Brenda Rodgers

Author: Brenda Rodgers

  • Sacred Singleness – We’re Starting a Book Study!

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    I am excited to announce that here at Triple Braided we are starting a book study! And I hope you will join us!

    In my real-life world I lead and mentor a single women’s small group through our church. I asked around on Facebook and emailed some single friends to give me their recommendations for good books for single women. You can find the entire list of resources here. The girls in my group chose the book Sacred Singleness by Leslie Ludy. So that is what we’re going to be studying!

    Leslie Ludy is an author of several books for young women along with an online magazine. You can read more about her and her ministry on her website www.setapartgirl.com.

    So how can you get involved?

    First, decide if you are going to get together a group of girlfriends in your area to meet and discuss the book as you read it  or if you are going to read it on your own. Either way, please join in the conversation here at Triple Braided. The more voices we have the more we will learn from each other! Then, purchase your own copy of Sacred Singleness by next Tuesday, April 17th, and begin reading chapters 1 and 2.

    Next Tuesday, April 17th, I will post discussion questions and scripture verses for you to use to discuss with your friends or think about yourself.

    Then the following Tuesday, April 24th, we will discuss chapters 1 and 2 here at Triple Braided in the comments and on Facebook.

    When will we discuss the chapters?

    Every Tuesday we will discuss the two chapters we read the previous week. I will also post the discussion questions for the chapters we’ll read in the upcoming week.

    How many chapters will we read a week?

    We will read about two chapters a week.

    How will we discuss the chapters online?

    We will discuss the chapters by posting comments here under that day’s blog post and on Triple Braided’s Facebook page. The more participation we have from all of you the more we will learn and the better it will be! Your words will be very important!

    So go ahead and get a copy of the book today so that we can get started! Next Tuesday I will post more details along with discussion questions for weeks 1 and 2!

    I can’t wait to learn more about how God wants us to view our single years with you!

    What if I’m married?

    Married friends, WE NEED YOU! I am sure that you will not read Sacred Singleness with us, but you will be able to participate in the conversation each Tuesday by reading the post topic and discussion questions. Single women need your prayers, wisdom, and experience. Please join in the conversation!

    Will you join us for this book study? Please leave a comment introducing yourself!

    And  please begin to pray for this study and that each of our minds and eyes will be open to accept God’s truths in this area of our lives.

     Did you know that you can have Triple Braided delivered straight to your inbox? Just type in your email address below! And be sure to follow Triple Braided on Facebook and Twitter

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  • Grace on that Little Plastic Stick

    I walked out of the bathroom, the plastic stick now showing two lines and predestining the rest of my life still sitting on the counter next to the sink, and I began to pace.  Back and forth.  Back and forth.  Saying, “Oh my goodness, oh my goodness”, louder with each lap trying to make what I just learned was growing inside of me would sink in and I would really believe it.

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  • Moving from Blogger to WordPress? – My Advice

    At the end of February I began the journey from moving from Blogger to WordPress.  I say journey because that is exactly what it was – a journey.  A journey that just ended at the end of March.

    Photo Credit: Creative Commons

    Now for those of you who are tech-savvy and knowledgeable in all things computer, count your blessings.  That is one skill that I wish I had because it would make life a whole lot easier (and cheaper). But even though I have learned a lot over the past few years blogging, there are some things I am still not comfortable with and moving my whole blog to another platform without knowing what the heck I’m really doing in not one of them.  It takes me a long time to figure out just the smallest online tasks, and even then I usually have a hiccup.  The threat of losing everything was enough for me to hire someone without a second thought.

    And so that’s what I did.

    I hired a person who was recommended, has a beautiful website, seems very talented (and I’m sure she is), AND was half the price of what I expected to pay.  Bingo!  She landed the grand prize for the job.

