- Katherine feels the weight of responsibility for managing her family’s holdings. Have you had a time when you felt burdened under the weight of responsibility? If so, how did you handle it?
- Katherine’s cousin, Horace, asks her, “Do you remember what it was like to be carefree?” Have you ever been lured into a false sense of security? How strong was the temptation to have someone else solve your problems? How can we combat the idol of comfort or pleasure in our lives?
- Horace liked to poke at past wounds to manipulate Katherine. “Besides, who else is going to have you since the Turner boy backed out?” Has there been a time when others or negative self-talk liked to remind you of your weaknesses? How have you overcome it? What resources do you use to combat the negative voices? What does the Bible say about how God sees you?
- Stephen thinks he has life all figured out. He’ll marry Julia, have a brood of children, and run Willowstone Farm with his supplemented income from training horses. Kate then appears in his life. Have you ever thought your plans were the best, and then God changed them? How did you handle the situation?
- Katherine panics when Lady Felton asks for her name, allowing a mistruth to be believed. How does her mistruth escalate her problems? Has there been a time when you held back speaking the whole truth? Would it have been easier to have told the full truth from the start? How is speaking the truth a test of your faith?
- Stephen talks about the Bible story of Samson regaining his strength, but Samson never regains his eyesight, and Stephen equates it with the law of physics and God’s moral law. “If we step out a second-story window, we expect to hit the ground, but how many times have we sinned and expected to get away with it?” Have you tried to justify or talk your way out of negative consequences? How does knowing that God is forgiving and that although there are consequences, Jesus’s blood covers our sins change your worldview?
- Stephen’s unforgiveness of his deceased aunt for the pain she caused his family, including his father’s leg injury, kept Katherine from revealing the truth of her identity. In what ways does unforgiveness hold people back?
- When Lord Pewitt appeared at Willowstone Farm asking about Katherine, Katherine ran instead of trusting God with her situation. How does the Bible story of the fiery furnace with Shadrach Meshach and Abednego change her thinking? Tell of a time you had to step out in faith and trust God had you.
