The Christian family is both exceedingly large and exceedingly diverse.  The faith of the billions of people who have called themselves “Christian” over the last two thousand years from all across the planet has varied greatly.  There are and have been differences in how they understand scripture, the rituals they

Deciphering who you or the people you care about will become might seem like an attempt to peer into the unknowable, but in many ways it’s not. There will obviously be some known-unknowns.  These are things that you may know you don’t know – like which college you go to,

I have written about this before, but it is worth updating and repeating. Before my oldest son was born and my wife and I became parents for the first time, my wonderful mother-in-law gave us a precious gift – a little book of advice and blessings on parenting that she

Jesus has a lot to say about people who are “rich” and people who are “poor.”  In fact understanding what Jesus teaches about the rich and the poor is a vital part of the framework for understanding and living out the Christian life. Unfortunately for those of us in modern

I have some impressive friends. One of my friends has seen a lot of ups and downs in his life – lots of impressive wins and sad losses – but his attitude towards them all and towards life is what impresses me most.  More than anyone I know he exemplifies

For thousands of years humans have sat around camp fires and told stories. In this glowing, flickering light elders of the tribe told stories that were passed down to them as they sat around similar camp fires when they were young.  These stories were passed down this way from generation

I used to think that Jesus was out of touch with his teachings on worry.  I don’t think it is Christian to be dismissive of Jesus, but I do think it is okay to be honest about our disagreements.  God can handle our disagreements.  Disagreeing is something that happens in

Anger has gotten a bad rap – undeservedly so.  Anger, like all other human emotions it is an important gift.  Like all other emotions, it’s how we handle it that makes it good or bad. I’m sure the majority of people at some point have witnessed the damage that out-of-control,

I didn’t write this. Only once before have I posted someone else’s writing, but this was good. It is so good that it was hard for me to read, especially the first part. She is speaking to me and to my experience. It took me a long time to learn

Prayer changes things.  Making requests of God changes how things are and will be. This is the consistent claim of scripture and a concept that we see Jesus attempting to get across to his followers on nearly every page of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – the parts