Anne grew up in poverty and pain Two of her siblings died in infancy At five an eye disease left her partially blind and unable to read or write When Anne was eight her mother died from tuberculosis Shortly after her abusive father abandoned his three surviving children The youngest was sent to live with relatives but Anne and her brother Jimmie went to Tewksbury Almshouse a dilapidated overcrowded poorhouse A few months later Jimmie died At age fourteen Anne rsquo s circumstances brightened She was sent to a school for the blind where she underwent surgery to improve her [... more]

On every school day for three years Colleen has been dressing up in a different costume or mask to greet her children as they exit the school bus each afternoon It brightens the day of everyone on the bus mdash including the bus driver ldquo She bring s so much joy to the kids on my bus it rsquo s amazing I love that rdquo Colleen rsquo s children agree It all started when Colleen began fostering children Knowing how difficult it was to be separated from parents and to attend a new school she began greeting the kids in [... more]

My dad loved being outdoors in God rsquo s creation camping fishing and rock-hunting He also enjoyed working in his yard and garden But it took lots of work He spent hours pruning hoeing planting seeds or flowers pulling weeds mowing the lawn and watering the yard and garden The results were worth it mdash a landscaped lawn tasty tomatoes and beautiful peace roses Every year he pruned the roses close to the ground and every year they grew back mdash filling the senses with their fragrance and beauty In Genesis we read of the garden of Eden where Adam [... more]

Months after suffering a miscarriage Valerie decided to have a garage sale Gerald a neighbor craftsman a few miles away eagerly bought the baby crib she was selling While there his wife talked with Valerie and learned about her loss After hearing of her situation on the way home Gerald decided to use the crib to craft a keepsake for Valerie A week later he tearfully presented her with a beautiful bench ldquo There rsquo s good people out there and here rsquo s proof rdquo Valerie said Like Valerie Ruth and Naomi suffered great loss Naomi rsquo s husband [... more]

After raising money all year for a ldquo trip of a lifetime rdquo seniors from an Oklahoma high school arrived at the airport to learn that many of them had purchased tickets from a bogus company posing as an airline ldquo It rsquo s heartbreaking rdquo one school administrator said Yet even though they had to change their plans the students decided to ldquo make the most of it rdquo They enjoyed two days at nearby attractions which donated the tickets Dealing with failed or changed plans can be disappointing or even heartbreaking Especially when we rsquo ve invested time [... more]

A twenty-nine-year-old swimming instructor in New Jersey saw a car sinking into Newark Bay and heard the driver inside screaming ldquo I can rsquo t swim rdquo as his SUV quickly sank into the murky waters As a crowd watched from shore Anthony ran to the rocks along the edge removed his prosthetic leg and jumped in to rescue the sixty-eight-year-old man and help him safely to shore Our choices matter Thanks to Anthony rsquo s decisive action another man was saved Consider the patriarch Jacob the father of many sons who openly favored his seventeen-year-old son Joseph He foolishly [... more]

Comedian John Branyan said ldquo We didn rsquo t think up laughter that wasn rsquo t our idea That was given to us by God who knew we were going to need it to get through life rsquo Cuz He knew we were going to have hardship He knew were going to have struggles He knew stuff was going to happen Laughter is a gift rdquo A quick look at the creatures God made can bring laughter whether because of their oddities such as duck-billed platypuses or antics such as playful otters God made mammals that live in the ocean [... more]

Chuck an actor and martial artist honored his mother on her hundredth birthday by sharing how instrumental she rsquo d been in his spiritual transformation ldquo Mom has been an example of perseverance and faith rdquo he wrote She raised three boys on her own during the Great Depression suffered the death of two spouses a son a stepson and grandchildren and endured many surgeries ldquo She has prayed for me all my life through thick and thin rdquo He continued ldquo When nearly losing my soul to Hollywood she was back home praying for my success and salvation rdquo [... more]

In an interview a musician who rsquo s a believer in Christ recalls a time he was urged to ldquo stop talking about Jesus rdquo so much Why It was suggested that his band could be more famous and raise more money to feed the poor if he stopped saying his work was all about Jesus After thinking it through he decided ldquo The entire point of my music is to share my faith in Christ No way am I going to be silent rdquo He said his ldquo burning calling is to share the message of Jesus rdquo Under [... more]

In the sixties-era program The Andy Griffith Show a man tells Andy he should let his son Opie decide how he wants to live Andy disagrees ldquo You can rsquo t let a young rsquo un decide for himself He rsquo ll grab at the first flashy thing with shiny ribbons on it Then when he finds out there rsquo s a hook in it it rsquo s too late Wrong ideas come packaged with so much glitter that it rsquo s hard to convince them that other things might be better in the long run rdquo He concludes that [... more]

