Posted on May 15, 2013.
“Here is one of the most amazing privileges about growing intimately in our relationship with God, as well as in our marriage: We never “arrive.” There are always more journeys ahead, more opportunities, more challenges. This challenge is before you now. We’re here to help and guide and provide plenty of suggestions. Most of all, God is readily available to direct—and bless—your journey.”
Excerpted from Faith Tango by Carolyn and Craig Williford
Daily Reflection: How can you take another step in growing more intimate in your relationship with God?
Posted on May 13, 2013.
“Have you had sex with this man?” Dannah Gresh, author of Get Lost and What Are You Waiting For,” asked that question of an audience staring at a big screen photo of NFL football player Tim Tebow during TEDxPSU this spring. The audience of 900, mostly Penn State University students, was challenged to consider if it was possibly intolerance of virginity that led the media to print the question along with the offer of a one million dollar ransom for anyone who could prove they’d taken Tebow’s virginity. She then used social science to debunk the myths that perpetuate the lie that those who embrace their virginity are doomed to have bad sex, proving not only that those who reserve sex for marriage have great sex but when you have sex with just anyone “your body makes a promise whether you do or not.”
As a resident of Penn State, Gresh coaches college students seeking to define their sexual and relationship theology. She has found that students who feel most discriminated against for their sexual choices are those who choose to reserve sex for one mutually monogamous lifetime partnership. In other words, they’re virgins. Her recent calculations found that there may be as many as 8,360 virgins on campus, but they tend to conceal it. Could it be that the banner of tolerance does not include them?
To watch, “The Walk of Fame vs The Walk of Shame: Dannah Gresh at TEDxPSU, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C24CmKxRPdQ
Posted on May 13, 2013.
The final eNovella in Mona Hodgson’s Quilted Heart series, Ripples Along the Shore, goes on sale May 21, 2013! To celebrate, we’re giving away this quilter’s prize pack, complete with a handmade quilt square from Mona Hodgson’s sister, Linda, as well as some goodies from Mona herself.
Who can enter? Anyone who has purchased or pre-ordered one (or more!) of the Quilted Heart series eBooks! If you’ve purchased Dandelions on the Wind, Bending Toward the Sun, or Ripples Along the Shore, then simply fill out this form, and you’ll be entered for a chance to win. If you haven’t fed your eReader with one of these great eNovellas yet, you can find them wherever eBooks are sold! Just enter by June 4, 2013. We’ll announce the winner on June 5th!
Posted on May 10, 2013.
Battle-times are painful times. But they also are defining moments, providing opportunities to identify more clearly what we stand for…and what we do not. When we’re challenged, truly challenged, to fight for the things we deem most important—faith, family, friendship, life itself—we recognize that everything else is transitory, temporal. And we also recognize our dependence on God as our ally, our strength, our shield (Psalm 28:7).
As parents, we’re tempted to shield our children from every strife. The bully. The bad teacher. The pain of false accusations and unfair decisions and attacks on their faith. We
want to protect them when we really should be teaching them how to protect themselves—to truly utilize the weapons of God’s Word, prayer, truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation. Are we helping them commit Scripture to heart? If so, God can bring those verses to mind, helping them respond to the enemy’s strike. Are we teaching them to rely on prayer as an honest conversation that often results in answers? Then they’ll know to seek his direction as they discern truth from lies and fight injustice. Are we teaching them how to settle into God’s own peace in the midst of the most fearsome storm? If so, they’ll be able to stand strong, even when confronting difficult circumstances.
If we want our kids to be battle-ready, we need to help them train with the weapons God has given us.
Excerpted from Upside-Down Prayers for Parents by Lisa Bergren
Daily Reflection: How can you help your kids become battle-ready?
Posted on May 9, 2013.
I’m a step-parent so Mother’s Day always holds some bittersweet moments for me. I’ve learned through 36 years how to step back, step-aside, step-away and even step-up to support my husband and to honor the mother of his children as well. Mothering didn’t appear the way I had always imagined it would — as a Hallmark Card. It’s been more like the cards that make you laugh or even tear up with the honesty of sentiment. My step-children have always remembered me on mother’s day often giving me the greatest gift which is to share their father with me through the years.
