Laudable Linkage

Posted on April 5, 2025 by Barbara Harper

On Failure, HT to Challies. “Yes, we are going to keep failing at life, again and again. Failing people we love. Failing at things we love. Failing the God we love. But we have a path for dealing with failure. It takes faith, courage, and hope.”

When Your World Burns Down & How to Answer the Question of Pain and Suffering, HT to the Story Warren. “There are love stories that survive fire, and rise straight up from the ashes. This is a Love Story that begins more than 2 decades ago with a bundle of a baby boy …. our third son, named Levi, because the Farmer dared to believe it was a word from the Almighty: ‘And Levi got up, left everything and followed Him,’ (Luke 5:28), and the Farmer said that’s exactly the kind of man that we pray our boy will be.”

Prayer Requests from Jailed Children. “This message is scrawled on a prayer request card, sitting in front of me on my desk. Tears come to my eyes as I read it.”

What Is Your Name? “God requested a sacrificial offering instead of hospitality. And He showed Himself in the fire. He revealed the wonder of Himself in the sweet aroma of their sacrifice.”

Why Feeling Overwhelmed Can Be a Good Thing. “I feel as if I’m drowning in a tsunami of needs. Adult children who need help. Aging parents with health concerns. Personnel shortages at work. Ministry needs. Volunteer opportunities. I want to do good things for good people, but there just isn’t enough of me to go around. I’m overwhelmed. This realization, I’ve discovered, is the first step toward a solution.”

Death Is Not the Worst Thing that Can Happen to You, HT to Journey of Faith. “Contrary to what many Christians think, death is a big deal, and we shouldn’t take it lightly at all. But death isn’t the worst thing that can happen to us.”

What Haggai Taught Me About Priorities, HT to Knowable Word. “‘I can’t. I’m busy!’ These piercing words stopped me as they spilled out of my 2-year-old’s mouth. . . . Yet the reason I stopped wasn’t my son’s disobedience or misplaced priorities; it was because those words were an echo of my heart.”

Brain Fast Food: Living and Ministering in and Age of Casual Thinking. “One of the great advantages of the technological revolution is that we have unbelievable access to all kinds of great resources. One of the great disadvantages of the technological revolution is that intellectually speaking it conditions us to go after McDonald’s hamburgers rather than Ruth Chris steak.”

Stewarding Your Mind. “Doing productivity God’s way means viewing your entire life as a stewardship. Your time, talents, and treasure are all resources left to your care. And the sensible Christian will take care to do all that he or she can to make a good return on these things for the Master. Most believers understand this call to stewardship in areas like finances or even with the use of our time. But are you treating your mind like a stewardship?”

Every time we open Scripture, we’re invited into divine conversation–where infinite wisdom meets our daily needs, where heaven’s perspective illuminates our earthly path.
Chuck Swindoll

Laudable Linkage

Posted on March 29, 2025 by Barbara Harper

A variety of good reads found this week:

When God Used a Stutterer, HT to Challies. “Must limitations and weaknesses keep us from effective ministry? And how should we think about others in the church who have glaring, limiting imperfections?” This is a neat story.

If I Have Matching Dishes, But Have not Love . . . HT to Challies. “If I have matching dishes but have not love, my kitchen cupboard becomes a higher priority to me than the most important person to me in this life.”

People Over Perfection: 5 Tips to Help You When Tiny Distractions Take Over. “Have you ever found yourself in a friend’s living room when you suddenly noticed a picture on the wall that was crooked? Did it occupy your attention for too long, leaving you unsettled and distracted until you walked over and straightened it?”

You’re Beautiful, HT to Challies. “In this month’s letter, I share my personal journey with female beauty standards—a topic that’s been on my mind ever since my daughter was born. I share what life was like growing up with contradicting beauty standards, and how they shaped my insecurities as an Asian Australian woman. I then explore how my new faith, motherhood, and entering my late 30’s has redefined my perspectives on outward beauty.”

Why Christian Men Need Friendship, Not Just “Accountability,” HT to Challies. Yes, yes yes! I’ve always felt there was something off, even artificial, about “accountability partners,” and this helps explain why.

The 10%, HT to Challies.”What does that say about us as a society? We, with the requisite number of chromosomes, determine your fate before we even meet you, before we experience one of your open-hearted hugs or witness your exuberant spirit. How far have we fallen, that we will only welcome you if your test results declare you worthy of our care?”

Why Are There Four Gospels? A great illustration helps answer this question.

