Remember Your First-Love Promises?
By Michele Scallion |
It was a warm, early summer day when Dennis invited me to go to lunch. We’d known each other as friends for three years in college, but we hadn’t seen each other in a year since graduation. So we had a lot to catch up on. One lunch wasn’t nearly long enough. So he invited […]
Read More Modeling Respect in Our World Today
By Michele Scallion |
Did your parents teach you to respect others? And I’m not just talking about respecting authority figures like teachers, the school principal, your pastor, grandparents, and other adults. Did they teach you to respect your friends, your neighbors? Did they teach you to respect people you disagree with or those who are different from you? […]
Read More Beyond Weight Loss: 3 New Year’s Resolutions for Your Soul
By Michele Scallion |
I imagine that most New Year’s resolutions are forgotten by now! Most people who make resolutions are deadly serious when they begin. But after a few weeks, after they’ve failed a few times in cutting calories or reading the Bible daily, they give up. Well, here are some resolutions that are worth considering because they […]
Read More Learning to Love Others as Jesus Loved Us
By Michele Scallion |
This email contains an exciting announcement that many of you have been asking about for a long time, so KEEP READING! With Valentine’s Day coming soon, you might be surprised to know that its historical roots are not about romantic love. In fact all love originates with God who is love (1 John 4:8) and […]
Read More Living in the “Now and Not Yet”: Nurturing Expectant Faith
By Barbara Rainey |
I have a friend who loves new school supplies. Perhaps it’s a carryover from her childhood … but I agree with her that it’s exciting to anticipate a new school season. Purchasing new pencils, pens, clean notebooks, paper and calendars means starting afresh. We can begin again, re-organize, enjoy the opening of a new chapter. The start […]
Read More Why My Christmas Lights Still Sparkle in January
By Michele Scallion |
I know Christmas is over, but most of my lights, my manger scene, and other Christ-focused decorations are still in place and will be through January. On dark winter days I like seeing my tiny twinkle lights brightening the cold outside. My décor reminds me that adoring God doesn’t end with the start of a […]
Read More When Christmas Came: Christmas Is About Hope
By Barbara Rainey |
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 Christmas is about Hope. That we shall not perish. Earthquakes Floods Storms Wars Persecutions Famines Death But we who believe have hope. All will be made alive! All things will be made […]
Read More When Christmas Came: Christmas Is About God
By Michele Scallion |
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 Christmas is all about God. It was His stunning idea in the beginning before time began. No one has seen the Father, the all-seeing One, the Three in One, the Almighty, the […]
Read More When Family Expectations Collide: A Story About Grace & Truth
By Barbara Rainey |
In the first year of our marriage, Dennis and I made an unintentional and yet very serious mistake, one that inflicted profound disappointment on two very important people. The rolling, repeating waves resulting from our mistake washed over onto us, too, and the drying out took longer than we ever imagined. Like most newlyweds Dennis […]
Read More The Surprising Truth About Gratitude (And Why It Heals Your Heart)
By Barbara Rainey |
One spring, years ago now, Dennis and I watched other families experience all the celebratory festivities of a child’s senior year in high school: proms, award nights, graduation. But our daughter, a senior that year, had decided she was done with school. At 18, she knew she was not legally bound to us anymore. Six […]
Read More Finding God in Your Stress: How to Experience Peace When You’re Overwhelmed
By Michele Scallion |
A lesson I’m still learning, but understand more clearly with each decade of life, is that fixing my circumstances is rarely the answer to reducing stress. The “whens” were a repeated refrain for me for decades, beginning when our children were all little. Life will be so much easier when she sleeps through the night, or when the littlest one […]
Read More The Divine Pattern In Adoption, Part 2: What My Daughter Taught Me About God’s Love
By Barbara Rainey |
When our adopted daughter was in her late teens I was spent, not just by our journey with her but also from parenting all six of our children for so many years. In addition, my heart was wounded by the fallout and heartache, and my body was deeply fatigued from the burden of unrequited love. […]
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