Be Gentle

By Michelle (Graceful, Faith in the Everyday)

I stop short in the driveway and stand staring. It all looks so normal, so everyday, I think to myself, observing the potted impatiens she planted in front of the garage, the Windexed windows, the kitchen light glowing inside. Who would know what goes on behind that front door, between those brick walls? Who would guess there is grieving and sickness, tears and joy mingled bittersweet?

I watch the grandkids play tag, climb the river birch tree. They yell and laugh, scream and fall in piles on the grass.

A neighbor drives by, slows, points to my husband’s uncle’s car – a 50s Chevrolet convertible parked in the driveway – gives me a thumb’s up. He approves of the car. But he doesn’t know. He doesn’t know that I don’t care a bit about that car, about its funky tail fins and genuine red leather interior. He doesn’t know that I don’t even see it.

This neighbor can’t see the real story, of course. All he sees are grandkids leaping on the lawn, neatly trimmed shrubs, the classic car, a beautiful house bricked shut.

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Love Is...

By Nick (My Experience As...)

Love is the Greatest

1 Corinthians 13

 ¹ If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. ³ If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

 ⁴ Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud ⁵ or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. ⁶ It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ⁷ Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

 ⁸ Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! ⁹ Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! ¹⁰ But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.

 ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. ¹² Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

 ¹³ Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

If you have been a Christian for more than five seconds this is probably a familiar passage. My wife can quote it by heart, and often does.  Not in the “you need to learn what love is so you can treat me right” kind of way (I probably deserve it but she gets the passage and know that would be missing the point). No, she tends to remind me when I’m getting bent out of shape on something trivial with someone else. She’s pretty compassionate like that.

I think this is all a lesson we want our children to learn too. I pray for my kids to know what real love is, so when they start dating (around 30) they won’t be fooled by someone telling them how much they “love” them.

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One Word At A Time: Children

By MAD21

"A child is a revelation from God.
Prophets receive visions, mystics ponder the ineffable,
great preachers deliver God's word.
The greatest revelation comes through flesh and blood.
Every child is a fresh, unheard-of image of God,
and children keep coming and coming because the world
has not yet conceived of all the fullness of God's glory."

- Mike Mason, The Mystery of Children

I was a little surprise addition to our family. An unexpected challenge to my parents who thought they were already done having children. I have 11 and 13 years between my brother and sister and I, which technically puts me in a new generation (and considered and only child in some ways). I always told people I had the best of both worlds. I had a brother and sister, but I lived alone in the house with my parents by the age of nine. However, if I had had a choice I have to say I would have preferred to have had a sibling closer to my own age. It's one of the reasons it was important to me to have more than one child. I didn't want my kids living their lives without siblings they were close to, who were closer to the same stage in life.

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Praying For Our Kids to Love God's Word

[Editor's Note: I am so excited to bring you the first contribution to a new wonderful series we are doing on praying for our children. I firmly believe that as parents, it is part of our responsibility, and an honor, to pray to our Father in heaven on behalf of our children. As we work our way through this series, we will talk about teaching work ethics; salvation; love; purity; respect; self-control; perseverance; a love for God's word; and other virtues and life lessons. I pray you are blessed and encouraged by the words of these posts and that you will join me in my passion for growing strong, confident, loving, honorable and faithful children of God.]

*****

By Jason, M.Ed., M.A.R., Headmaster

"More to be desired are they than gold,
   even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
   and drippings of the honeycomb." Psalm 19:10

"Oh how I love your law!" Psalm 119:97

When someone really treasures something, it's not hard to tell.  Whether it's the Ravens fans who always wears purple or the young man in love who can talk about nothing but his beloved, people generally show their true affections plainly.  

If you talk to my boys for long, it's not hard to figure out what they treasure.  Right now, it's Legos and Matchbox cars.  I like Legos and Matchbox cars, too, but you can probably guess that my boys' love of their toys sometimes leads them to fight with each other. 

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Equally Worthy

By Pat

Out little granddaughter is developmentally disabled, and as she gets older it becomes more obvious that she is not on the same level intellectually and behaviorally as other children her age. An outside observer probably sees and hears her and notices only how behind she is, but those of us close to her know her and can see how much progress she has made in her special "early intervention" classes and her speech therapy.

We who care for her rejoice at what she has learned, and celebrate each little bit of improvement she makes. I firmly believe that God sees each of us like this; as different, unique and special children who are equally worthy of His love and grace. What a wonderful thing to know, and what a wonderful God we serve! I thank and praise God for His unbiased love for all of His beloved children!

Pat is a good friend who is passionate about her faith and her family. She works from home supporting a family business, and loves to read, write and garden when she can, and spends every spare moment with her grandkids.