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Graceologie Episode 10: Liz Curtis Higgs


HELPFUL HIGHLIGHTS:

Lessons from Slightly Bad Girls of the Bible (and our conversation!)...

SARAH:

She was a take-charge-rather-than-trust-God kind of woman. Sometimes we give up on God ever answering our prayers… and start looking for quick fixes. We stop listening to the advice of others and make hasty, regrettable decisions.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5)

HAGAR:

True freedom is found only in God. When Sarah cast Hagar and Ishmael into the wilderness, she unwittingly gave mother and son their freedom. Sarah intended to harm them, but God intended it for good to accomplish his perfect will.

Sarah emancipated Hagar from slavery, yet God freed Hagar and her son from imminent death and gave them new lives in their homeland. The Lord stands ready to set us free as well.

I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free. (Psalm 119:32)

REBEKAH:

Learn not to criticize others, but to look at our own lives, especially as moms. For all the moments we’ve been Slightly Bad Wives in order to seem like Really Good Moms, have mercy on us. For all the hours we’ve wasted plotting and planning when we could have been praying, have mercy on us.

Remember, O Lord, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. (Psalm 25:6)

LEAH:

She resisted the urge to whine. She didn’t complain, she wasn’t irritable or demanding, she didn’t speak ill of her sister or her father. Deserves our respect for enduring with hope and faith, showing us how a godly woman can offer up praises rather than protests.

She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. (Proverbs 31:26, NASB)

RACHEL:

Rachel and Leah came a long way. They didn’t share any dialogue in Scripture. But had an honest, albeit painful, conversation about their husband. Standing together in the fields to speak to Jacob in a unified voice the two sisters stood side by side at last.

Theirs is an example of how we, too, can reach out to estranged family members or friends and rebuild those bonds in the name of Christ.

How wonderful, how beautiful, when brothers and sisters get along! (Psalm 133:1, MSG)