Which do you find more difficult? 1) Marriage conflict that arises because you’ve sinned against your spouse. 2) Marriage conflict that arises because your spouse has sinned against you. My husband, Curtis, and I recently celebrated our nineteenth anniversary, so we’ve had lots of opportunities to confess sin to each other. Most of the time when there’s conflict between the two of us, the source...
“My dad said we can’t put a filtering software on our computers because it would be a crutch. I need to be able to overcome pornography by growing in my trust and obedience to Jesus.” I was stunned. This student had come to me for counseling because of his pornography problem, but his Christian father was undercutting my counsel and robbing his son of valuable tools in the fight against his sin...
Everyone from the starry-eyed graduate to the seasoned business owner wants to climb the “ladder of success.” After all, it’s the American dream. We step onto that shaky bottom rung with meager influence and income, and through hard work and determination, clamber up each rung until we reach the top. There, with power and paycheck, we survey the landscape like a proud rooster on the barn roof...
Initially, we paused to honor the pain that prompted the need to forgive. Now, we’ll articulate several of the fears that can cause us to brace against forgiving. Sometimes the most loving way to engage a subject is to set a sufferer’s mind at ease. With children, this might sound like, “You’ve got a doctor’s appointment today, but don’t worry, you don’t have to get any shots.” It is reasonable...
The pressure of being a teenager can be overwhelming. School, sports, jobs, relationships, and a growing number of responsibilities all press in at the same time. But the hardest part can be feeling alone, that you have no one to share your most difficult problems with, or that no one takes you seriously. In The Jesus I Wish I Knew in High School from Rooted Ministry, thirty authors from many...
