Is it Right to Hide Our Struggles from Fellow Believers?

In my Sunday school class several weeks ago, a fellow class member brought up the fact that we often keep our trials and tribulations from other church members. Sometimes, we don’t want to drag others down with our burdens, preferring to uplift them with a positive attitude and encouraging words. After all, other’s lives are…

The Bittersweet Experience of Changing Churches

I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye. – Psalm 32:8 This week, my husband and sat across from our pastor, a man whom we respect and admire, and let him know we would be attending a different church, one closer to…

A New Suit of Armor Every Day

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. – Ephesians 6:13 As a child in Bible class, I memorized the verses in Ephesians 6 about the armor of God. I recall lessons about each piece: salvation, truth,…

Faces Lifted Up

Ye also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf. – 2 Corinthians 1:11 The Apostle Paul spends much of the book of 2 Corinthians defending his apostleship. He appears to be greatly burdened, and…

Prayers That God Will Always Answer – And Some That He Will Not

As I read Jan Karon’s Mitford Bedside Companion this Sunday, I was reminded of prayers that God will always answer. Later that day, as my family and I listened to a recent sermon by Charles Stanley, I was reminded, in contrast, that there are also some prayers he will not answer. Karon’s protagonist, Episcopalian priest…

Seeing “Wondrous Things”

Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. – Psalm 119:18 As a long-time Christian, I can unconsciously speed through Bible reading. Or, upon hearing a familiar account from Scripture during a sermon, I might think, “I’ve heard that story before.” But if David – the man after God's…

Time: Key to Developing Intimacy with God

And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. And Simon and they that were with him followed after him. And when they had found him, they said unto him, All men seek for thee. – Mark 1:35-37 When Jesus spent…

Righteous Acts Bring Righteous Thoughts

Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. – Proverbs 16:3 Normally, I’m a planner. I like to think things through – sometimes to death – before I’m comfortable embarking on some new activity. But committing to any new, good habit often requires a little less thought and a lot more…

Be Strong, Be Strong, and…Be Strong!

Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law….This book of the law shall not depart out of…

My Weird Home-Schooled Kids

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. – 1 Peter 2:9 Twelve years ago, the decision my husband and I made to home-school (or homeschool, whatever your preferred spelling) our kids was met with mixed reviews.…