A Bitter Attitude
Great emphasis is being placed on living longer and better. Advances in medical science are making it possible for more and more people. Yet in spite of this, none of us can avoid growing old. One day aging will overtake all of us, and our bodies will shut down.
Does God Love Me?
It's not easy to understand the depth of God‘s love for us. Because of our pride and fear, we fail to grasp how undeserving we are and how free His love is.
Love Is Vulnerable
The experience of a heartbroken Christian woman (I’ll call her Mary) illustrates how love makes the lover vulnerable. Mary was a devoted wife who deeply loved her husband, but after 8 years and two children he left her for another woman. Her faith in God and her love for her children kept her going.
A Father's Blessing
A man who was grieving the death of his father said, "I am crying not only for my father, but for me. His death means that I'll never hear the words I always wanted to hear from him: that he was proud of me, proud of the family I've raised and the life I've lived."
Instead of repeating his father's mistake, the man later gave his own son the words of encouragement he himself had never heard, saying he was proud of him and the life he had made.
Porcupine People
Deep in a Wyoming canyon I came across the biggest porcupine I've ever seen. As he lumbered toward me, I watched him closely and gave him plenty of room. I was not about to get near a guy whose quills looked like missiles. No wonder he was alone!
God Is Alive!
The great 16th-century theologian Martin Luther once experienced a long period of worry and despondency. One day his wife dressed in black mourning clothes.
Fine Crystal
I have a friend—call her "Mary"—who tells me that her fondest memory is of the morning she broke her mother's "priceless" crystal.
Bearing A Grudge
English essayist and critic Charles Lamb (1775-1834) had this to say about a person he did not want to meet: "Don't introduce me to that man! I want to go on hating him, and I can't hate someone I know."
Indispensable
A talented stay-at-home mother wrote a delightful essay in which she vividly describes (without complaining) the frustrations, sacrifices, and loneliness that accompany her chosen lifestyle. It's not glamorous to deal with a fussy 18-month-old who is teething, to settle quarrels between an irrational 3-year-old and a pushy 5-year old, and to listen to the incessant chatter of small children. Yet she concludes that her role is indispensable for the total well-being of her children. How true!