In March of while walking his dog in New York City rsquo s Central Park Whitney a retired financial expert saw trucks stacks of tarps and white tents each bearing a cross and the name of a charity he rsquo d never heard of before When he discovered the group was building a field hospital for his fellow New Yorkers with COVID- he asked if he could help For weeks he and his family pitched in wherever they could despite differing faiths and politics Whitney stated ldquo Every single person I rsquo ve met has been a genuinely nice person [... more]

Seven-year-old Thomas Edison didn rsquo t like or do well in school One day he was even called ldquo addled rdquo mentally confused by a teacher He stormed home After speaking with the teacher the next day his mom a teacher by training decided to teach him at home Helped along by her love and encouragement and his God-given genius Thomas went on to become a great inventor He later wrote ldquo My mother was the making of me She was so true so sure of me and I felt I had someone to live for someone I must not [... more]

Who do people believe Jesus is Some say He was a good teacher but just a man Author C S Lewis wrote ldquo Either this man was and is the Son of God or else a nbsp madman nbsp or something worse You can shut him up for a fool you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher rdquo These now-famous words from Mere Christianity propound that Jesus [... more]

Zhang was raised with in his words ldquo no God no religion nothing rdquo In seeking democracy and freedom for his people he helped lead students in peaceful protests But the protests tragically led to the government rsquo s intervention and hundreds of lives lost For his part in the event Zhang was placed on his country rsquo s most-wanted list After a short imprisonment he fled to an outlying village where he met an elderly farmer who introduced him to Christianity She had only a handwritten copy of the gospel of John but couldn rsquo t read so she [... more]

When Jen was young her well-intentioned Sunday school teacher instructed the class in evangelism training which included memorizing a series of verses and a formula for sharing the gospel She and a friend nervously tried this out on another friend fearful they rsquo d forget an important verse or step Jen doesn rsquo t ldquo remember if the evening ended in conversion but guesses it did not rdquo The approach seemed to be more about the formula than the person Now years later Jen and her husband are modeling for their own children a love for God and sharing their [... more]

An accomplished acrobat and aerialist Jen was born without legs and abandoned at the hospital Yet she says being put up for adoption was a blessing ldquo I am here because of the people who poured into me rdquo Her adoptive family helped her to see she was ldquo born like this for a reason rdquo They raised her to ldquo never say lsquo can rsquo t rsquo rdquo and encouraged her in all her pursuits She meets challenges with an attitude of ldquo How can I tackle this rdquo and motivates others to do the same The Bible tells [... more]

As I sat in the courtroom I witnessed several examples of the brokenness of our world a daughter estranged from her mother a husband and wife who rsquo d lost the love they once had and now shared only bitterness a husband yearning for reconciliation with his wife and to be reunited with his children They were in desperate need of changed hearts healing of wounds and for God rsquo s love to prevail Sometimes when the world around us seems to hold only darkness and despair it rsquo s easy to give in to despair But then the Spirit [... more]

Diet Eman was an ordinary shy young woman in the Netherlands mdash in love working and enjoying time with family and friends mdash when the Germans invaded in As Diet pronounced Deet later wrote ldquo When there is danger on your doorstep you want to act almost like an ostrich burying its head in the sand rdquo Yet Diet felt God calling her to resist the German oppressors which included risking her life to find hiding places for Jews and other pursued people This unassuming young woman became a warrior for God nbsp We find many stories in the Bible [... more]

Teenage gang leader Casey and his followers broke into homes and cars robbed convenience stores and fought other gangs Eventually Casey was arrested and sentenced In prison he became a ldquo shot caller rdquo someone who handed out homemade knives during riots Sometime later he was placed in solitary confinement While daydreaming in his cell Casey experienced a ldquo movie rdquo of sorts replaying key events of his life mdash and of Jesus being led to and nailed to the cross and telling him ldquo I rsquo m doing this for you rdquo Casey fell to the floor weeping and [... more]

During Scottish missionary Alexander Duff rsquo s first voyage to India in he was shipwrecked in a storm off the coast of South Africa He and his fellow passengers made it to a small desolate island and a short time later one of the crew found a copy of a Bible belonging to Duff washed ashore on the beach When the book dried Duff read Psalm to his fellow survivors and they took courage Finally after a rescue and yet another shipwreck Duff arrived in India Psalm lists some of the ways God delivered the Israelites Duff and his shipmates [... more]

