“‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31 ESV) When our daughter turned five, the…
“Am I being led by love or pushed by fear?” Emily P. Freeman asks in one episode of her podcast. One of my children instantly comes to mind. He has a tendency to forcefully nudge people out of the way when he wants to get to where everyone else is going. Though this is slightly…
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9 NIV) We had Vacation Bible School at our church last a few weeks ago. I’ve participated as a leader before, but always in preschool classes because that’s the…
Envy is defined as “a feeling of discontent and resentment aroused by another’s desirable possessions or qualities, accompanied by a strong desire to have them for oneself.” Envy is equally damaging to all parties involved, the perpetrator as well as the object of envy. I think that envy, more than any other emotion, takes our…
Sitting on the deck of our home, taking in the sight of our curly willow trees, you would never know they were devastated by a freak winter storm just a few months ago. New leaves and branches are bursting out all over. In February no one would have predicted they would still be standing, let…
My five kids sometimes do the grocery shopping with me. We often use two carts, the oldest boy pushing one and me pushing the other. The second oldest boy checks off items on our list. The youngest two boys trail along, and my baby girl is in my cart. Without fail, another shopper will say,…