As students begin to flood college campuses across the U.S., the transition to college life brings new freedoms and challenges. For parents, one huge task is preparing their children for the world beyond home. Many opt to send care packages filled with their favorite snacks, fast food gift cards, and school supplies. Sometimes, these packages also include contraceptives, a parent’s efforts to...
There is nothing easy about overcoming an addiction. As we explore what would be the hardest part of this process, I want to be careful not to minimize other parts of the journey. But when you talk to people who were once slaves to substance abuse and are now experiencing significant freedom, a common refrain emerges when you ask: What was the hardest part of your journey? Before I offer an...
For parents with a little one who loves to play with cars and trucks, a new series of books written by Sarah Reju and illustrated by Tania Rex will become an instant favorite. The Wheelies are a family of vehicles whose adventures are both fun and relatable to children ages 3–8. And when trouble finds young Coop, as it always seems to do, the truth of the gospel always steers him back in the...
In the 1960s, British Christian psychiatrist Frank Lake noted in his book Clinical Theology that, “pastoral care is defective unless it can deal thoroughly both with the evils we have suffered as well as with the sins we have committed” (emphasis added). The modern biblical counseling movement has made tremendous strides in the past several decades in addressing both sin and suffering. Most...
Every human is born in a prison. The important questions are: can we and will be set free? These are not only issues for us today. They were critical to address for the original hearers of Jesus’s Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector in Luke 18:9–14. In this text, Jesus provides the key we need to unlock our chains. The Pharisees were a prominent Jewish sect known for their strict, outward...