You Can’t Do It Alone. “Productivity is not the solution to all of your problems. That’s the promise of secular productivity, isn’t it? Peace, order, simplicity, abundance—the life you want—is just on the other side of one simple system/technique/app/framework.”

The Theology of Work and the Stay-at-Home Mom: Embracing the Value of Our Calling, HT to Redeeming Productivity. “It’s easy to feel like our work doesn’t “count” because we’re not bringing home a paycheck. We don’t get the flashy title that comes with being a high-powered professional, and sometimes, it feels like society only values work that earns money. But if we believe, as Christian moms, that God has called us to this specific work, does the absence of financial gain truly define our calling’s worth?”

God Is Writing Your Story: You Need to Tell It. “God has given each one of us a story. It may not be as dramatic as Corrie ten Boom’s or as screen-worthy as Louis Zamperini’s, but each and every one can be used by God to connect with someone and to ultimately point them to Jesus. And we’re not supposed to keep these stories to ourselves.”

The LORD may not give gold, but He will give grace: He may not give gain, but He will give grace. He will certainly send us trial, but He will give grace in proportion thereto. We may be called to labor and to suffer, but with the call there will come all the grace required.
— Charles Spurgeon

Laudable Linkage

Posted on March 22, 2025 by Barbara Harper

Here are some of the good reads found this week:

I Feel an Imprecatory Prayer Comin’ On. “Growing up, I never heard anyone mention imprecatory prayers, which are mostly found in the Psalms. What are they? Imprecatory prayers are prayers in which you ask God to send calamity or hardship upon someone else.”

What Does the Bible Teach About Demons and Spiritual Warfare? HT to Challies. “I haven’t done this, but I suspect that polling our youth groups about whether or not the devil and demons are real would have troubling results. Perhaps a poll among youth pastors would fare similarly. It’s simply something we don’t talk about. And I get it. But it’s also a very important topic, and is far too dangerous to overlook.”

Why We Do What We Do. What the Bible teaches about our desires and the way they can change after we become believers.

“I’d Never Do That!” I haven’t read the book mentioned, but I appreciate the application about offering help with humility.

Praying for Dreams to Come True, HT to Challies. “Dreams and desires are like butterflies in our hands. We cannot hold onto them too tightly or we will crush them. But if we hold them with open hands, at the right time, God will breathe the breath of his Spirit and they may launch and fly.”

How Marriage Vows Work, HT to Challies. “This distinction matters because marriage is sustained by more than warm feelings. When a couple faces challenges—as every couple will—they need the foundation of clear, mutual commitments rather than memories of how they once felt.”

How to Respect the Dignity of Loved Ones with Dementia, HT to Challies. “Contrary to what we might think, the gift of presence is perhaps most significant in the advanced stages of dementia. It is not infrequent at that time for loved ones to feel that their visits do not count for anything. They assume that they won’t be recognized or their visit remembered, which may be precisely the wrong conclusion.”

The Etiquette of Speech, HT to Challies. “There are three grave errors I think we can fall into when it comes to speech etiquette, and we should be wary of each of them.”

Wounds That Cannot Wholly Be Cured. “I’ve never known grief as strong or wounds as deep as I have been through this year. In January, my youngest brother died unexpectedly. It has been a season of loss and heartache that far surpasses anything that I have yet experienced.”

The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts. A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

Laudable Linkage

Posted on March 15, 2025 by Barbara Harper

I went from just a few shared reads last week to a longer list today. I hope you’ll find something of interest here, along with some time to read.

“That’s Just Your Interpretation,” HT to Challies. “This is a common response when discussing Scripture, isn’t it? ‘That’s just your interpretation!’ No matter how clearly the Bible speaks, this objection seems to persist. But is it true? Can we really understand the Bible? This question takes us to the heart of the Christian faith and invites us into a discussion about the clarity and authority of God’s Word.”

Ten Truths to Empower Your Prayer Life. “My introduction to prayer came at the age of seven. I was spending the weekend with my grandmother and had slept beside her, snuggled deep into the covers. As the early morning light filtered through the curtains of her bedroom window, the sound of her whispered prayer broke through the fog of my fading sleep. . . . In the years since then, I’ve learned much about this sacred privilege. Today, I’d like to share ten truths I’ve sought to apply in my own prayer life.”

