Category: Uncategorized

Hi readers-

I just wanted to let you know about something…

My dad passed on Saturday (January 6) after a difficult hospitalization that began on Christmas Day. He was 80 and his health had been gradually declining for quite some time, so it was not completely unexpected. An Army Ranger and Vietnam vet, he served this country proudly. My parents were married 58 years on December 29.

I’m taking a short break from blogging and podcasting while I tend to family responsibilities.

The Lord is sustaining us, and your prayers are appreciated.

I took the photo above yesterday at the state veterans cemetery where my dad’s remains will be interred. The grounds are beautiful, and some of the wreaths placed by Wreaths Across America were still out.

Ladies, I’m so sorry, but lesson 9 of Choose What Is Right will probably not be posted until tomorrow. We are covering a tremendous amount of Scripture in lesson 9, and that, plus being out of town last week and the holiday this week has put me behind. I want to be careful in keeping with James 3:1, and get this right, so, unless I unexpectedly get finished early, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait one more day. Again, I apologize.

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I also wanted to remind you that the annual Open Hearts in a Closed World online conference is next week:

July 10-14- Open Hearts in a Closed World online women’s conference. Monday – Thursday- teaching sessions. Friday- Q&A. Mark your calendars and join me, Susan Heck, Martha Peace, and many more godly women as we teach on “Growing in Godliness in a Godless Generation”. Music by Hymns of Grace. Tune in every day between 8:30 – 11:00 a.m. (CST). FREE. No registration. Click here for more details or to ask questions.

You’ll be able to watch on several platforms, or just pop by the blog, right here, every day next week, and I’ll have the YouTube video ready for you starting at 8:30 a.m. CST.

Yes, to answer the question on everyone’s minds, the teaching videos will still be available after their initial broadcast. Let me prove it to you! If you’d like to prime your OHCW pump, you can watch – or re-watch! – previous years’ conferences at these links: 2020, 2021 & 2022.

I hope you’ll enjoy watching the conference as much as I always enjoy teaching in it.

UPDATE (January 2, 2023) – Thank you so much to everyone who contributed so generously. My family and I were truly touched by your kindness.

I said (below) that I would let you know as soon as the cost of the bills was covered so that no more donations would be necessary. As of today, we are right at the figure we need to cover the bills.

Again, our deepest thanks. It is always so humbling and encouraging to watch the body of Christ at work taking care of one another. May the Lord richly bless you.

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Hello, friends-

A couple of months ago, I experienced a medical issue which necessitated a trip to the emergency room, several doctor visits, and two new (lifelong) prescriptions. Praise God – what could have been a serious issue was caught in time and is now under control.

Unfortunately, all of these medical interventions have left us with some bills which, while not so enormous that they will render us homeless and starving in the street, are large enough to sting a bit.

If you’ve followed my ministry for any length of time, you know that all of the materials I write, including my Bible studies, are free, and I don’t put anything behind a paywall. I don’t receive any income from blogging, podcasting, or ads, except from a handful of kind donors on Patreon and PayPal.

Normally, that’s just fine. I do what I do to serve the women of the body of Christ, not to earn a salary. My husband supports our family, and we consider any monies I receive from this ministry to be supplementary “Proverbs 31-ish” income.

Also, normally, I don’t ask for financial support, but if you’ve benefited from this ministry and would like to help out, I’m opening up the floor for anyone who would like to help us defray the cost of these bills, even with a small gift. As soon as that cost is covered, I will let you know, so that further donations won’t be necessary.

If you’d like to contribute, you can click over to my Financial Support tab or see the info below.

Thank you, dear ones, for your kindness and generosity.

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(Normally, I send a thank you note to donors, but Cash App does not provide any contact information and only lets me respond to donors with an emoji. Please know that I am deeply thankful for your kindness and generosity and promise to steward your gift well.)

Hello, friends-

A couple of months ago, I experienced a medical issue which necessitated a trip to the emergency room, several doctor visits, and two new (lifelong) prescriptions. Praise God – what could have been a serious issue was caught in time and is now under control.

Unfortunately, all of these medical interventions have left us with some bills which, while not so enormous that they will render us homeless and starving in the street, are large enough to sting a bit.

If you’ve followed my ministry for any length of time, you know that all of the materials I write, including my Bible studies, are free, and I don’t put anything behind a paywall. I don’t receive any income from blogging, podcasting, or ads, except from a handful of kind donors on Patreon and PayPal.

Normally, that’s just fine. I do what I do to serve the women of the body of Christ, not to earn a salary. My husband supports our family, and we consider any monies I receive from this ministry to be supplementary “Proverbs 31-ish” income.

