Second Homes

There is a place I sometimes used to call my second home: the waiting room. I’ll never forget the hours I spent with my special-needs son in waiting rooms—rooms with foam-filled sofas, tattered magazines, crying children, and tired-looking people who were staring at smudged, blandly painted walls. If there were windows, I watched the outside […]

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Back to School

It’s back-to-school time! I’m guessing some parents (including me) are delighted, and most kids are disappointed. Kids tend to ask lots of questions before school begins: “Will I be riding the bus?” “Who is my teacher?” “Are the kids nice?” “Do I wear regular clothes or a uniform?” But kids don’t ask questions just about […]

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An Advocate

When I read this, I thought of you and all of us who care for loved ones in need. An Advocate by Charles R. Swindoll Job is portrayed as “blameless, upright, fearing God, and turning away from evil” (Job 1:1) . . . and yet the bottom drops out of his world. He loses everything […]

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Am I Really That Important?

Some years ago, Chuck Swindoll desired to encourage the members of the Insight for Living board of directors, to express to them that their contribution to the ministry was significant. He quoted from an advertisement published in the Wall Street Journal. I offer it to you here because, from time to time, we all need […]

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A Prayer for Strength

There is a book titled A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by author Eugene Peterson that puts into words the experiences of many who remain faithful to the Lord while their suffering continues without end. I have prayed the prayer below during such seasons and, today, this is my prayer for you. You may […]

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Reframing Life: Beauty from Ashes

My world was rocked for the first time when I was four years old. We had recently moved to Southern California. Early morning sunlight had just begun to peek through the window in the room my sister and I shared upstairs when our beds began to shake. The matching white pom-pom trim on our bedcovers […]

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Painful Days

Are you in physical pain today? Someone reading this is in pain. Perhaps it’s you. Or maybe you know someone in pain. Pain rarely makes sense and often continues without relief. Throughout the ages, others who have endured pain have turned their attention from the temporary pain to things eternal by meditating on passages of […]

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What You Never Expected

The opening story of the evening news was about a parent who forgot her child in the car. The day’s temperature was 107 degrees, outside of the car. The next story was about several people gunned down, and the next one detailed a car accident that resulted in severe injuries to all parties. By then, […]

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Journal

Tuesday, March 2, 2010 Lord, here I am again, full of worry—a subject I bring to You over and over again. It’s about what I believe (Your truth and promises) playing tug of war with what I feel (my emotions and fears). The journey between my head and my heart is the hardest one of […]

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