I wanted our children to stay children as long as possible.  Being a mom with young children was a role I enjoyed. But childhood is the very time we must prepare our children for adulthood.  We spend time encouraging them with schoolwork.

As you evaluate the values you want your child to have as an adult, is being respectful and showing mercy to those who are elderly on your list?  Do they see you value the skills of older people? Much of life is reactive, but why not be proactive? Be intentional about teaching this character trait.

I may never be called to give my life for a friend physically, but I am called to put my friend’s needs before my own needs at times. We can make our family a laboratory for learning and developing lots of things.   A significant character trait is a skill for interpersonal relationships.

Laughter is a gift that leads me to a grateful heart, a joyful heart.  Often laughter helps me see the fun in life or the silliness in our human condition.  Fun is not just something we do, it is an attitude. We can enjoy it with friends, but it should start with our family, the people God has given us directly in our circle of influence.

It’s time for our What She Said! Summer Series. I get such great feedback when guest writers share their thoughts on Daily Treasure.  It’s a pleasure to welcome back Sherry Bitler as our Guest Writer this week. For many years, Sherry served as Director of Children’s Ministry for her church…

In John 17, our groom, Jesus, prayed for His bride, the people of God, the church. He prayed this prayer right before He was arrested…

God graciously gives us pictures in His Word that help us understand this interdependent living grounded in the truth that He calls us to. We begin to see how He uses this ultimately for His glory but also for our good. Truth and relationships…

Yesterday we talked about being built as living stones into a holy temple, a dwelling where God lives by His Spirit. In chapter 4 of Ephesians, Paul describes this…

In both of these passages, we read that we as “living stones” are being built – it’s a present, continuous process. In a culture of instant gratification, we envision the finished product, a beautiful temple. Yet the Scripture…

You who were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. That is good news! No longer are we foreigners without hope and without God but citizens of His kingdom. It is here that His promises, His provision,

On October 3rd, 2017, waves came for our family when our son, Clary, a freshman at Clemson University, was in a serious car accident.  In God’s providence, the circumstances of the accident took him down a ravine to the edge…

I wish I could attend the Bible studies taught by this week’s Guest Writer, Paula Miles. I first heard Paula speak at a women’s conference. Her passion.…

Today’s Treasure is one of my favorite Scriptures. When there are no other answers, there is the promise of His presence and He wants us to trust that His presence…

On an ordinary day in August, our son went for a routine sinus Cat-scan; that same day we learned that my father-in-law would need open heart surgery. My husband flew off to be with his parents. Shortly after 2 p.m., my mother-in-law…

Four days after our son’s first MRI, we sat in an exam room, waiting to meet the neurosurgeon who would perform his brain surgery. As the …

On the first day of August, I had jotted a note in my prayer journal under our son’s name: “humility and gratitude.” It’s not that he isn’t generally a humble and grateful twenty-two-year-old—but really, what twenty-two-year-old couldn’t stand to grow in this area? Or what fifty-two-year-old couldn’t grow a little more, for that matter?

One day, in the waiting room of my Dad’s oncologist, I happened to sit next to an (annoying) angel. The very word angel in the Greek indicates a messenger…

As I waited in a dimly-lit hospital hallway for our son to finish his first MRI—the one that followed the incidental discovery of a “something” on his brain, my mind turned to the first question from the Heidelberg Catechism…

Every one of us has or will experience medical waiting rooms throughout our lives. These challenging moments that can stretch into hours, days and sometimes…