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Speaker 1: Life Audio.

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Speaker 2: You're listening to every Day Prayers with Million Praying Moms,

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Speaker 2: helping you pray God's word for your family in the

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Speaker 2: areas you need it most. I'm your host, Nicolette Bell. Here,

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Speaker 2: we believe prayer isn't a last resort. It's our first

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Speaker 2: and best response in parenting, and every day we come

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Speaker 2: together to partner with God for the hearts of our children.

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Speaker 2: In the month of April, we are hosting the Everyday

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Speaker 2: Prayers for Gentleness book Club on the podcast to celebrate

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Speaker 2: our newest release, We're So Glad You're here Today. The

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Speaker 2: author of our new book and mom of three, Christy Thomas,

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Speaker 2: will lead our devotion in prayer to challenge us and

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Speaker 2: encourage us on our journey to grow in gentleness. To

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Speaker 2: learn more about Christy, our new book, and the Million

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Speaker 2: Praying Mom's ministry, visit Millionprayingmoms dot com. You can find

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Speaker 2: a link in our show notes. After a brief word

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Speaker 2: from our sponsors, will pray together for our children.

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Speaker 3: Today's devotion is for your whole family, following this month's

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Speaker 3: topic of gentleness. This devotion will be read for you

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Speaker 3: by the author, me, Christy Thomas, and has been used

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Speaker 3: with permission from Cregal Publications. It comes from my book Fruitful,

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Speaker 3: one hundred Family Experiences for Growing in the Fruit of

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Speaker 3: the Spirit, which is available wherever books and e books

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Speaker 3: are sold. Let's get into it. John eight ten to

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Speaker 3: eleven records this incident. Jesus stood up again and said

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Speaker 3: to the woman, where are your accusers? Didn't even one

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Speaker 3: of them condemn you? No, Lord, she said, And Jesus said,

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Speaker 3: neither do I go and sin no more. Have you

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Speaker 3: ever heard the saying sticks and stones may break my bones,

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Speaker 3: but words will never hurt me. It's true that sticks

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Speaker 3: and stones really can break bones. In fact, in Bible times,

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Speaker 3: when someone behaved especially bad, they were sometimes punished by

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Speaker 3: having stones thrown at them until they died. Yikes. One day,

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Speaker 3: Jesus was teaching at the temple. A whole crowd was

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Speaker 3: around him listening. Suddenly people started murmuring and moving. As

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Speaker 3: a group of religious leaders pushed their way through, they

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Speaker 3: dragged a woman behind them. Can you imagine a group

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Speaker 3: of angry teachers yanking a woman along by her hair

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Speaker 3: pray messed up? I imagine them shoving her down in

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Speaker 3: front of Jesus and the lady weeping on the ground

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Speaker 3: with her hands covering her head. These leaders knew they

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Speaker 3: were right. This woman had committed a great sin and

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Speaker 3: she deserved to be punished. They wanted to stone her,

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Speaker 3: and they wanted Jesus to admit that she deserved to

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Speaker 3: be stoned to death. If they couldn't get their way,

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Speaker 3: they hoped Jesus would at least say something that would

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Speaker 3: make people think he was a big faker. Instead of

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Speaker 3: getting angry at her or at the Pharisees, Jesus just

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Speaker 3: bent down and started writing in the dust. No one

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Speaker 3: knows what he wrote, but some people think he started

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Speaker 3: writing a list of sins that those teachers themselves were

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Speaker 3: guilty of. When he stood up, he simply said, let

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Speaker 3: the one who is never sinned the first stone. Every

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Speaker 3: single one of them walked away. When it was just

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Speaker 3: Jesus and the woman, he finally spoke to her. I

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Speaker 3: imagine her slowly peeking out from behind her hands, face

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Speaker 3: dirty with dust and tears, surprised that no one was

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Speaker 3: left to chuck a rocket her. Maybe she expected Jesus

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Speaker 3: to yell instead, He said he didn't condemn her. Go

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Speaker 3: and sin no more, he said, Jesus did not have

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Speaker 3: to be gentle with this woman. She had sinned, and

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Speaker 3: we know that sin separates us from God. But instead

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Speaker 3: of yelling at her or punishing her, Jesus was gentle.

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Speaker 3: The Bible doesn't tell us what happened after, but I

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Speaker 3: think she probably reacted to Jesus' gentleness, just like Szechias

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Speaker 3: did with a changed life. It's so easy to look

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Speaker 3: at kids who make bad choices and condemn them. That

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Speaker 3: boy she threw a chair across the room, he must

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Speaker 3: be crazy. That girl who gossips behind everyone's back, she's

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Speaker 3: so mean. But being gentle includes not condemning others. Just

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Speaker 3: like Jesus. You do not have to be best friends

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Speaker 3: with kids who are making bad choices, but God can

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Speaker 3: help you be gentle with them. I'm going to give

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Speaker 3: you a couple of conversation starters. Feel free to pause

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Speaker 3: a podcast in between to have the conversation about them.

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Speaker 3: Question one, Tell about a time when you wanted someone

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Speaker 3: else to get punished.

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Speaker 1: What happened to them?

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Speaker 3: Question two. When the Holy Spirit lives in us, he

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Speaker 3: changes us to be more like Jesus, but we have

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Speaker 3: to choose to join in. How could you choose gentleness

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Speaker 3: this week, Let's pray together Jesus, thank you for your

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Speaker 3: gentleness toward sinners. Please help us choose gentleness toward others

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Speaker 3: just like you do.

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Speaker 1: Use Jesus name MT.

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Speaker 2: As part of our book called this Month, we are

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Speaker 2: making all of the wonderful perks of our paid Patreon

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Speaker 2: members available at the free tier. That's right. The daily

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Speaker 2: devotionals in written form, bonus materials, special previews, and more

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Speaker 2: free to you this month only. See the link in

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Speaker 2: Our show notes are on our website to get connected.

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Speaker 2: Until next time, friends, the Lord bless you and keep you.

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Speaker 2: Make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you.

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Speaker 2: May the Lord look with favor upon you and give

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Speaker 2: you peace