Blog – Page 8 – Barbara Lynn Seibel

October 23, 2022October 22, 2022

Harvest Blessings and Prosperity

My maternal grandfather was a wheat farmer. He grew other things and had some animals too, but I mostly remember the wheat crops.

After grandad passed, my mother and her sisters discovered some letters in his belongings where he was discussing why his wheat had such exceptional quality even though it failed to produce as much yield as other farmers in the area.

Turns out my grandfather was an organic farmer. He refused to spray chemicals on his land crops while also practicing crop rotation to improve the soil quality.

I have also been told that my grandfather received many offers for his land over the years, but he refused to sell it even after he could no longer farm the land himself after having a heart attack. Instead, he rented out his land to an approved farmer that would maintain the same practices he had. This was his way of continuing his farming career and providing for his family.

Why am I sharing about my grandad’s farming?

How is it related to Genesis 26:12-13?

October 16, 2022October 15, 2022

Responding to Someone’s Lie

How do you respond when you discover someone lied to you?

Years ago, my sister and I received two female kittens from our grandparent’s farm to take to our home. My sister named the all-white kitten Cinderella. I named the calico kitten Charlie. But after enjoying them at our home for a short amount of time, we returned them to the farm. I do not remember why.

We would regularly visit the farm and call out for Cinderella and Charlie, seeing them scamper toward us.

I do not recall how much time had passed until one day she and I were sitting on the fence calling for the two cats when my sister suddenly blurted out a tractor had run Charlie over months ago.

My sister further revealed that everyone had been lying to me about this for some time.

How do you think I responded?

What does this have to do with Gen 26:9-11?

October 9, 2022October 8, 2022

Caught for Truth Spinning

Have you ever spun the truth for any reason?

Children to adults are bound to have practiced truth spinning.

Over thirty-three years ago, I did some truth spinning when I missed an agreed-upon time for a date.

I told the truth about why I was not present at the agreed-upon time while leaving out the details I was late because of a date I had planned with a different person.

Oh, the webs we can weave with partial truth and lies!

What compels us to spin the truth?
Is truth spinning something we learn from others or a prime instinct for self-preservation?

What does this have to do with Genesis 26:8?

October 2, 2022October 2, 2022

Whose Advice Do You Heed?

When facing a crisis or hard decision, whose advice do you heed?

Friends?

Relatives?

Coworkers?

Professionals?

All the above?

Does your answer change depending on the type of decision you are facing?

Last week, I shared some about how my husband and I settled in South Carolina.

The motivating factor behind our relocation was my husband’s initial job loss. We needed advice regarding a variety of needs. So, our process involved talking with all the above relationships to meet these needs.

As I shared last week, we moved to South Carolina, even though we had zero friends, relatives, or previous coworkers in the area.

What does this have to do with Genesis 26:6?

September 25, 2022September 24, 2022

How do you recharge?

Several weeks ago, I dealt with some digestive issues stirred by a combination of juggling too many projects, overly rich foods, and some tainted food.

Then I traveled to a conference for my day job while still having concerns about my digestive system.

Upon returning from the conference, I have been operating in “catch up” mode.

Not just at my day job, but also at home and for my writing pursuits.

What do I do to recharge my body, mind, emotions, and spirit to sustain me and overcome stress?

What does this have to do with Bible study?

September 18, 2022September 17, 2022

Moving to Provide for Your Family

Have you moved away from where you grew up? If so, why did you move?

Sometimes we move because we simply want to experience something new.

At other times, we move because of a loss of a job.

My husband and I have experienced both.

Our first move away from Kansas, our home state, took us to Oklahoma. The reason for this move was two-pronged. Doug sensed the company he was working for at the time was preparing to close the branch he was in, and I was preparing to go back to school in pursuit of a doctoral degree in piano performance. Oklahoma was the location of the parent branch of Doug’s employer, so he inquired about transitioning there, sharing that I wanted to attend Oklahoma University. The parent company offered him a job and even checked with OU to confirm that I would qualify for in-state tuition since they had employed Doug even while in Kansas.

