Questions to prod your personal thinking and processing or for use in group discussion and are arranged by article title.

“Shame”

1.) What do you think of when you think of shame? And what are you ashamed of in your life?

2.) How does comparing ourselves to others increase affect our shame?

3.) What does the story of Mrs. Henshaw teach you about shame?

4.) Which do you wrestle with more: parenting shame, bedroom shame, body image shame?

5.) How could sharing your story help eradicate shame for you?

“Consider the Birds”

1.) Debbie Blue uses birds to help bring our thoughts to God. What birds have you seen lately—and how can you use future sightings to bring your thoughts to God?

2.) How does seeing vultures as “death eaters” change your thinking about them?

3.) “Nesher” is often translated as “eagle.” How does it change your understanding to think of an eagle as a “griffon vulture”?

4.) Blue writes, “The spirit of God is among us and we often don’t even notice it because we are looking for something pure and white, but the spirit of God is more complicated than that--fuller and richer and everywhere.” How does this change your thinking about when, and how, you see God’s spirit?