Have you ever disciplined a child only to hear him or her say, “That didn’t hurt!”? Perhaps you remember when you were that child. Did you ever see the look on a child’s face when you said, “This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you”? That child was unpersuaded. The writer of…
“That you can see these things when she plays is a gift. Never try to become its master, but serve it. Allow [the gift] to be what the Maker meant it to be.” (Nia Igiby, The Wingfeather Saga) The C written atop my first college English paper dumbfounded me. After recovering from the shell shock…
When I was a young mom, one of my greatest fears was losing one of our boys. At times, I allowed that fear to smother my faith and twist my thinking. Even after praying for God’s protection over my boys, I still struggled with letting go and trusting God. That twisted thinking allowed Satan to…
First Kings records a sad summary of King Solomon’s life, but we have other writings from him in the Bible, including the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes seems to offer a humble reflection on significant life endeavors with an understanding of human limitations. Ecclesiastes 3:9-15 says: What does the worker gain from his struggles? I have seen…
In her book Evidence Not Seen, Darlene Deibler Rose describes something incredible that happened when she was a prisoner at the Japanese Kempeitai prison in New Guinea during World War II. After weeks of horrific living conditions, interrogation, and living in constant fear of execution, Darlene witnessed a fellow female prisoner receive a bunch of…
When I first came to faith, the thing I struggled with most was what to do next. Everyone told me that the best way to get to know God was to read the Bible. Since I didn’t grow up in the faith, this seemed like an impossible task. I could make it through most of…