Brave New World. 1984. The Giver. The Hunger Games. Divergent. These are just a few of the notable novels that come to mind when I think of cultural commentary dressed as dystopian drama. Each story speaks to something true about character, human development, and the ills of society. But each also paints a sinister, unsettling future. This essay is not a critique of these authors or their books...
One of parenting’s greatest paradoxes is that the moments we think matter the least often matter the most. As parents, grandparents, caregivers, and mentors, it is easy to get caught up in the big things. We think about milestones, birthdays, vacations, championships, graduations, and successes. We worry if our kids are learning enough, succeeding enough, and ready for what comes next. Yet when...
This year we said goodbye for now to my mom, Rose Marie Miller, so of course we did some thinking about what she left to us. She was not a rich woman (missionaries tend not to be), but what she had she gave—faith, love, and hope, all based on her love for Jesus. She wasn’t shy about sharing her needs, struggles, and sins. If you prayed with her, you heard it all! That was her legacy to us (five...
As parents, we show our children the reality of our faith in two complementary ways: we give them the gospel story recorded in God’s Word and we live out the gospel story in our words and actions. How we talk and act makes the gospel story real to our children by showing them that we truly believe. Revelation gives us a powerful picture of the relationship between Christ’s saving work and the...
My very first baby was wheeled into my hospital room after I had given birth. It is the first memory I have of truly seeing her. I was in total shock. Shock from giving birth, shock that I had a kid, shock that now I was in charge of this human life. She was beautiful and perfect and seemed to be staring me down through that plastic rectangle she lay bundled in. My husband and I looked at each...