The Greatest Show: Is Your Faith Performance? “The desire to have a godly reputation isn’t wrong, but the danger comes when our focus shifts from genuine transformation in Christ to carefully crafted perception. It’s a tale as old as time and worth pausing to ask: do you care more about appearing faithful, gracious, and surrendered to Christ than actually walking in an authentic relationship with Jesus?”

Be Faithful Over Little: A Different Vision for a Life That Counts, HT to Redeeming Productivity. “But God hasn’t purposed for most people to be world-shapers. The vast majority of our faithfulness and work for the Lord will be exercised in the small, often boring, and monotonous rhythms of life.”

Between Two Worlds: Suffering, Safety, and the Cross, HT to Andrew Le Peau. “The predominant institutional approach to suffering is often one of avoidance—from institutional marketing that equates flourishing with the absence of suffering to personal postures that treat suffering as an unwelcome and harmful interruption in one’s development. Institutions can lessen burdens but not eliminate suffering. No mentor, policy, program, or system can insulate students from grief, disappointment, or hardship. A culture increasingly focused on removing discomfort does not necessarily make people stronger; it often leaves them more anxious and unprepared for suffering when it inevitably comes.”

A Denier Redirected: Living Out the Greatness. This discussion about living in a godly way in an ungodly society dovetails with my own reading about Daniel and how he did so.

This Vice Is One of the Key Predictors of Divorce: Yet, It Is Oddly Understudied. It’s a vice running rampant in society these days.

Coming of Age. “You could tell me that no matter what a mother loves her children, but it takes a story to show me how painful that could be and what it means. Or maybe you tell me that it’s good for my children to suffer losses and failures; that they’ll learn how to pick themselves up if they only get to experience life’s challenges. I’d say it makes sense but it takes a story for me to understand the real value behind it. I could learn as I go and fumble blindly along the way, or I could walk in the shoes of many mothers who’ve gone ahead of me and have a story to tell me of how to become the mom of adults.”

What Did We Gain and Lose by Livestreaming? HT to Challies. “What began as a temporary necessity has become an expected staple of the church’s ministry. As people began returning to worship, committees and the session debated whether livestreaming should continue. If so, for how long, and for what purpose?”

Obedience is the key to all doors: feelings come (or don’t come) and go as God pleases. We can’t produce them at will and mustn’t try.–C. S. Lewis

Laudable Linkage

Posted on March 8, 2025 by Barbara Harper

I have just a short list of good reads to share with you today:

Own Your Faith, HT to Challies. “If God has gifted you with a healthy church and parents that love Christ, be so thankful! See your own faith as connected to theirs, but not dependent. They labored hard so that you would leave and be a beacon for Christ on your own. They desire to see you making godly choices. They want you to make the decision to wake up early and seek God’s face. The time for hand-holding is over. Your parents won’t stand before the judgement seat of Christ for you.”

The Most Profound Aspect of Jesus Saying “I Never Knew You. “Most of the time, the lesson we derive from Matthew 7:21-23 is that there will be people who believe they have a right to enter the Kingdom based upon their religious activities and behavior, but will be rejected. This interpretation is true, but in stopping there we miss something.”

The Supremacy of Christ in Repentance: Understanding True Sorrow vs. Worldly Regret. “There is a significant difference between natural regret and Spirit-driven repentance, between emotional sadness and spiritual surrender. The flesh can feel remorse, acknowledge sin, and feel shame. You can regret in an emotional or intellectual way, but that doesn’t make sorrow spiritual. You can regret sin without having a change of heart. Godly sorrow responds to God’s view of sin. It’s looking at God’s perspective on my sin. It’s vertically oriented—God-ward.”

How to Pray for an Unmet Desire, HT to Challies. “In His most famous of sermons, Jesus tells us to pray, assuring us that the heavenly Father won’t give us a stone when we ask for bread. But sometimes that bread just seems so long in coming. How could a good Father withhold a good thing from His child? After all, our earthly, sinful fathers would never ask their child to starve when they had the means and ability to provide food. How are we to respond in these seasons? What should our prayers look like?”

Nobody ever outgrows Scripture. The book widens and deepens with our years.
–Charles Spurgeon.

Laudable Linkage

Posted on March 1, 2025 by Barbara Harper

Here are some good reads for the first weekend in March.

The Great Danger is to Assume We Are All Headed for Heaven, HT to Challies. “For every American who believes they’re going to Hell, there are 120 who believe they’re going to Heaven. This optimism stands in stark contrast to Christ’s words in Matthew 7:13-14: ‘…wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.’”

