Prodigals break our hearts. One day, they grin toothlessly at the camera as they hold up the cake celebrating their 10th birthday, and it seems like the next when they peer at you confusedly with blue lips and skin as their body tries to process the poison of fentanyl. When you care about the prodigal,Continue reading “Kindness Came Looking”
Tag Archives: Christian living
Your Gentleness has made me Great
The snow has melted enough this week to be able to see the seesaw in our neighborhood playground. Soon, children will be back at play, laughing as they go up, crying when they pinch their heels or hit their chins on the way down. Yet, they all persist in loving the seesaw. It’s funny toContinue reading “Your Gentleness has made me Great”
All my Strength
“You just need to be strong.” In a Bible study with incarcerated women, I often heard this exhortation from one to another. It was a vague admonishment to resist emotion and put up a block wall to seal out the tragic, terrible things they had seen. It didn’t work. Each day’s physical strength drops likeContinue reading “All my Strength”
All my Mind
Dementia is a frightening prospect. We watch elderly relatives struggle with how to make a sandwich, what day it is, how to get dressed, or even who we are, and fear wells up within us. We mourn the loss of who they used to be as we also dread the possibility ofContinue reading “All my Mind”
All My Soul
In pre-marriage counseling, I told our Pastor, “I really hate folding socks.” It’s still true today. Socks are annoying. You have to locate both of them, and then, more often than not, you have to turn them inside out. Maybe it’s my innate laziness, or maybe it’s that I don’t really care ifContinue reading “All My Soul”
All My Heart
“Why does God want my heart?” It was a simple question from a young child in Sunday School. But it stumped me. I had to hunt for the answer. The Greatest Commandment begins with, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart,” and it is a recurring theme throughout Scripture. But whyContinue reading “All My Heart”
Where the Lord is at Home
So many children’s books have to do with home. From Little House on the Prairie to A House is a House for Me and from Sweet Home Alaska to The Hobbit, the search for a place of comfort and belonging is universal. So many of the children I have discipled have noContinue reading “Where the Lord is at Home”
The Verbs of Sin
Verbs stick out. They help your mind connect with what you are reading or listening to. Have you ever noticed the verbs of sin? Crouch, ensnare, separate, consume, harden, heap, and bring forth death make me want to run the other way. However, when sin is still only a temptation, I oftenContinue reading “The Verbs of Sin”
Bringing Holiness to Completion
Between Russia invading Ukraine and covid issues, problems fracture us. There are plenty of opinions but very few solutions. What if we could find all the solutions and be made whole? Isn’t that what the Ancient Greeks were looking for when they visited the Oracle of Delphi? Columbus searched for answers on everyContinue reading “Bringing Holiness to Completion”
The Big Game
Tomorrow is the big game. The Bengals square off against the Rams in Super Bowl LVI. What do you think quarterbacks Joe Burrow and Matthew Stafford will be doing in the morning? Stafford, quarterback for the Rams, recently told the press, “I think you treat it just like every other game when it gets toContinue reading “The Big Game”
Sarah Dixon Young 