Also, normally, I don’t ask for financial support, but if you’ve benefited from this ministry and would like to help out, I’m opening up the floor for anyone who would like to help us defray the cost of these bills, even with a small gift. As soon as that cost is covered, I will let you know, so that further donations won’t be necessary.

If you’d like to contribute, you can click over to my Financial Support tab or see the info below.

Thank you, dear ones, for your kindness and generosity.

---

Click here.

Click “send”.
Enter my e-mail address:
MichelleLesley1@yahoo.com

Select
Sending to Friends and Family
(If you select “Goods and Services,” PayPal will deduct a fee, and I will not receive your whole gift.)

Click Here

Click Here

My cashtag is:
$MichelleLesley1

(Normally, I send a thank you note to donors, but Cash App does not provide any contact information and only lets me respond to donors with an emoji. Please know that I am deeply thankful for your kindness and generosity and promise to steward your gift well.)

Thank you for all of your prayers and kind comments last week. I just needed a break and y’all were very gracious about it. I never expected such an outpouring of sweet comments and messages. My followers are the best, and you are so much kinder to me than I deserve.

One of the things last week finally gave me the time to do was to sit down and prayerfully think through the daily pressure of maintaining an online presence. It takes a lot of time and work to…

• post blog content five times a week
• study, research, and write original articles and content 3-4 times a week
• write podcast scripts
• maintain a daily presence on seven social media platforms
• create original memes
• prep and travel for conferences
• do guest appearances on other podcasts

…and whatever else I’m forgetting at the moment. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not complaining. I love this ministry and what I do. I just don’t have enough hours in the day to do all of those things with the level of excellence I’d like to. And meeting all of those deadlines – mostly self-imposed – puts a lot of pressure on me (again, mostly self-imposed¹). That’s been nagging at the back of my mind for a while, but I’ve been so busy doing all of those things and meeting all of those deadlines that I haven’t really had time to contemplate it.

It’s no big whoop, I just need a little more time and a little less pressure. So I’m going to make a few changes. Some of them, the vast majority of you probably won’t even notice, but some of them, you will.

Effective immediately:

• I’m tinkering with the blog schedule. We’re going to give this a go and see how it works, and I might change my mind later, but right now, what I’ve decided to do is to cut back from blogging five days a week to three, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
  
  The Mailbag will move from Mondays to Tuesdays (and you don’t know how it’s killing me that Tuesday doesn’t start with an M for the alliteration – we might have to appropriate some Español and make it the Martes Mailbag :0)
  
  Wednesdays (during the non-summer months), we’ll alternate between the next lesson in the current Bible study and either an original feature article (what I used to run on Fridays – articles on false teachers, biblical topics, current events in evanglicalism, etc.) or other original content (movies, upcoming speaking engagement information, etc. – what I used to run on Tuesdays).
  
  Throwback Thursday will remain the same.
  
  If I have some extra content I want to share with you in a given week, I might throw that in on a Monday or Friday. (Like this post you’re reading right now.)
  
  The best way not to miss anything is to subscribe to the blog via email. If you’re using a computer, you’ll find the subscription box in the right sidebar. On your phone or tablet, scroll waaaaaay down. It’s near the bottom, between the “Good News” video and the picture of the piggy bank. (If you have trouble subscribing, click here for some advice.)

• I’m going to stop posting on my MeWe, Parler, and Gab pages. I’ll keep them open in case I ever need them (i.e. if I ever get kicked off the major platforms), but I’m no longer going to post content or interact. If you want to see my content on social media, I’m sorry, but you’ll have to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, (I’ll also continue to post first-run content on Pinterest) or subscribe to the blog via email (see above).

• I’m going to stop posting to my stories on Facebook (but not on Instagram). It’s the same content I post on my Facebook page, anyway.

• I’m going to cut back on the frequency of original memes I create and post on social media.

• I will most likely not post blog content during the days I’m traveling for speaking engagements.

• I’m going to take days off from posting content more frequently than I do now: when I’m prepping for conferences, when I just need a day off, etc.

That’s pretty much it for now. I’m toying with a few other minor ideas (there’s one thing I actually want to add if I can figure out how to do it), but I’ll give you a heads up on those when I make up my mind.

Thanks again for your understanding, your kindness, and your loyal readership and social media following.

¹I say “mostly self-imposed” because I’m not under financial or contractual obligation for most of my ministry. I don’t earn any income (from advertising or anything else) for blogging, podcasting, etc. The only remuneration I receive is from speaking engagements, and the handful of followers -whom I deeply appreciate- who donate through PayPal and Patreon.