The Sacred Mundane, HT to Challies. “What about the ordinary and mundane tasks of the homemaker? Can they possibly be more than they are? the making of breakfasts, of lunches and dinners, the folding of laundry, wiping of counters, changing of diapers, the picking up, and the dropping off. Can these have meaning beyond the day after day ‘sameness?’”

All My Heroes Are Broken. “Disappointment. Once again, a Christian leader has fallen off the pedestal. Of course, I should never have placed them on it. But in my mind, they are not what they once were. Maybe they never were. I need good examples–role models who live out what it means to walk by faith and reflect God’s glory. My heart cries out for inspiration to live for God day by day. Can I really do what God made me and saved me to do? How have others done this before me?”

A Congregation Is a Voting Body. I share this because it never occurred to me anyone would think otherwise until a few years ago, when I heard someone say that they didn’t have the church vote on things because there was no instance of it in Scripture. But there is.

You Probably Won’t Get a Book Deal. But We Still Need You to Write, HT to Challies. “It’s difficult to be published. Unless you have a large following, or catch a break, you may face an uphill battle in getting your book published. And yet, I would argue, it’s still important for you to write for at least a couple of reasons.”

The Three Lost Pieces of a Good Romance, HT to Challies. “Today, I’ll be discussing the three essential elements of a good romance novel that have gradually been vanishing from mainstream romance tales, and why these three elements are necessary for a good story.”

“But tho’ there is much to be puzzled about, there is nothing to be worried about.”
–C. S. Lewis

Laudable Linkage

Posted on February 22, 2025 by Barbara Harper

I’m still behind on my blog reading due to last week’s busyness. But I did find a few thought-provoking reads I wanted to share:

Break Shame’s Chains Through Christ, HT to Challies. “Self-shaming is a defense mechanism rooted in the belief that we’re unlovable to God and others. We voice the harsh words we fear others are thinking—as if beating them to the punch might soften the blow or inspire us to change. Ironically, self-shaming doesn’t protect us; it only perpetuates harmful lies and keeps us in bondage.”

The Spiritual Discipline of Remembrance, HT to Challies. “Over and over, God commands his people to remember how hard, dark, sad, and ugly things were. And then, to celebrate the incredible contrast of his love, goodness, and might that rescued them from adversity of all kinds. The remembrance we’re called to isn’t a ‘focus on the positive’ outlook that skims past the hard and onto the happy ending. In order to truly understand the depths from which we have been saved, we have to admit how deep those depths were.”

Love Is Patient, HT to the Story Warren. “It’s tempting to approach marriage with a renovation mindset—seeing our spouse as a project to be improved upon. We’ve all heard women say things like, ‘It took me years to train him.’ While usually meant to be humorous, such comments reveal a fundamental misunderstanding of God’s work in marriage. Our spouses don’t need to be trained—they need to be encouraged and supported in their sanctification, just as we do. Love is patient.”

Pray for Protection for your Missionaries Today, HT to Challies. A good list of ways in which missionaries need protecting.

Don’t Let Your Fears Hold Back Your Children. “As Christian parents, we want to discern not only what is safe for our children, but also what will strengthen them spiritually. Kids need to have enough freedom to learn reliance on God, and maybe that is where the line gets fuzzy for us at times: what is healthy freedom, and what is reckless?”

The Conundrum of Celebrity Christians, HT to Challies. “We must first proceed with some degree of caution when a celebrity professes faith in Christ. While this principle is true no matter who claims to have recently been converted, it is especially true when dealing with someone who is a high-profile new believer.”

Straining gluten-free and non-alcoholic gnats whilst swallowing camels, HT to Challies. “It is the rankest of hypocrisy to be splitting hairs over whether gluten-free bread and non-alcoholic wine are quite bready and winey enough for us to use in communion, in the face of genuine needs amongst our people, and claim it overturns ‘settled church positions’ when much bigger, gospel-denying positions that overturn not just the formal teaching of the Church of England held throughout its history, but that of all churches since the Apostolic-era, can be adopted.”

The Blender, the Toaster, and the Body of Christ. A nice fable with a good application.

No, I Don’t Want AI to Write for Me, HT to Redeeming Productivity. “But AI writing feels very different from using a calculator to help us multiply things. When a piece of software takes what you have written and completely changes it, you may end up with something that is technically perfect. But you lose yourself—and more importantly your voice—in the process.”

