Posts with the tag “family”

Most of us make our best choices when someone is watching. But the choices that actually shape the people around us are usually the ones nobody sees. Joshua made his declaration publicly. But it started privately. You cannot say as for me and my household in front of a crowd if you have not already settled it alone. Someone in your household is taking notes. They always are.  Read More

Matt King is drowning and he knows it. His cousin looks at the whole pile of it and calls it what it is: a tough deal. Matt's answer is quiet and honest. "I'm just trying to keep my head above water." Most people know that feeling. But here is what nobody says in those seasons: when you are barely keeping your head above water, you are still making choices. And some of those choices have consequences that reach much further than tomorrow. Moses said it plainly: choose life, so that you and your descendants may live. He was not talking only to the people in front of him. He was talking about every child and grandchild they had not yet had. You are not just surviving this season for yourself. Read the full post.  Read More

Most of us have inherited a story about our family that we have never examined. Not the facts. The interpretation. The unspoken rules about what is safe to talk about and what gets avoided. The wound that became a tradition. Jeremiah says God forgives and remembers no more. That is not just a promise about your sin. It is a model for how you handle someone else's.  Read More

Summer at the Movies | Monday Reflection | Week 3"As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him." — Psalm 103:13 Sunday you heard about George Banks learning the hard way that the small moments were the ones that mattered most. Not the big events. The Tuesday evenings. The ordinary Saturdays. The things that sneaked up on him and grabbed hold before h...  Read More

George Banks did not see it coming. That is the whole joke of Father of the Bride. The world moved and he was still standing in the same spot. Later he says it quietly: "That is the thing about life, is the surprises, the little things that sneak up on you and grab hold of you." Every father nodded. Because every father knows exactly what he is describing. But here is what George Banks did not know. The very last words of the Old Testament are about a father. And God placed the restoration of the father and child relationship at the hinge point of history, right before the great Day of the LORD. Faithful fatherhood is not just a private family matter. It is a prophetic act. Read the full post.  Read More

Long before Revelation, the Hebrew prophets were already using the image of a woman in labor to describe the deepest kind of hope. Not the easy kind. The kind that costs something. Mary stepped into that tradition when she said yes to God before she could see how the story would unfold. No plan. No approval from her community. Just a word from God and the decision of what to do with it. She said yes. She stayed through the cross. She was in the upper room when the Spirit fell. That is what your mother has been doing for you. This one is for her. Read the full post.  Read More