Do you remember the last time you said to someone, “I’m worried about you”? How did they respond? How did they look? What about the last time someone else said these words to you? How did you feel? What was your gut-level response? When a family member said this to me recently, it made me…
Have you ever quit a job, left a school, abandoned a group of any kind simply because you couldn’t bear to spend one more day in an environment that didn’t fit you? Have you ever turned your back on a relationship because of divergent values? Walked away from a conversation out of protest? And what…
“Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him.” (Psalm 127:3) A few weeks ago, my family headed out for a mini-vacation at a resort town a few hours from home. It had been almost a year since we’d had any kind of a getaway, thanks to COVID-19. Our hotel had a…
I never thought I would be a hider. Six months after I joined the corporate world in 2008, my supervisor conducted an anonymous 360 review of my performance. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, but one of my colleagues reported that he found me “abrasive.” That one label discolored all the others for me. The colleague…
“Hear, O Israel! The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when…
A few days before Christmas, my phone buzzed with a text message. “Ho, ho, ho,” it read. “Santa made a special delivery. Check your front porch. Ho, ho, ho. Merry Christmas!” I opened the front door and looked down at a sizable red-and-white gift bag with tissue paper billowing from its top. It contained a…