The English preacher Charles H Spurgeon ndash lived life ldquo full throttle rdquo He became a pastor at age mdash and soon was preaching to large crowds He personally edited all of his sermons which eventually filled sixty-three volumes and wrote many commentaries books on prayer and other works And he typically read six books a week In one of his sermons Spurgeon said ldquo The sin of doing nothing is about the biggest of all sins for it involves most of the others Horrible idleness God save us from it rdquo Spurgeon lived with diligence which meant he ldquo [... more]

When two firefighters weary and sooty stopped at a restaurant for breakfast the waitress recognized the men from the news and realized they rsquo d spent the night battling a warehouse fire To show her appreciation she wrote a note on their bill ldquo Your breakfast is on me today Thank you for serving others and for running into the places everyone else runs away from Fueled by fire and driven by courage what an example you are rdquo nbsp In the Old Testament we see an example of courage in the actions of three young men Shadrach Meshach and [... more]

Radamenes was just a kitten when his owner dropped him off at an animal shelter thinking he was too ill to recover The kitten was nursed back to health and adopted by the vet He then became a fulltime resident at the shelter and now spends his days ldquo comforting rdquo cats and dogs mdash just out of surgery or recovering from an illness mdash through his warm presence and gentle purr That story is a small picture of what our loving God does for us mdash and what we can do for others in return He cares for us [... more]

ldquo Watch my fairy princess dance Grandma rdquo my three-year-old granddaughter gleefully called as she raced around the yard of our cabin a big grin on her face Her ldquo dancing rdquo brought a smile and her big brother rsquo s glum ldquo She rsquo s not dancing just running rdquo didn rsquo t staunch her joy at being on vacation with family The first Palm Sunday was a day of highs and lows When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey the crowds enthusiastically shouted ldquo Hosanna blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord rdquo [... more]

When the hut of a settler in a mountainous region of Alaska caught fire the settler was left without adequate shelter and with few provisions in the coldest state in the United States mdash in the middle of a frigid winter Three weeks later an aircraft flew over and spied the large SOS the man had stamped out in the snow and darkened with soot and he was finally rescued nbsp The psalmist David was certainly in dire straits He was being pursued by jealous King Saul who sought to kill him And so he fled to the city of [... more]

David rsquo s first beating came at the hands of his father on his seventh nbsp birthday after he accidentally broke a window ldquo He kicked me and punched me David said Afterward he apologized He was an abusive alcoholic and it rsquo s a cycle I rsquo m doing my best to end now rdquo nbsp But it took a long time for David to get to this point Most of his teen years and twenties were spent in jail or on probation and in and out of addiction treatment centers When it felt like his dreams were entirely [... more]

As I walked into my new supervisor rsquo s office I was feeling wary and emotionally raw What would he be like My old supervisor had run our department with harshness and condescension often leaving me and others in tears Now I wondered What would my new boss be like Soon after I stepped into my new boss rsquo office I felt my fears dissipate as he welcomed me warmly and asked me to share about myself and my frustrations He listened intently and I knew by his kind expression and gentle words that he truly cared A believer in [... more]

The spotted lanternfly is a pretty insect with speckled outer wings and a splotch of bright red on its inner wings that flashes when it flies But its beauty is a bit deceptive This insect first spotted in Pennsylvania in is considered invasive to North America which means it has the potential to harm the environment and economy The lanternfly will ldquo eat the innards of practically any woody plant rdquo which includes cherry and other fruit trees and leaves a sticky goo that leads to mold mdash killing trees outright or leaving them with little energy to grow fruit [... more]

When my husband and I were exploring a small rugged corner of the state of Wyoming I spied a sunflower in a rocky dry place where sagebrush nettles prickly cactus and other scraggly plants grew It wasn rsquo t as tall as the domestic sunflower but it was just as bright mdash and I felt cheered This unexpected bright spot in rough terrain reminded me of how life even for the Christian can seem barren and cheerless Troubles can seem insurmountable and like the cries of the psalmist David our prayers sometimes seem to go unheeded ldquo Hear me Lord [... more]

After a young boy faced some challenges in school his dad began to teach him a pledge to recite each morning before school ldquo I thank God for waking me up today I am going to school so I can learn and be the leader that God has created me to be rdquo The pledge is one way the father hopes to help his son apply himself and deal with life rsquo s inevitable challenges In a way by helping his son to commit this pledge to memory the father is doing something similar to what God commanded the Israelites [... more]