It is Well With My Soul

This past year has been challenging.  Several friends have lost loved ones, gotten divorced, lost jobs and had health problems.  I try not to get bogged down in the problems of other people, while still being there for my friends and supporting them however I can.  These past few months it has become increasingly difficult to remove myself from the pain of others.  The fact that I can empathize with others is both a blessing and a curse.  Empathy allows me to be a good friend, but it also makes me feel deeply the pain of others.  Couple that with some struggles of my own, and I can really feel weighed down.

Is Your Child a Bully? The Answer May Surprise You.

This was the first week of school in my area of the country.  Everyone headed back to school, anxious to get the new school year under way.  Understandably, some kids were apprehensive about the year to come.  Unknown territory is hard to face at times, and going into a new grade, with new teachers, a new locker combination to remember, new hallways to navigate and new friends to make can make even the bravest among students nervous on the first week.  No one is immune.

Jesus Is...

In Psalm 15, the person whom David is describing sounds like Jesus. Who else can say his walk is blameless? No one but Jesus. As followers of Jesus, we all strive for that perfection that Jesus embodied, but we can never achieve it.  Of course, knowing that we can't acheive perfection does not give us license to simply do as we will and continue in our old sin patterns.

Give Me That Old Time Religion.

Lately, I have heard clambering, from some Christians, for a good dose of Old Fashioned relgion. But I have to ask-- old fashioned by what standard? What we think of as old fashioned was, prior to being old fashioned, was once a new way of thought. The world is ever evolving, and has been since the dawn of time.

Does My Life Have Value?

Wow, has it really been six weeks since I wrote on this blog?  During the summer it is hard to find a quiet moment to sit down and collect my thoughts, much less put them into some sort of coherent order to write them down.  Especially now that my kids are older. Some like to stay up late, some like to get up early, so there is someone around all the time.  I can't stay up late enough or get up early enough to avoid them.  Not that I want to avoid them altogether, mind you, I just enjoy a quiet moment now and then, and summer, with its long days and lax schedules leaves little time for quiet moments.  Not in a house with three teenagers and a 12 year old anyway.