Using your God-given gifts brings you joy, but not everyone understands what drives you. I perused books on a shelf debating on a purchase when someone I knew greeted me with her hand on my arm, laughter bubbling through her words. “Don’t you want to write books some day? And how’s that going for you?”…
Have you ever won against the odds? In elementary school, shy and nonathletic, I stood on the perimeter of the crowd of kids on the playground watching my classmates race to the schoolyard fence and back. Memories get hazy, but I recall getting called upon to participate. The popular girls’ comments reflected their certainty of…
I remember myself as a teen crushing on a boy from afar or wishing to be included in a certain group of girls. We never outgrow the need for acceptance. Somehow through the decades, we still yearn to be valued, included, seen, accepted, wanted. Today acceptance might look like belonging to a certain group or…
God knows we’re going to fail. Failing is okay. It’s what we do with the failure that matters. Let’s look at someone who failed by rejecting his Lord and his friend when his own safety was at stake. Peter believed he wouldn’t forsake Jesus. He believed he was brave and able to withstand the pressures.…
When I read about Hezekiah in 2 Kings 19-20, the things he did right and the things he did wrong struck me. I also found four warnings that we could heed today to make our lives and those lives connected to us more pleasant. What Hezekiah did right When Hezekiah was in distress, he sought…
I recently read the account of an honorable government administrator who was wronged by his fellow managers. It all could have been avoided if the king had been aware of the corruption and dysfunction of his advisers, but alas, he wasn’t. Let me recount the story and share with you a few worthy lessons I…
My husband and I went to see A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, the movie about Fred Rogers and his children’s program, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. If you’ve seen the film, you know it is about an Esquire magazine writer who struggles with anger and unforgiveness toward his father. This writer was assigned a 400-word article…
Some of my friends declare that they can’t wait to see Jesus face to face. They say this with enthusiasm, with smiles, and with energetic fist pumps, joy sparkling in their eyes. But me, well, there must be something wrong with me because when I consider my own mortality and death, I feel sad. Facing…
Do you or your teen struggle with saying no? You do know, it’s okay to say no, right? A few teens I know struggle with the lie that they have to do more and to be more. In high school, it seems the pressure is super high to prove you have the best GPA or…