We live in a culture that tells us to “cancel” those we disagree with and hold angry grudges against those who wrong us. But holding grudges is bad for our health. As Rene Schlaepfer pointed out in Chasing David : A 2019 report in the Journal of Psychology and Aging found that holding grudges is dangerous to your health. Remaining in the state of anger is associated with chronic inflammation and other illnesses. The effects intensifies with age; in other words, the longer you hold a grudge, the sicker you get (page 113). What Jesus Said About Forgiveness Jesus talked

I love Christmas. When it gets to be about that time of year, I’m quick to switch the family over to my carefully-curated playlist that features all of my favorites. I love the memories, the time with family, the movies, all of it.  But as much as I love Christmas, I’ve come to realize that Easter is more important. Although we needed Christmas to happen to get to Easter 33 years later, without Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection, His birth doesn’t mean as much.  Making Easter a bigger deal Last year my husband and I decided we wanted to make Easter

How many times do you hear your kids whine, “It’s not fair!” Despite all the advantages my kids have, life is still hard. They will still face challenges. As a parent, how can I prepare them for those tough situations right around the corner? In Chip Ingram’s series, Effective Parenting in a Defective World , he shares five things to teach your kids to prepare them for life’s biggest battles. Here are the takeaways that stood out to me from his main points. Suffering is normal This world isn’t perfect. There will be suffering. Jesus told us we can expect

Where do you place your hope? Back in my first post about Revelation , I shared that it’s a book of hope . In Chip Ingram’s last sermon in his series , he finishes up the book and explains how important it is that we place our hope in Jesus. I think we all tend to place our hope in things that could be gone in a second: health, relationships, career, achievements, etc. When our view is limited to the world around us, it’s easy to feel hopeless. Instead, we should place our hope in what Revelation shows us: Jesus

Last year my mom and I started a virtual Bible study together. Since we’re both busy and don’t always have overlapping time to actually meet, we decided we’d both read the same passage and then email each other our notes. Although it isn’t the same as an in-person Bible study, it was interesting to see what each of us took from the various passages and the perspectives we shared with each other! The Sermon on the Mount One of the passages we looked at was Matthew 5:1-26 , the Sermon on the Mount. As I read through this, I realized

What do you do when you hit your breaking point? We all do it. Running on less sleep than we should, feeling overwhelmed by everything we need to get done, and then the kids act like, well, kids. They’re incapable of seeing that you’re approaching critical mass and are about to snap. So what do you do? Time to Take a Break I love how Karen O’Connor put it in this downloadable Mother’s Day devotional from Twin Lakes Church . After telling a very relatable story about how challenging parenting is, she wrote: “[Matthew 11:28] reminds us that the Lord