Let no one come to you without leaving better. ~Mother Teresa Mother Teresa’s words are so deeply etched on my heart that I repeat this simple phrase and let it soak into every fiber of my being anew every day: Let no one come to you without leaving better. No one. It’s a monumental task,…
Dear adult child, I know, I know. You’re an adult. It happened at age eighteen or so. But you will always be somebody’s child. Maybe you realize that all too well because your parents drive you crazy! No matter what you say, no matter how you pray, no matter how you confront them in love,…
About a year ago, a notable shift took place in our church congregation. Week by week, people from the neighborhood work release center (an incarceration facility where inmates are only allowed to leave for work and church) began filtering over, to our great delight. A few became a handful, and before long, they filled several…
Most mornings exercising in my neighborhood includes exchanging greetings with the same handful of people. We all walk the same circle at our own pace. I relish any morning walk, but a snowy winter followed by a rainy spring made this year’s summer mornings even more inviting. Yet something was missing this summer. Last year…
Remind the people…to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone. (Titus 3:1–2 NIV) Do you, like me, sometimes want to hide in a dark closet when you read the word gentle in Scripture? When I read this passage, though, I saw the idea of being gentle comes…
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…