    Except that the job ended up being bigger than what she expected – I think.  I am assuming she is better at designing than the really techy stuff.  As days turned into weeks with glitch after glitch, finally communication stopped.  Yes, stopped, and my blog was in an upheaval and not completed.  It’s hard to get someone to respond to an email when that’s the only form of communication you have – no phone number, no address (not that I would really pay a visit), nothing.  And so I was stuck.

    Luckily, the wonderful, wonderful women at DIY Ministry – Lisa Boyd and Amy Bayliss – came to my rescue.  I know that sounds dramatic, but that’s truly what it was – a rescue.  Come to find out my blog was in more of a shambles that I had known. (Blogger even contacted me saying that they were deleting the blogspot URL because they found malicious code? or something?)  It became a bit of a nightmare.

    So my advice for moving from Blogger to WordPress?

    1. Don’t go with the most inexpensive business to do the migration.

    2. Ask for references that you can contact.

    3. Request daily emails or updates on how the migration is progressing, and when it is expected to be complete.

    4. Get your advice and help from DIY Ministry.

    DIY Ministry

    Are you considering making the move? What questions do you have? Or if you’ve made the move from Blogger to WordPress, what is your advice?

     Did you know that you can have Triple Braided delivered straight to your inbox? Just type in your email address below! And be sure to follow Triple Braided on Facebook and Twitter

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  • The Light Continues to Shine

    From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice,“Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). Matthew 27:45-46

    Photo Credit: Creative Commons: Art Poskanzer

    The darkness came down and blanketed Calvary. He hung there on that cross for all the people who looked on from below and for you and for me. Becoming the sin He was incapable of possessing, ready to pay the price.

    Then He uttered the words that turned the darkness into light, “It is finished”, and bowing His head He surrendered His spirit to His Father (John 19:30).

    Three days later He arose from the enemy’s plan. Death was conquered. And the Light continued to shine.

    In a world where the grip of darkness is so evident, our hope is in the Light. The Light that is here with us now, in each of us as Believers in Christ, who on this day over two thousand years ago gave us Himself.

    No more do we live in darkness. The Light of the World has dispelled it today and forevermore. Praise be to God!

    “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’” (John 8:12)

    Today I am linking-up for 5-Minute Fridays with The Gypsy Mama where we freely write for five minutes. Truthfully, today is a day that I spent a little longer than five minutes. It’s the day that gave me Light.

    Share with me in the comments how you are spending this Good Friday and Easter weekend. What are your reflections? How does Jesus as “the Light of the World” leave you feeling?

    Happy Good Friday, dear friends. May you experience God’s grace through Jesus’ death and resurrection this weekend.

  • The Mission Behind Triple Braided

    “A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.”

    Ecclesiastes 4:12

    Over the past few years since I began writing here at Triple Braided, this blog has metamorphosed and become more refined as I process experiences in my life. I write out out of my experiences, and those experiences have mostly been John’s sickness and then later my years as a single woman. From my season of singleness comes my passion for single women, and what I believe to be one of the reasons God allowed me to experience those years, so that I can encourage and minister to other women in their season of singleness. For this I consider those years a blessing, and I honestly would not change them if it means that they can be used to show others a glimmer of Jesus in their lives.

    However, my life has changed since then. Even though I still feel like that single girl now embodying a married woman’s body, the reality is that I am married, and now I am going to have a baby. My thoughts swarm with questions and ideas and wonderings about these seasons of my life, too, and I need a space to lay down all of this fullest in my mind. That place is Triple Braided.

    There is a common theme in my life, which I first recognized at the end of my years as a single woman. Regardless of what season I have been in or am in now, I still struggle with surrendering my life to Jesus. I struggle with keeping Him as the Third Braid in my life. I struggle with laying my life down for a bigger purpose that I know nothing of yet. For me, it’s the everyday where I struggle with surrender the most. It is easier for me to surrender my husband being on life support or my mom dying of cancer. It is easier for me to have courage and hope in the experiences that I literally cannot control. But everyday I struggle with surrendering the little things that lead me to bondage and eventually will no longer be little but will become strongholds that are harder to mend. The mission of Triple Braided comes from my struggle with surrender.

