What do you say to your children, that conveys love to them? Is it a specific saying or prayer? I don’t really know when it began, but when my children were very young, I started telling them that I loved them more than they could imagine. I would say, “I love you.” They would say, it back. Then for emphasis, I would say, “How much do I love you?”  They would say, “More than you can imagine.”

A child doesn’t have to be burned to learn that fire is dangerous. It’s not necessary to be hit by a car to learn that a street is not a safe place to play. Children need consistent reinforcement of truth to learn it. For most children, this will be enough to shape their thinking and influence their actions.   While they are very young we take them by the hand moving them out of danger while reinforcing with our words, “It’s hot, don’t touch it or it will burn you. It is dangerous to go into the street. That is a no! This is a yes.” Our actions and words influence their understanding of danger.

At Leader Formation we focus on the leader rather than leadership.

The world staggers under the weight of tragedies.

Our earth sloshes through floods in Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and areas of the United States. Hurricanes shred buildings in the Caribbean and the U.S. Fires continue to char parts of North America. Mexico is reeling from a massive earthquake. Man-made dangers loom as well: threats of nuclear strikes weigh on minds while the blood of Rohingya people flows in Myanmar. Worldwide, refugees number in the millions.

Houston lies devastated by flood waters from Hurricane Harvey. Monsoon flooding has decimated parts of India, Bangladesh, and Nepal. Three more hurricanes at the same time left islands demolished and major portions of Florida without power. A once-in-a-century earthquake measuring 8.2 in Mexico buried people alive in some of the poorest areas. North Korea is threatening to obliterate us.

It’s been a little over 3 weeks since my firstborn started Kindergarten.

I am happy to report that for the most part, things are going great. Of course, there were a few meltdowns at first about bringing a lunch from home versus buying food in the cafeteria, but I am thinking this just goes with the territory, right?

Life transitions can be tricky to navigate. And, sometimes we get so busy navigating them that it’s easy to forget one of the most important things—prayer.

Admittedly, I never used to think much about immigration. Middle-class, Caucasian, Midwest U.S. American, immigration did not have an impact on my daily life. My high school graduating class was 99% Caucasian. The other 1% was African American. Everyone I knew looked like me, talked like me, and was (more or less) of the same economic status as me. The sum of my “immigration experience” was that my great-grandparents had emigrated from the Netherlands to the United States in the early 1900s, back when Lady Liberty still had open arms.

During our weekly Bible Study, I listened as a woman shared about her Christian friend whose godly mother had recently died. This sorrowing woman was grieving and needing comfort. To help with her grief, she drew from something she had heard in the culture—that her mother had now become an angel and was present with her, communicating with her. As we talked about this, looking into what was true or not and how to help someone grieving like that, our discussion encompassed three different issues.

1. Do Christians become angels when they die?

2. Can our loved ones in heaven see what is happening in our lives on earth and communicate with us?

3. When grieving, how do we turn to Jesus for our comfort rather than traditions that make us feel good but draw us away from Him?