I met Max and Shirley during my freshman year of college. It was love from the beginning of our unusual friendship. Away from home for the first time, I connected with this seventy-plus-year-old married couple who served food and washed dishes in my college cafeteria. Maybe it was partly because that year, my own grandma…
“Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips.” (Psalm 141:3 NIV) I recently read a parenting book by Ted Tripp which posed the question,if someone was to record how you talked to your children, what would be recorded? What would you be caught saying on tape? How would your…
I vividly remember my youth pastor’s wife in high school giving the girls in our youth group at the time a gentle admonishment: You can be kind no matter your personality. Some women are sugary sweet while some of us are spicy. Some wouldn’t hurt a fly while some speak sarcasm fluently. We need both!…
“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17 NIV) It’s been a while since I have had the opportunity to get into really deep, personal discussion with anyone about spiritual things, my thoughts on life, ways I could grow or change to be more like Jesus. The kinds of relationships in which…
Letting your babies go is so hard. I’m sure you can recall all the details of the day when each one of your kids headed out into this great big world for the first time, with probably with their hero-of-the-moment adorning their backpack and matching lunch box as they kissed you goodbye with both fear…
“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2:11 NIV). Decades ago, when I first became a Christ-follower, my church created a video of several people answering a question. The question was a simple one: “What do you see when you look in…