As I sit in the hospital cafeteria typing this, amid the hustle and bustle of the lunch crowd, I feel God’s presence. With the rays of sunshine through the window, I feel God’s presence. As I watch my newborn son on the webcam in his NICU room, I feel God’s presence. When I see my husband hold our son, I feel God’s presence.
Read MoreIt was the beginning of February; Alana turned the calendar to the new month and felt a tug in her heart. She had started January with lofty goals that she would not join gossip sessions at work, and she had already failed.
Read MoreWhat is it to love? It's to surrender everything I think about a person, and to lean in and pray, "Lord, teach me to love them as you do". There is no checklist. It's different for each person we relate to. It's a matter of growing to learn to love. Beginning to see the person through the eyes of the Creator.
Read MoreA couple of years back when I visited Appa, he took me to his room and opened a draw, as if to show me a treasure. There in neat piles were all the letters, cards and paper clippings I had posted to him over the years. My eyes clouded with tears. That day I saw the soft tender part of my tall, dark, handsome and strong father.
Read MoreWhat is love and how do we know if it is lasting? I have asked myself this question for years. It has been present in the back of my mind starting with my broken family when I was a teenager and continuing through my many broken relationships and deaths of family members and friends over the years.
Read MoreValentine’s Day is just a day. It’s February 14th every year. It has 24 hours in it. The sun rises at the start of it and the sunsets at the end. We eat. We drink. We go about our lives. Valentine’s Day is just a day. The ‘day of love’ has passed us by yet again and still, there is something deeply ingrained in our concept of this day that leaves quite a lot of us feeling a little more ‘lovey dovey’ than usual.
Read MoreDon’t be deceived by the title. This book does not assume that one fine day all of its readers will be married. It’s not even written solely to the singles crowd. With relatable storytelling and sound wisdom gleaned from Scripture and plenty of difficult, awkward experiences, Marshall Segal titles his book to remind us that “on this side of heaven we are all not yet married” (15).
Read MoreWhat would Jesus do? In this time we are living in, this is a question we may need to be asking ourselves a little more frequently.
Read MoreI’ve said “I love you” to three people. I’ve been heartbroken over two of them. And by the real meaning, I only love one. By that math, that means I’m with the one I really love, right? Not quite. But this isn’t a “woe is me” story about breaking up and losing trust and not believing in love anymore. It’s about forgiving better and loving more.
Read MoreI remember it more than I like. I have a story almost exactly identical to this. I was with a huge group of friends, who are so loving and welcoming. They’re not intimidating or judgmental. They’re the opposite - silly and encouraging.
Read MoreThe other day I was at my church helping to set up for an event when out of nowhere I felt tiny arms wrap around me in a hug. I glanced down to see a little girl that I had never seen before. She looked up at me and said something which both surprised me and stuck with me: “I love you… what’s your name?”
Read More“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength,” this is the Greatest Commandment (Matthew 22:37-38). “Love your neighbor as yourself,” this is the Second Commandment (Matthew 22:39). Let’s unpack that “love” word just a bit in order to understand exactly what Jesus is asking of us today.
Read MoreAs women, we are so hard on ourselves. We are quick to critique our hair, our nails, our weight, our clothes, and our height. Hopefully, we aren’t this way with other people, but for ourselves? Yes, we are all too quick to be critical.
Read MoreI once believed the only stories worth reading boasted of intriguing romantic plot lines. Over the past few years, though, the Lord has shown me what love truly is – and what it is not.
Read MoreHave you ever had a moment where you know you absolutely should not say the words that are going through your mind, but somehow they come out anyway? I like to think I am a kind person most of the time, but when I get stressed or upset, I say things to my husband that I don’t intend to say. Rather than using my words lovingly to help us find a solution to a problem, I use them to cause harm.
Read MoreSomewhere along the way, a belief might have become a part of our thinking: we receive love when we do something good or something worthy of praise. As a result of believing this, we end up doing things, not out of love, but with the motive to receive love. When we view our relationships with a transactional mentality, it shapes how we believe God loves us. For example, if we do something good, we get love and if we do something bad, that love is taken away. Our brains revert to this perverted version of love; that is a lie. This destroys our view of God, what He has done for us, and His grace.
Read MoreI write this in the middle of deep silence. A sense of emptiness finds me, and I know it is not emptiness. It’s an ache. I work eight to twelve hour days, which is normal for most, and I have tried to shove too much in between. I finally found an hour to myself, and I wanted to cry. I cry a lot. When all the activity and bustle I have organized for myself no longer swirls around me, I am left to stare at all I have swept under the rug.
Read MoreLove is the unconditional commitment to the well-being of others. It is a gift from God and He has given us the perfect picture of love through the sacrifice of His Son. God’s grace is a result of His love for us. We are called to love one another regardless of our differences or if we feel we have been wronged. We are called to commit ourselves to loving others. This is a hard concept to comprehend sometimes. It’s easy to say that I love people, but when it comes to those who have hurt me, it can be so hard.
Read MoreThis past week, I sat in a courtroom looking into the eyes of the two defendants responsible for breaking into my car, stealing my identity to commit fraud, and causing such stress, anxiety, and fear for me these last few months. While panicking, waiting for the judge to address the courts, I was reminded of the words Jesus prayed on the cross for the very ones crucifying Him, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
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