Godly Insights for the 21st Century Life

      I had planned to write about something different in this post. I almost always have a few different ideas for posts that I draw from each month unless there's something more pressing to discuss. Well, this month, there was something more pressing.     On the morning of February 19, I called my care receiver for our biweekly check-in. She didn't answer, so I left her a message on her voice mail and sent her a text. I was a bit worried, especially since I hadn't been able to talk to her on the 5th either, but I knew that sometimes she had issues with her phone, so I thought that maybe that was happening again. Unfortunately, that wasn't the problem this time. About an hour later, I got a text from her number saying it was her sister and asking me how I knew her. Before I could respond, the sister called to inform me that she had died a week earlier.       I am thankful that though she is gone now, I was able to give her a sense of peace t...

Last fall, I did a study on the book The Anatomy of Peace. The book tells the story of parents whose kids were at a youth rehabilitation camp, and who were in a two day meeting to try and help their children when they returned home in two months. The leader of the camp taught the parents how to have a heart of peace toward their children rather than a heart of war. In our meetings during the study, we talked about practical ways that we could cultivate a heart of peace in our own relationships. After learning about the difference between a heart of war and a heart of peace, I began to notice in interactions with others where their hearts were in that moment. Coworkers that had trouble getting kids to listen to them were the ones whose hearts were at war with them, and I found that sometimes I also interacted with kids with the same heart and got the same results. Relationships that I had struggled to improve were hampered by the wrong motivations, and they have improved now that my h...