  We will never manage our time well unless we submit it first to the One who is the Creator and Sustainer of time.
  
• 10 Ways to Create Time  There are ways to redeem the time we have, to use it more intentionally and more efficiently.
• Priorities + Delegation = Productivity  Determining the priorities for your day is not designed to bind you into legalism but rather to give you freedom. 
  
• Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Linked In … Exhaustion Social media, like everything else, can hold a place in our hearts and minds that it doesn’t deserve.   We must be good stewards of this tool … because that’s what it is, a tool.
• 4 Truths about Time  4 biblical truths about managing our time
• Tools of the Trade  My favorite resources for time management.

Week 5:  Laundry and Dishes and Meals, Oh My!  intentional homemaking

• Laundry and Dishes and Meals, Oh My!  Encouragement to consider the significance of home management and homemaking.
• 10 Ways to Make a Home  Reminder not to get so caught up in managing our homes that we neglect the far more significant task of making a home.
• 4 Qualities of a Well-Made Home Four attributes of a well-made home as identified in Proverbs.