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The One Thing
In the 1991 western comedy, City Slickers, Mitch Robbins (played by Billy Crystal) meets a grizzled cowboy named Curly Washburn (played by Jack Palance). Mitch and his two pals are being led by Curly on a two-week cattle drive from New Mexico to Colorado. Mitch hopes the excursion will give him a chance to find some purpose in his life. During one memorable scene, Curly and Mitch are alone on the trail riding their horses.[1] Unexpectedly, Curly turns to Mitch and asks, "You know what the secret to life is?" The city slicker shrugs his shoulders and responds, "No. What?" Curly lifts up his index finger and says,…
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In the Shadow of Christmas is a Cross
Christmas, for many, is colored with twinkling lights, the sound of singing, bright colored packages topped with elegant bows, cookies, candy, parties and laughter. But for others, Christmas is colored with the stark reality of roaring fires that ravage neighborhoods, hospital rooms, funeral homes, broken relationships, drunken relatives, and memories of those whose faces are missing from thier lives. As we teach our children about Jesus, God’s greatest gift to the world, we must not forget to teach them that the manger was shadowed by a cross. The Messiah in the manger was destined to be a man of sorrows acquainted with all our grief, bearing all our sin…
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Authority! How is That Working for You?
God blesses His people with authority. But how well are we wielding it? One of my high school teachers was disciplining her children over a broken vase, not sure which one had broken it, she told them that God had been watching and knew which one of them had done it. The daughter told her mom that God hadn’t talked for a long time and she was counting on that to continue. What we think about authority makes a difference in our relationships. 1 Peter 2:12 says that we are being watched.Our actions often result in how others judge God. This is true, especially with children. Look at the human…
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Christian Parenting Mistakes: #3 Giving Stuff Versus Giving Myself?
What does love look like? How do we teach it to our children? For some families, it is expressed through encouraging words or the giving of lots of stuff. For other families, it looks like a vacation in amusement parks or exotic places. The Bible teaches that love is not about giving stuff or even just spending time together, it is about giving self. Little in this world is satisfying long term. Words can be empty and time together isn’t always productive. Quoting Isaiah’s message from God, Jesus said, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” Time without investing our heart will never…
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Christian Parenting Mistakes- #1 Rules versus Relationship
When teaching a group of missionaries’ children about our identity in Christ. I talked about God as our Father. I read to them the verses in Hebrews 12:5-11 NET Bible "And have you forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as sons? ‘My son, do not scorn the Lord’s discipline or give up when he corrects you. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son he accepts. . .’ I talked about how God as creator is the expert about what is best for us. He says that for a parent to love their children well they must both train them in the ways…
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Marriage and Mother’s Day- What They Have in Common
Love and respect are fundamental for a solid marriage. We are told by all the experts that in a marriage relationship, men need to be respected and women need to be loved. The Bible supports this but also commands us to love and respect both men and women. Since these things are essential for a happy marriage and commanded by God then it is imperative that part of training up a child in the way he/she should go must include teaching them how to love and respect well. As we teach children to love and respect their parents we are giving them the basic tools for building a lasting marriage.…
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The Cost of Our Spiritual Adoption
Stacks of notarized documents, contracts, home inspections, social worker interviews, fire extinguisher requirements, bank statements, medical exams, blood tests, and more…these are just a few of the many customary items required to receive approval to adopt a child. The process is tedious, time-consuming, exhausting, frustrating, and…expensive. The average cost to adopt a child is $35,000 USD. That is the average cost for just one child. (It takes a village of lawyers, social workers, and adoption professionals.) The cost alone scares many families away from adoption. According to Hank Fortener, founder of the crowd-funding platform, AdoptTogether, 70% of couples considering adoption are deterred because of the costs. In the end, only…
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The Velveteen Christian
Our world is made up of a constant cacophony of voices. Truth, lies, myths, imaginations, and opinions fill our world with dissidence and confusion. We have information overload. It is difficult to discern who can be trusted because of the spin, the agendas, the omitted facts or the inserted insinuations that twist and distort. When I think of celebrating “Easter” once again after over fifty years, my heart is moved to get it right this time. To REALLY celebrate! As I have been praying about this, the Lord reminded me of my favorite story, the Velveteen Rabbit. I reflected on the conversation between Horse and Rabbit about becoming real. "What…
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Getting Over Mommy Guilt
It’s real. That pain in your gut feeling that you don’t teach enough, bake enough, snuggle enough, read enough, pray enough — and generally aren’t enough. Mommy guilt plagues us as we do our daily chores and celebrate milestones. The pressure to do more than we can, be more than we are, to give more than we have wells up from within. It leaves us feeling hollowed out, empty from trying to meet expectations that we can never quite achieve. Whether you’re a seasoned mom or just starting out, the daily challenges of raising kids wear on us. We’re tempted to absorb every stumble and struggle—telling ourselves that if only…
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Teaching Children to Respect Another’s Religion
What is the difference between teaching children that they need to respect others’ religion and teaching children to respect other religions? Grammatically the only difference is, the first is possessive meaning it belongs to another and the second could easily become possessive. As in, you might respect it so much that you would want to embrace it yourself. Can we teach our children to respect another’s religion without implying that it is a valid choice? I believe that we not only can do this but that we must. One of the fundamental aspects of being a human is that we above all other created beings have been given the gift…
