Are you scrounging for thankfulness this Thanksgiving? Holidays can be a challenge for those walking through hard days. Perhaps you feel like you've been handed the short-end of the stick; your child is struggling, you’re exhausted and it seems like everybody else has life with a bit more gravy. It’s easy to focus on our circumstances, take stock of what we have and where we are and end up … [Read more...]
Does Suffering Make You a Better Person?
Does suffering or disability make us more righteous? Does it give us a higher moral standing with God? The correct answer is no, only Jesus makes us righteous, only trusting in His salvation puts us right with God. There is a subtle and unique temptation that can sneak into hearts of parents of kids with disabilities, the temptation to turn suffering into a form of … [Read more...]
Fighting Discouragement
Do the hurdles you face leave you feeling discouragement or despair, draining your energy and joy? Maybe you're at a point where getting out of bed is hard in the morning and reading about the life and hope that you have in Jesus seems like a far-off fairy-tale, not your everyday reality. What is it that's tempting you to discouragement? Is it the long list of bills? Stress between you and your … [Read more...]
Blessing of Traditions
I've never been one who loves routine or one clings to traditions. Yet there is a strange comfort and stability about traditions; they bring a sense of belonging and grounding. Biblical traditions have even more power to instruct our minds, move our hearts and guide our hands. They become the practical outworking of Deuteronomy 6: 4-9: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall … [Read more...]
Seeing in the Dark
It was only three years ago that the tide of change began. When was it for you? A tide that could never be gathered back in, spilling across the sands of life. Flattening all the castles we carefully build on the shore in our minds of how life would be. I had built castles of happily-ever-after and had already etched what our happiness would look like. The hand of the heavenly Father seemed heavy … [Read more...]
You Don’t Need To “Beat” Special Needs
If you've seen the movie, How to Train Your Dragon, try to remember how you reacted when you first saw the menacing, fire-breathing dragon. You identified him as the enemy, right? A terrifying and seemingly unstoppable enemy up against a small, weak and not-so-courageous lad named Hiccup who didn't seem to stand a chance. Most of us feel like just that boy when we first get a … [Read more...]