    I may be considered an “expert” in singleness only because when you are out of something is suddenly become crystal clear. And like I said, I still feel that single girl trapped inside a married woman’s body. I don’t want that for other single women. I want them to feel freedom in their single years and in their future marriages. Single women are my heart, and Triple Braided will always have a prominent place for you here. I will continue to write for you to hopefully shed some wisdom, love, and encouragement on this season of your life.

    And by no means am I an expert in marriage or motherhood. I tend to always feel like whatever stage I’m in it is the “hardest things I’ve ever done”, and I feel that way about marriage right now. Marriage is hard. And I hear motherhood is harder. I know nothing about either of them really. But I want to share what God shows me in these areas of my life, too, so that others may see Him in their lives.

    So this is the direction Triple Braided is taking. The mission is to encourage women in a life surrendered to Jesus through every season so that we can experience unbroken lives. 

    Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their live for me will save it.”

    Luke 9:23-24 (NIV)

    I pray that God will be glorified though my words and that together, as a community of Christ-followers, we will experience peace through seeking to lead surrendered, Triple Braided lives. I am honored to have you a part of it.

    Do you struggle with surrendering each day to Jesus? Is it more in the “big things” or in the “little things” like me? Leave a note in the comments. I would love to hear from you.

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  • 3 Hearts Made 1 Baby: Our Story of Hope After Transplant

    We stood in the chapel on the sixth floor of Duke University Hospital.  Hands clasped, heads bowed, and eyes closed.  The circle tight – there were seven of us in all, some related by blood and some related by spirit – our hearts focused as one.

    Each person’s turn shared the same begging to God – please help John recover from his heart transplant, please help his organs wake up, please let him wake up, please don’t let him die.

    Then it was my sister-in-law’s turn – John’s sister. She prayed for all of these miracles just like the rest of us, and then she prayed for something extra – something a little more.  She prayed for new life – not of the soul kind or of the life-span kind, but of flesh and blood, a new life that may just possibly come from this man who lay down the hall with a different heart in his chest than the one that was there the day before.

    “Please, Lord” , she asked, “please, bless Brenda and John with a baby one day.  Maybe even many babies”.

    And there in the depths of despair and feelings of hopelessness there was hope.

    So through the next several weeks when I sat daily in the same chapel on the sixth floor, alone and quiet, I, too, began to pray for a flesh-and-blood life to come out from the new heart John received.

    Today that child is here with me in this room tucked deep inside my womb, a prune length size, only eleven weeks old.

    We’re going to have a baby . . .  The miracles continue . . .

    The man whose life ended abruptly, without warning or hint that his time had come, gave his heart to John to live some years longer here with me.  And now, that same heart made it possible to create a brand new life – of the flesh and blood and soul kind.  Who knows how much more life his heart left behind will create as it now pounds in John’s chest.

    And our donor’s family. How I wish I knew them by name.  Just to show them how their selflessness in the middle of agonizing grief produced miracles – more than we can count.

    Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your continuous grace upon our lives and for giving us the precious gift of this baby.  We give you every ounce of the praise, glory, and honor.

    The month of April is Donate Life Month. Are you registered to be an organ donor?  I encourage you to please consider it.  I am happy to answer any questions you may have based on our experience.  You can email me at brenda@brendarodgers.com.  And please visit Donate Life America for more information.

    So now I begin preparing to be a mommy. I can’t wait to share this new journey with you. I know I will need more of your words of wisdom than my words here can give, so please offer them graciously! And if you have a spare prayer, we would be most grateful for prayers for our sweet child!

     Did you know that you can have Triple Braided delivered straight to your inbox? Just type in your email address below! And be sure to follow Triple Braided on Facebook and Twitter.

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