For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. (Genesis 2:24 NASB) Here’s the rub: You’ve done your job as parents, and now your children have left to establish a family and/or life of their own. Whether they’re single or…
Christ himself was like God in everything. But he did not think that being equal with God was something to be used for his own benefit. But he gave up his place with God and made himself nothing. He was born as a man and became like a servant. (Philippians 2:6–7 NCV) Every September when…
For more than thirty years I have had a little devotional card–you know, those little cards about the size of a credit card–stuck to my kitchen cabinet door. It was published by ©Abbey Press, and I honestly don’t remember where I got it. On the front it simply says, “Lord, make me wise enough to let…
This year my oldest child turned eighteen and graduated from high school, and it was harder for me to let her take this step into adulthood than I thought. From the time we became parents, part of my and my husband’s parenting philosophy has been that we are raising our children to leave us, to…
I was a twenty-year-old youth pastor’s wife living in rural Colorado the day I stood in a bank ladies’ room and saw two lines on a stick staring back at me. A spirited young lady who worked the teller line next to me, often enticing me to join her in loudly singing bad versions of…
My youngest child is what we call an escape artist. Joey is eight and has Down syndrome. He also has limited impulse control and virtually no fear of strangers, wandering away from his parents (or teachers or other caretakers). Add to that a limited vocabulary and difficulty answering questions like “What’s your name?” or “Who…