As a child, I thought that, as people grew up, they grew up. I presumed that as children grew into adolescents, and adolescents into adults, they matured accordingly, leaving their childish ways behind and adopting new, more refined, more angelic, more ‘right’ habits and perspectives. This is certainly true to an extent, as we can all witness and attest, however it was a shock to my system when I realised that this isn’t as thorough a transformation as I’d naïvely thought – with anyone, and less so for some than for others.

We are taught to turn to the Lord first and foremost; to do as He would have us do, according to His will. Inherent in this is good, or charity, towards others.
Continue reading Growing Up →

I appreciate when an article inspires one of our writers to continue a conversation. This vignette was sent in to me by Jenn after she read a reflection by Abby a few weeks ago. It is such a profound concept, I love revisiting it. Thanks for this, Jenn. ~Eden

I don’t often play piano for our church services – there are only a few songs that I play, and only play them occasionally. Recently I played a song for our Easter worship service. It’s a fun song–quite up-beat once it gets going. I know it well enough that I’m prone to having my mind wander while playing it, if I’m not careful. On this particular Sunday, it was going well, I was staying with it, until about two-thirds of the way through the piece when I just completely up and drew a blank. I knew exactly where I was in the piece, I just couldn’t think of what came next – and even when I looked at the sheet music (which I hadn’t been following), …they were just dots on the page. I might’ve been able to pick up where I left off, but I wanted to find and pick up where I ought to be, had I kept playing, which of course kept moving further and further along in the song.
Continue reading Failing to succeed →

You think you know someone, then you learn the back story…

Do you ever meet someone, get to know them a bit, and form ideas in your mind about them? “He’s weird.” “Why on earth would she do that??” “What is this dude’s deal?” I’m not proud to admit it, but I’ll be honest, I have. I like to think that I still treat people well, despite pigeonholing them – hopefully you do, too – however it’s a sobering moment when I recognise that I’ve done this, when I realise that I jumped to conclusions; I didn’t know the whole story – and I shouldn’t have needed to, in the first place, but it seems to help.
Continue reading PeRspEctiVe →

“Lord, I believe: help my unbelief.” Mark 9:24

Can faith really heal? Can wholly trusting the Lord, having absolute faith that He will heal, or produce a miracle, really yield that positive result?

My minister husband and I were just discussing this, and by the end of the conversation, it sure did seem like 100% faith is the source of miracles.

We all have issues – some are major, some minor, but we’ve all got ’em – and, being religious folk (by definition, since we’re reading this blog), we probably all pray about them at some time or other. If our prayers don’t yield the result we want, is it because we didn’t pray hard enough? Is it because not enough people prayed for this particular cause? Is it a critical mass thing, where if you have 9 people praying for you, ah, shucks, sorry, no luck, but if you’ve got that 10th, well, there you go, that’s your ticket! I highly doubt it; I can’t believe that could possibly be so,… but I am pausing to wonder. Maybe I’m wrong? (No, surely not! The Lord is more merciful than that! ….Right??) Continue reading Faith Healing →