Find biblical wisdom and practical encouragement for building Christ-centered marriages, raising children, strengthening families, and honoring God at home.
I was reading 1 John this morning when something, perhaps very timely with the holidays in full force, captivated me. “But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” 1 John 4:8 NLT It’s easy to dismiss the conviction in this verse by tallying up all the people we love…
From what I could see, the situation didn’t seem fair. The longer I stewed over the details, the more animosity and frustration grew. Deep down, I knew I needed to forgive, but self-preservation and fear of being taken advantage of resisted the right thing. “Help me, Jesus,” I cried. Just the name of Jesus reminds…
Love is patient… 1 Corinthians 13:4 ESV It is no mistake that patience is listed first. We could punctuate love here. Every other attribute of affection falls under a patient umbrella. When we are patient, we have self-control in times of trouble. We can patiently persevere through the hard times. Be joyful in hope, patient in…
When we look for the good in others, Proverbs 11:27 tells us, “favor will find you.” The righteous follow a clear path in life; they look for the good and are delivered from trouble. The righteous are generous, strengthen their communities, and seek opportunities to serve friends and relieve the poor. Those who do good…
Being in a relationship is about finding someone you can struggle well with. If you can’t struggle well, it’s easy to walk away. That’s what I’ve learned while watching my Ma and Pa work out 36 years of problems that have presented themselves. I witnessed that when pain and pride interrupted love with its tension,…
The evidence of a story is in the lines they leave across the face. Distance can deliver a hard truth that separates two souls. But time, time is a treasure that heals with all the parts it won’t let us forget. 20 years have blown by; the seasons have changed many times, sometimes with the…
These seasons are shorter looking back from the other side. Honesty has a way of stretching the sentences for us; it’s a treasure that loses power the longer we wait. Honesty tethers hearts more than playing the hero ever does. Even the tears unlock a vault of vulnerability that acts like a magnet between two…
We live in a ‘me too’ community. It feels good to connect with someone who shares our struggles and experiences life. But when we’re hurting, ‘me too’ isn’t what we want to hear. Good intentions may be behind the phrases we use with hurting people. However, in a place of excruciating pain, good intentions are…
Loving hard with our hearts and hands, and then even harder with our feet, Asking, caring, and wildly serving each other when the world wants our time, Understanding when the words still bring tears, Forgiving when the pain is yet fresh, Humbly accepting failures, even if it’s out of empathy, Adjusting the words and the…
The heartbreak of being lonely temporarily is far less painful than the heartbreak of giving your heart to someone permanently and then discovering they didn’t deserve it, leaving you broken and left to start over again. You don’t even have to walk down the aisles filled with chocolate-covered hearts to see that Valentine’s Day is…