Dorothea Dix, a social reformer of the 19th Century was never a mother nor was she a step-mother. Her own mother may well have been mentally ill. At least she was "unavailable." Dorothea tried desperately to adopt a distant cousin when the girl’s mother died but other relatives intervened. Her students often became her family as she opened several schools for girls, something rare in the Boston area in the 1820s. She maintained relationships with these young women after they married and sometimes traveled with their families finding herself an honorary aunt or grandmother.
Yet she found a way to be a mother. Some of those she helped were children locked up with a mentally ill parent in a jail or a back room where so many suffered sitting against cold brick walls in the dead of winter without heat. Some of those for whom she worked were adults but whose ability to understand their plight was like that of a child. It’s said she had a soothing yet powerful voice that calmed the distressed. However she brought comfort, she mothered others, giving of herself and modeled the mother in each of us.
Original devotional from Jane Kirkpatrick, author of One Glorious Ambition
Daily Reflection: How can you help remind yourself to focus on trusting the Father instead of worring about others might think?
Posted on May 8, 2013.
As parents, we don’t like to see our kids fail—even if failure might provide just the reality check they need. I’m no scientist, but I think we’re biologically programmed to try to protect our children from the hurt and pain that failure brings, even if it means pushing them to persevere in something that lies outside their strengths and long-term interests. We make the tone-deaf kid practice piano. We book time at the batting cages for a child who’s better suited to the library than the ball field. We insist on the advanced-placement class, thinking it will aid on college applications, even though the pressure makes the child (and therefore the whole family) miserable all year.
Factor in the reality that we somehow think a child’s failure is a reflection on us—What will people think of me if my child fails?—and we actually exacerbate the problem. We pressure our children to achieve success at all costs, sometimes to the detriment of something more valuable. That isn’t to say we shouldn’t encourage our kids to do their best and to follow through on their commitments. I’m not advocating dropouts. I’m advocating dropping things that don’t matter and really winnowing down to the things that move God, the things that should move us too. I’m challenging us to weather the
What Will They Think of Me storm in favor of trusting—truly trusting—the Father with our kids.
Excerpted from Upside-Down Prayers for Parents by Lisa Bergren
Daily Reflection: How can you help remind yourself to focus on trusting the Father instead of worring about others might think?
Posted on May 7, 2013.
Missed Shaunti Feldhahn’s, LIVE webcast from May 7th? Watch the on-demand version now. Shaunti shares new insights and takes questions from webcast viewers about her recently updated books, For Women Only and For Men Only.
Posted on May 7, 2013.
As women, most of us need an example like Mary’s [the mother of Jesus] to help us believe God can use us in any significant way. We have no trouble believing God can use others, but when we look at ourselves, all we can see is our inadequacies and inabilities. So, clinging white-knuckled to our comfort zones, we tend to stick with what comes naturally. We shrink back from God’s upward call and find ourselves reluctant to say, “Yes, Lord! I’m Your servant. Use me as You please!”
I’ll be the first to admit that’s often been true of me. I find it easy to believe God can use my husband. When we started Gateway Church, for instance, I had no doubt God would bless it. My excitement soared, and my faith roared into action as I stood on the sidelines cheering God and Robert on!
But when my turn came, I felt altogether different. Faced with leading the women’s ministry, excitement fled. My faith faltered. I struggled with the idea of God’s using me because I knew myself too well. I was familiar with my weaknesses and character flaws. I could see all the reasons why I didn’t qualify. When I reminded the Lord of my inadequacies, however, He was unimpressed by them. He drafted me anyway. As I’ve already mentioned, that’s how it felt at first. Like I’d been conscripted into a calling I really wasn’t fit for. Yet, uncomfortable as it may be for us, God steers us in those directions for our own good. He does it so He can shine on us, in us, and through us into the lives of others. And I’ve found that by leaning into His plans, we can always find the greatest joy. Of course, it took me a while to discover that.
Excerpted from The Blessed Woman by Debbie Morris
Daily Reflection: How can you lean into the plans God has for you that may be out of your comfort zone?
