Lately, my kids have been making me think a lot about truth. My two-year-old isn’t always very good at telling the truth. It’s always a little startling when your innocent baby figures out how to lie, but I’ve realized that it actually makes a lot of sense. She doesn’t tell the truth when she doesn’t want something to be true. For example, it’s a struggle getting her to admit to having a dirty diaper. She doesn’t want to be changed, so she pretends that her diaper is clean. Continuing to play is a far more pleasant prospect than having Mommy vigorously wipe smelly stuff off her bum. I don’t really blame her for reimagining reality in cases like this, but still, she has to learn to tell the truth, even when she doesn’t want to.

Just writing that out is a bit of an eye-opener: we have to tell the truth, even if we don’t want it to be true. It’s humbling to realize how often I have to relearn this same lesson. There are all sorts of untruths I tell myself because the reality doesn’t always seem terribly appealing. I bet you can relate to this too. Here are just a few things that come to mind for me:

I deserve a treat for all of my hard work today. “Deserve” is a pretty strong word. There is nothing wrong with rewarding oneself for a job well done, but for me at least, a “treat” usually means junk food. I might be rewarding my taste buds, but I’m punishing the rest of my body. That’s not much of a treat in the long run. On top of that, this kind of thinking typically omits honoring the Lord’s part in all of my successes. I’m not deserving. Not really. I just have the most amazing Heavenly Father helping me out. All the time. That in itself is actually a beautiful reality, but one I manage to ignore far too often. Continue reading Tell The Truth →

How do young people today decide where to stand on the issue of legal abortion? The issue has taken on such heated arguments politically, religiously, and personally that it is hard to listen, read, or speak about where lines should be drawn, or when laws should permit or forbid the act of separating a pregnant woman from the unborn child she carries in her body. That is what abortion literally means, and the physical act required to remove the unborn child from the mother has profound consequences.

One of the reasons I think people have a hard time thinking and speaking about abortion is that is an unpleasant subject and that those people to whom we are speaking have such a variety of opinions, often hard held opinions, due to their political views or personal experience.

Considering the over 50 million abortions that have been performed in America since abortion-on-demand was made legal in the United States on January 22, 1973, it stands to reason that few families have escaped the trauma of deciding what to do when faced with an unintended pregnancy within their family. What families decide to do, I believe, becomes the basis for their family members’ hard held stance on the abortion issue thereafter. They preach it, they defend it, and they counsel others to do the same as they did.

I know that’s what I do. My family faced the challenge of unintended pregnancies that met the typical formula for unquestioned abortion: high school and college aged pregnancies. The future plans and careers of my children were suddenly at stake, balanced against the lives of very small, as yet undetected, unborn babies. Continue reading If Only She Knew →

5, 4, 3, 2, 1…. Happy New Year! And so begins another new year.

As we turn into a new year, 2018, I am given over to thoughts of new beginnings and new years resolutions. Well laid plans for this new year. However, I have to wonder whether my plans for this year are worth making in the first place and if I am going to succeed.

I have to ask myself what is different to this time last year. I made well laid plans for 2017 but what happened?

Let’s just say that 2017 wasn’t a good year… neither was 2016. And if I’m to be totally honest, 2015 was a bit of a washout in terms of resolutions unachieved.

The purpose of New Years resolutions is to make some kind of change to ones behaviour or undesired trait or to accomplish some kind of personal goal in order to ultimately improve ones life. Continue reading New Year – New Beginnings →

Warning: the following advertisement may have been produced under the pressures of a time crunch and a house full of sick kids. Extreme snarkiness is possible. Read at your own risk.

“Everyone who lives a good life goes to Heaven!” You’ve all heard that catchy phrase, well now this cheerfully inclusive worldview can be yours—just subscribe to the idea of Salvation-By-Charity-Alone.

No longer is Faith-Alone your route to heavenly happiness—nowadays its all about Charity: “as long as a person is living a good life, they are eternally set,” the Charity-Alone advocate says.

Imagine the peace of mind this philosophy will bring you when you think about your friends and family who may not be living that traditional “Christian” lifestyle. There will be no more embarrassment, no more distress and certainly no need to direct them to Truths which tell them their lifestyle is wrong. Since faith isn’t a component of Salvation, having a relationship with God and seeking out what He says about an issue isn’t strictly necessary.
Continue reading Peddling Salvation by Charity Alone →