abandoned to Christ.

The condensed version of, "I told you this would happen, but you wouldn't listen." is, "I told you so." It's been ingrained in me and I think, most, if not all of you, that saying "I told you so" is wrong. It's considered to be harsh, inconsiderate, unkind, jabbing; and therefore, the most unloving and graceless thing to say to anyone after they've neglected to heed wise counsel, and find themselves in an unsavory and often, painful situation. "Call me crazy, but in the history of conversations, has the phrase 'I told you so' ever really generated a positive response? I'd say no, it has not...'I told you so' is a negative and counterproductive way of saying, 'I’m right and you’re wrong,' that does neither party any good. Even if the person in the wrong has been stubborn and refused constructive advice, that does not give another person the authority to rub their face in it... "If you must sa...

Being a mom, and especially a Christian mom, is hard. It's what I call, hard heart-work. God builds a special bond between a mother and each of her children. There's something inexplicably wonderful about the life that proceeds from a mother's womb. Which is why abortion is such a horrible and wicked thing to encourage women to do—to strip herself of the beautiful life God graciously gave her in spite of what sins she may have committed, or what sins may have been committed against her.  Every child is an unmerited gift from God. Therefore, in view of God's mercy, we offer ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship. This command extends to motherhood also. Which means, rather than mothering our children in order to please and seek love for self, we care for our children in order to please and love God and our children sacrificially, and not just when it's easy, fun and dignified. It means we must love God a...

The joys of parenting begin when the news first hits our ears...we're going to have a baby! Then we get to revel in all the shopping of baby items, planning of baby showers and dreaming of all that we'll do with our precious little gift from God. We savor every moment we get to sing to our child in the womb and read the Words of God to him or her every day. Then we're elated when the grand and long awaited day arrives and we get to hold our little bundle of joy in our arms; smell his/her fresh babyness, and delight in the wonders of holding a new life! The parenting joys continue as we watch our sweet child experiment with sounds and begin to coo and smile, laugh, roll and play. We're just as eager and excited as they are when they learn to crawl and walk...until we realize a fully independent mobile child is often a full independent accident waiting to happen. Then we have nightmares that they've ingested poison, or a toy, put a fork in a socket, or climbe...

For the past month our oldest son has been asking me what I want for Mother's Day. I've had no other ideas to offer him except one: that he aspire nothing greater than to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ; walk closely with Him and that love for the Almighty be preeminent in his life. I'm 45 now and I pretty much have everything I need or want. When you get to be my age, there's very little you desire that money can buy. The things that are most cherished are the things of the heart. And since Christ is my Lord and Savior, His Holy Spirit inhabits my heart and directs my desires to be more like Christ and less like I was pre-second birth (Rom 8:28-29, Gal 2:20). The desires of our flesh begin to wane as we draw nearer to the Lord Jesus. We begin to see things with the new spiritual eyes He gave us. And the things we treasure are no longer the things that satisfy our flesh. We begin only to long for the greater things—the things that ...

Imagine being invited to a reconciliation meeting. You're excited to get some painful issues resolved in the love of Christ and arrive with great expectations. Then suddenly, out of nowhere your heart is riddled with a barrage of friendly fire. Fabricated accusations based on the testimony of known false witnesses are shot at you with such rapid succession, you're instantly disoriented and gravely wounded. You can hardly catch your breath from this surprise and most unexpected attack. And you struggle to see clearly through the muddle. To make things worse, prior to this ambush, you were already suffering from heartache, sleepless nights, depressing days; and the extreme anguish that every prodigal causes a parent. You entered the room deeply wounded, but with great hope, you came to sow peace. Instead, you leave crippled by heartless and unfounded accusations coupled by the lack of compassion and grace offered by the other witnesses in the room. I don'...

"Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end." (John 13:1, ESV) No matter how many times I read this verse, I'm always in awe of what it says. While Jesus was fully aware of the utter torment and anguish He was about to endure that very night, His thoughts were not on Himself and what horrors would befall Him, but His full attention and love were fixed on His beloved apostles. The original Greek for the phrase "loved them to the end" means that Jesus demonstrated God's perfect and pure (agape) love to His disciples, continually and fully; to completion, even in His darkest hour. I'm in a dark place right now as my heart aches deeply for our youngest son, our prodigal, who is no longer walking in God's truth, but walking rebelliously in the deceptive world where truth is relative rather than a...

prodigal   (ˈprä-di-gəl)  adj  1: exceedingly or recklessly wasteful. Before I share where our youngest son, our prodigal is today, I want you to join me as I remember where we've been; soberly view where we are now; and with great hope, share where we're headed. From the day we found out God blessed us with each son; beautiful gifts of life growing inside of me, we sang songs of worship and read Scriptures to our boys so their lives (as much as it was up to us) would be saturated with God's grace, peace and love. Every moment was beautiful, even the hard moments when we nearly lost both of them. Our oldest son was born with a rare condition called pyloric stenosis. If this developed, it usually happened two months after birth, but Michael was born with it; so by the time he was only two weeks old, he required emergency surgery so he wouldn't die from starvation. He's now a very healthy and robust 21 year old young man and we are grateful to the Lord! ...

In short...no. We'd like the answer to be yes, but in reality, we can't control another person's heart, mind or will—only God can...and does. It's easier to parent our children with the euphoric expectation that if we follow all the rules and train them up "right" that we are guaranteed perfect results...or at least the results we always hoped and dreamed for. While this nice and neat image of a family does happens to some, it doesn't happen to all. I wasn't raised in a Christian home, but was saved when I was four, and remained the only Christian in my household throughout my entire childhood. I rode the bus to church every Sunday morning and Wednesday evening. I held tightly to God's Word and His standard of living. Were there challenges? Yes. Did I behave perfectly? No. But no matter the persecution from others or my own personal failings, I always ran back to my Lord, who alone could then (and now) provide me with ...

I’m sure you’re familiar with the latest story about Utah dad, Scott Mackintosh who donned a pair of homemade Daisy Duke-like shorts while on a family outing, to convince his 19-year-old daughter Myley that her choice of immodest apparel was unacceptable. Prior to this latest escapade of child-shaming tactics as a form of discipline, there were others. Back in April 2012, 15-year-old Quandria Bryant of North Carolina was made to carry a sign on Highway 17 in New Bern that said, “I have a bad attitude. I disrespect [sic] people who try to help me.” Her father Donnell employed this public shaming tactic after Quandria was suspended from school for her increasingly disrespectful attitude toward her ninth grade teachers. My question is, was her dad involved prior to her disrespectful escalation that led to her suspension? As a parent, I know schools don’t do this without some warnings to the student and parents. So what forms of discipline, if any, were incorporated prior...

beautiful photo used by permission: Gilbert Lennox www.GilbertLennoxPhotograpy.com In my last post , I shared why I no longer follow John Piper and "Desiring God" ministry, but I continue to love him, pray for him, the ministry, and anyone who's following them, to practice discernment and test everything from anyone (including me of course) with the Word of God, which alone is perfect. What motivated me to share this is my love for God, His Word and for my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who have been misled by the a recent resurgence of an article written by John Piper's, once prodigal son (now believer in Christ), Abraham, regarding 12 ways parents of prodigals can love their children to the Lord Jesus Christ. I found this article years ago, and agreed with some of it, and disagreed with much of it as it contained quite a bit of worldly psychology and little Scriptural foundation for how parents of prodigals ought to shepherd their children's he...