Prayer is the greatest power God has given us.
Use it with great assurance, for it brings us into alignment with His will and purposes.
–Mary Slessor

Laudable Linkage

Posted on February 8, 2025 by Barbara Harper

I haven’t had a lot of extra time at the computer, so I have just a short list of recommended reading:

How Honest Can I Be with God in Prayer? “Do you ever wonder how honest you can be with God in prayer? On the surface, this question probably seems silly. After all, God knows everything. How could we hide anything from the God who knows our hearts and can read our minds? Yet sometimes, we hold back in prayer. As if our thoughts, emotions, or words don’t really exist if we don’t speak them. Or perhaps that we won’t be held accountable for them if we don’t admit our thoughts.”

2 Reading Strategies to Get Wisdom From the Word. “The Bible won’t tell you who to date, which car to buy, where to go to college, or whether to accept the job offer on the West Coast. It does, however, offer principles to live by, guard rails to keep readers on the path of wisdom.”

Finding Joy in Bible Reading, HT to Knowable Word. “It will help if we consider what we are doing when we read the Bible. It is not like a textbook we have to wade through in order to pass an exam. It is not something we have to do out of expectation or duty. It is something we get to do; a privilege, a blessing. Countless people through history would have loved to have the access to God’s word that we enjoy today.”

Improving Our Listening to Sermons. “Sermons are not lectures; they are intended to persuade you of something. They should lead to action, not only to increased knowledge. We should always ask what to do in response to what we have heard.”

Thank You Gracious Church Members, HT to Challies. “A pastor’s heart is not his congregants’ responsibility. But there is an invitation to be a congregant who steps into church life with a heart of submission and care for your leaders.”

The Church’s Opportunity when “Gentle Parenting” Crashes, HT to Challies. Although “gentle parenting” seems attractive and has some good points, it doesn’t deal accurately with sin. “Diagnosing sin in our kids’ hearts doesn’t strip them of dignity. On the contrary, it dignifies and deepens them. We treat children as moral agents, respect them enough to discipline them in love, and then forgive and restore them.”

The Vibe Shift: What Does It Mean for the Gospel? HT to Challies. Though the “vibe shift” in America since the election and especially since the inauguration has been a welcome change more in line with Christian values, we’re reminded that the “vibe” is not the gospel and people still need the Lord.

If you wake up feeling fragile, remember that God is not,
and trust Him to be everything you need today. –C. S. Lewis

Laudable Linkage

Posted on February 1, 2025 by Barbara Harper

Here’s some of the good blogging found this week:

How Jesus Helps My Unbelief, HT to Challies. “If I’m honest, I have felt a bit like I need to be brought back to life. My spirit has been heavy, weighed down by depression that has returned after a long hiatus, and it has left me sad and discouraged and so very defeated. I must remind myself daily (sometimes hourly) that my life is a good life, that I am loved, that it will not always feel this way.”

Have You Considered? (10 Things to Think About), HT to Challies. Ten things the Bible tells us to “consider.”

I Know God’s a Writer, HT to Challies. “God is far more than any one description. We just tend to see more of his beauty down the avenues we love—the ones we know. My years spent writing has tuned my ear to catch the way the Lord demonstrates his own writing chops—how his poetry and beauty spill out of his world. In turn, my husband, who spends time problem solving, building, and dealing with the particulars of spreadsheets and numbers, notices the way the Lord orders every minute detail to perfect harmony.”

The Digital Allure of Being Attended To, HT to Challies. “I’ve been wrestling with the implications of people turning to AI Chatbots for friendship or, even more distressingly, romantic relationships, and what that means about our social fabric. I can’t help but feel that this is a bigger concern than we realize, or at least a more significant sign of the state of our society.” The last paragraph is especially good.

Small Injustices. “If we aren’t careful, we can allow the small injustices to make us spiritually blind. It’s like staring at the sun. If we focus on the small injustices, that’s all we’ll be able to see, and then pretty soon, we won’t see anything at all. We’ll live in the darkness of woe-is-me, and we will be completely incapable of thinking of others, being grateful, seeing God’s goodness in all that comes our way. We will forget the value in suffering, and we will quit our reliance on God.”

Five Things You Can Control, HT to Challies. “I had confided to my wise mother-in-law, who is now in her ninth decade of life, that I have felt at a loss some days over not having control over things that used to feel very controllable. This precious saint understands all too well the challenges of losing control over some of life’s circumstances.”

