Help for a Heavy Load
It’s amazing what you can haul with a bicycle. An average adult with a specialized trailer (and a bit of determination) can use a bicycle to tow up to 300…
Topic > Relationships > Caregiving >
Let’s gather around the table to study the life of Ruth
Sometimes loving God with all your heart looks a lot like you’re “breaking the rules”! Join our special guest Carolyn Custis James as we continue our series on the life…
Waiting in Hope
Xochitl E. Dixon
Suggested Reading: Romans 12:9–13
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12
Rogelio served as our waiter during our weeklong vacation. During one conversation, he credited Jesus for blessing him with Kaly, a compassionate wife with strong faith. After they had their first baby, God gave them the opportunity to help care for their niece who had Downs Syndrome. Soon after, Rogelio’s mother-in-law needed live-in care.
Rogelio works with joy, often taking on double shifts to ensure his wife can stay home to care for the people God entrusted to them. When I shared how the couple…
Remember to Sing
Nancy Gustafson, a retired opera singer, was devastated when she visited her mother and saw her decline from dementia. Her mom no longer recognized her and barely spoke. After several monthly visits, Nancy had an idea. She started singing Christmas carols. Her mother’s eyes lit up at the musical sounds, and she began singing too—for twenty minutes! Then Nancy’s mom laughed, joking they were “The Gustafson Family Singers!” The dramatic turnaround suggested the power of music, as some therapists conclude, to evoke lost memories. Singing “old favorites” has also been shown to boost mood, reduce falls, lessen visits to the…
Strangers Welcome Strangers
When my husband and I moved to Seattle to be near his sister, we didn’t know where we would live or work. A local church helped us find a place: a rental house with many bedrooms. We could live in one bedroom, and rent the others to international students. For the next three years, we were strangers welcoming strangers: sharing our home and meals with people from all over the world. We and our housemates welcomed dozens of international students in our home every Friday night for Bible study, too.
God’s people know what it means to be far from home.…
Setting Our Love Into Action
Whether they’re next door, across the street, or around the world, we all have a lot of neighbors! But with so much need all around us, how do we love others the way Jesus loves? Today on Discover the Word, the team will talk about the spark that sets our love into action. It’s an […]
The Good Samaritan!
Honest Abe, Doubting Thomas, the Good Samaritan! These monikers bring to mind some powerful testimonies. Today on Discover the Word, the team will gather to discuss a story we’re so familiar with, it’s become a part of our language. But is there something we’ve missed in the Good Samaritan story? Tune in today to Discover […]
5 Humbling Lessons I’ve Learned As a New Mom
As I’m writing this article, my 3½-month-old baby is stretching in her rocker and “talking” to herself. It amazes me how much she has grown in these past months—from a wrinkly, frowning newborn to a chubby, still frowning baby.
Open Arms
The day my husband, Dan, and I began our caregiving journey with our aging parents, we linked arms and felt as if we were plunging off a cliff. We didn’t know that in the process of caregiving the hardest task we would face would be to allow our hearts to be searched and molded and to allow God to use this special time to make us like Him in new ways.
On days when I felt I was plunging toward earth in an out-of-control free-fall, God showed me my agendas, my reservations, my fears, my pride, and my selfishness. He used…
Taking the Initiative Against Daydreaming
Daydreaming about something in order to do it properly is right, but daydreaming about it when we should be doing it is wrong. In this passage, after having said these wonderful things to His disciples, we might have expected our Lord to tell them to go away and meditate over them all. But Jesus never allowed idle daydreaming. When our purpose is to seek God and to discover His will for us, daydreaming is right and acceptable. But when our inclination is to spend time daydreaming over what we have already been told to do, it is unacceptable and God’s blessing is never on it.
A Multiplied Love
When a woman in Karen’s church was diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease), things looked bad. This cruel disease affects nerves and muscles, eventually leading to paralysis. The family’s insurance wouldn’t cover home care, and the stricken woman’s husband couldn’t bear the thought of putting her in a nursing home.
As a nurse, Karen had the expertise to help and began going to the woman’s home to care for her. But she soon realized she couldn’t take care of her own family while meeting the needs of her friend, so she started teaching others in…
Learning to share in our brokenness
Dealing with painful circumstances tends to draw us inward. Sometimes we even forget there are others around us struggling with brokenness and sorrow as well. Today on Discover the Word, the group challenges us to take God’s message of healing to those in need. We’re learning how to share “The Beauty of Broken” . . […]
How did Jesus model true manhood?
When we talk about Jesus, it’s mostly in association with the major events of His life: His birth, death, and resurrection. But what about all those years between His birth and His death? What kind of person was Jesus; how did He live as a man? Today on “Discover the Word,” the group and guest Carolyn Custis James discuss how Jesus often upset preconceived ideas about how a man should act. Discover how Jesus modeled true manhood today on “Discover the Word”!
How A Facebook Contact Led Me to An Orphanage
Korea is a place that I’ve always wanted to visit—I’m a major fan of Korean dramas. Some would therefore say it’s a pleasant coincidence that I was sent to Seoul this year for a company meeting, but to me it was God answering my prayers.
Help for a Heavy Load
It’s amazing what you can haul with a bicycle. An average adult with a specialized trailer (and a bit of determination) can use a bicycle to tow up to 300 pounds at 10 mph. There’s just one problem: Hauling a heavier load means moving more slowly. A person hauling 600 pounds of work equipment or personal possessions would only be able to move at a pace of 8 miles in one hour.
Moses carried another kind of weight in the wilderness—an emotional weight that kept him at a standstill. The Israelites’ intense craving for meat instead of manna had reduced them…
What Ruth teaches us about the spirit of God’s law
Many people view God’s law as a list of “dos and don’ts.” But the story of Ruth reveals a bigger perspective on God’s instructions. Join us as we discover the difference between being good and being changed!
Let’s gather around the table to study the life of Ruth
Sometimes loving God with all your heart looks a lot like you’re “breaking the rules”! Join our special guest Carolyn Custis James as we continue our series on the life of Ruth and explore those times when it seems like the letter of the law is in conflict with the spirit of the law.
