Ultimately, however, both David and Joseph were highly favored by God, but not because they were such “good” men. 

Seven years later, my sons and I are still filled with gratitude for the church – both our local church family and our wider family of brothers and sisters in Christ – who have ministered to us with such tender love and care. I thank my God every time I remember you. (Philippians 1:3)

How many of us will be sharing our holidays with hard-to-love people like her? Or with hard-hearted people like me?

How did Jesus hold his heart open to the suffering of the world without being overwhelmed or bitter? 

We cannot see Him now, nor can we see all that He is doing in us and through us and around us. But because we know He lives, we hope in what we cannot see.

“I’m sorry that I’m often more concerned about you knowing the right answer than about making sure you had a safe place to ask hard questions.”

If we remember where we truly belong, and who we truly belong with, heavenly hope will make our temporary home on Earth a place of beauty, warmth and light.

I am ever suspicious of the new, even if I have outgrown the old. 

When things don’t go as I expect, I effectively deny Jesus’ lordship over my life and try to control circumstances myself instead of watching for what He is doing and waiting for His guidance.

God has never been surprised by a single mistake you have made in parenting your children. He knows your shortcomings way better than you do, and HE HANDPICKED YOU to be mom for each of your kids. 

I remember that when I don’t get what I want, God is graciously giving me what I need instead.

Learning to deal with mistakes publicly – “something with the ball so ridiculous you blush for years” – is humbling, which is why the baseball diamond can become a place of grace.   

Like ripples in an infinite pond, the impact of His life never stops washing us with new joy and peace and grace.

What is your favorite reason Jesus came to live? 

His will for your life is for you to work as hard as you can to get to know Him. That is literally the only choice you will ever make that has eternal consequences: “If you have not chosen the Kingdom of God first, in the end it will make no difference what you have chosen instead.”

Because of Jesus, you and I have the freedom to barge into God’s office. The door isn’t even closed- it’s been taken off the hinges. 

We compete with each other and with ourselves as if everything we do has to be better in order to be worthwhile at all. 

Everything changes when I realize my goal as a mother is to glorify the Lord, not to secure a good and godly life for my kids.

Living life with no knowledge of the future and no control over the past is one of the great mercies of God. Jesus urges us to shake off both fear and regret and live one day at a time.

In our plugged-in, networking world we not only have to control our tongues, we have to control our fingers.