The Ministry of Small Things, HT to Challies. “Wanting to rise above the comfortable and predictable is far better than making an idol of our personal comfort and ease. But we don’t have to be notable or do notable things. In the pursuit of meaningful service for Christ, oftentimes the little things are the big things.”

How to Make Yourself at Home At (Almost) Any Church. HT to Challies. “The church is the gathering where the Word is preached, God is worshiped, the people serve one another and the community through their gifts, and the light of God’s salvation shines to the world. But how do you make the church home? Here are some recommendations:”

Parenting Is Hard, HT to Challies. “Yes, parenting is hard. I think parenting is supposed to be. Being an excellent parent, the kind we always thought we would be, is just…beyond…reach. Just…past…our outstretched finger tips. Oh, how this impossible task shows us our need for a Savior like nothing else we are called to do!”

Rubbing Shoulders Throughout Eternity, HT to Challies. This is a nice article about the people we’ll rub shoulders with in eternity. “Life is full of such encounters. You rub shoulders with a soul, perhaps only for a moment, and then your paths never again cross. And yet, just sometimes, there exists within these brief encounters a touch of some unknown and mysterious quality; a mingling between souls that cannot be put into words, though it is felt deeply.”

Christians are not so much in danger when they are persecuted as when they are admired
–C. H. Spurgeon

Laudable Linkage

Posted on January 25, 2025 by Barbara Harper

This is a good time for my occasional reminder that links here do not imply 100% endorsement of everything on a site I’ve linked to or from.

Why Don’t We Read the Bible More? Three Common Misunderstandings, HT to Challies. “That we should read the Bible is rarely questioned. Why we should read it is also fairly well-established. What we rarely do is examine why we, as confessing Christians, don’t read the Bible despite saying that we should. In my years of lay and vocational ministry, I’ve known the acceptable answers to this question and what we perceive to be ‘unacceptable’ answers.”

To (Almost) Die Is Gain, HT to Challies. A young wife and mom contemplates the gains she experienced after a dangerous brain surgery.

Biblical Theology Is for Nerds, HT to Challies. “When Marvel fans piece together the interconnected stories of the MCU across multiple films, they’re exercising the same muscles needed to trace biblical themes from Genesis to Revelation. The skills that make someone an expert in Star Wars lore or DC Comics continuity might be preparing him or her for something far more profound: biblical theology.”

What Does “Love Your Enemies” Not Mean? HT to Challies. “I recently preached on Jesus’s most revolutionary ethical teaching––love your enemies (Matt. 5:44). It stands as a Mount Everest among ethical instructions that both Christians and non-Christians respect. Yet, because we have a certain modern definition of love, it is easy to misunderstand Jesus’s teaching. What did Jesus actually mean by enemy love and how do we integrate it with Old Testament texts that seem to contradict it?”

The Sweet Honey of Forgiveness. “I’m thinking we make forgiveness way harder than it needs to be. It seems cumbersome, impossible … and somehow so wrong.”

How Are Children a Gift From the Lord? HT to the Story Warren. “If kids are a blessing and having a house full of them is a gift, we are going to have to structure our lives a little differently than the cultural norm.”

Our Answer to “Imagine.”Just before I stepped up to speak at the funeral of a professing believer, I had to endure the playing of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine.’ The opening words are ‘Imagine there’s no heaven!’ . . . I began to pray that the Lord would give me wisdom about what to say about this choice of music for a funeral.”

How to Pray for a Cancer Survivor. Much of what’s written here can be applied to other kinds of major illnesses as well. Sometimes the mental, emotional, or spiritual healing from trauma takes longer than the physical.

The Darkness of Winter, HT to Challies, subtitled, “It’s Not the Villain I Once Pegged it For: How the Lord uses Winter to Grow my Faith.” I share the author’s aversion to winter, though her winters are harder to deal with than mine. But she shares how God uses them.

When Everyone Else Is Getting the Blessings You Want. It’s easy to focus on the one thing we want that we don’t have. But God has poured out many blessings on all of us. Lois shares several.

Food (Allergies) and Fellowship. “Food plays an important part in corporate worship and the fellowship of God’s people. It did in Scripture, and it does so today. So, one of the issues we should perhaps consider is the challenge of food allergies. While food allergies may seem simply like a personal health issue for individuals, it can also impact that individual’s fellowship with other believers in a local assembly.” I can “amen” all of this as we have family members with gluten, dairy, nut, and other food issues. I’d especially highlight being careful of cross-contamination–sometimes people who mean well don’t realize this is a problem, too.