Two and a half years after moving to Oklahoma, while I was recovering from shoulder injuries, they let Doug go compliments of a “last hired, first fired” scenario. After two months of job searching, Doug received two job offers on the same day. One job was in Nebraska and the other was in South Carolina.

To the surprise of our family back in Kansas, we moved to South Carolina.

What does this have to do with Genesis 26:1?

September 11, 2022September 10, 2022

Do Opposites Really Attract?

Consider cats and dogs, two very different species. Can they be friends or are they destined to always be at odds with one another?

Our cat, Tink, despised our dog, Meghan, when they were first introduced many years ago. Today, however, Tink loves to snuggle with Meghan as often as Meghan allows.

But Tink and our other cat, Gunny, still despise each other after living in the same household for roughly ten years.

There’s a larger age difference between the two cats than there is between Tink and Meghan. Plus, Gunny’s personality differs from Tink’s.

Gunny is a cat that needs lots of mental and physical stimulation, a true huntress. Tink, however, stays in the same spot most of the day. Until she deems it is time for food, that is. Then she finds whatever human is nearest to her proximity to pester until fed.

Meghan’s personality is best described as accommodating to whatever the activity may be. If resting, she’ll gladly rest. If heading outside, she’ll gladly go along. Oh, and food time is a significantly joyous event. Essentially, Meghan gets along well with every member of our household.

What does this illustration of animals and opposites attracting have to do with Genesis 25:28?

September 4, 2022September 3, 2022

When Your Story Isn’t About You

Something that fascinates me is how often a turn of phrase, concept, or even a direct biblical quote appears in movies that do not intend to promote a biblical worldview.

Movies frequently misquote or twist what originated from the Bible. But even with this tendency, we can learn something.

Case in point, the movie Dr. Strange is a sci-fi movie based on a Marvel comic book that portrays a man seeking his own healing through any means, including sorcery. Clearly, this is not a film intending to promote a Christian or even Jewish biblical worldview. However, it is a film promoting a general story of good over evil, which is found in a biblical worldview.

Consider with me a scene from Dr. Strange where we can learn something.

In one scene of Dr. Strange, a character challenges another who operates from a motivation of arrogance and fear that they have missed learning the simplest lesson in life.

When asked what this lesson is, they reply that the simplest lesson in life to learn is that our time here is not about us.

Is this really the simplest lesson in life and is it a biblical concept?

August 28, 2022August 27, 2022

What Causes You Anxiety?

Our answer to this question is more nuanced in 2022 than five years ago.

In the past five years, humanity has experienced a global pandemic, ongoing political turmoil, supply chain failures, rising inflation, and the list continues.

What other stressors do we struggle against?

There are also more intimate stressors to consider, such as a loss of a loved one, loss of a means of income, infertility, divorce, to spilling water on your computer keyboard (yes, this just happened to me.)

Any of the above items and others can raise our cortisol, the stress hormone, to various degrees. How we cope with the daily intimate anxieties and the global ones reveals our differences in resilience.

Can we “bloom” like the flower in the picture above, even when we are anxious?

What can we learn about dealing with our anxieties in Genesis 25:21?

August 21, 2022August 21, 2022

Where Are You From?

Shortly after moving to South Carolina in 2003, I received an invitation to join a local women’s group where I received advice to say I was from Oklahoma instead of Kansas when introducing myself to the members.

The reasoning for this advice came from Oklahoma’s history as an unorganized Indian territory, while Kansas was a loyal free state between 1861-1865. These dates refer to the American Civil War, sometimes referred to as the War of Northern Aggression.

The encouragement to lie about my birthplace was accurate advice for being better received by this group of women. When I stopped following that advice, the facial expressions of members who were meeting me for the first time revealed they immediately disliked me over something that happened before I was even born!

How does this connect with Genesis 25:20?