We’ve all seen what is happening in Israel and Gaza on the news. It’s heart-wrenching and brings up some big questions in our own adult minds. Anytime Israel is involved, we wonder about its greater significance in the history of humanity. Is this a sign? Is this the sign? Have the end times begun?
Even as adults, we don’t Read more
*This foster care journey was originally published in Becky Bereford’s Brave Women Series. You can access the full story on her website at beckyberesford.com.
Stay. That’s the word I got from God after receiving the publishing company acceptance letter—my first potential job in my field of study. The pay would be a promotion from my current gig at the Boys and Girls Club Teen Center.
Stay—an uncomfortable word for someone like me. Driven by to-do lists and accomplishments, I was a 23-year-old recent grad who wanted to change the world yet often let the world define me by my resume—by what was, or more acutely, what wasn’t yet on it.
Surprisingly, I obeyed. Without knowing the exact reason, I dialed the number and turned down the job offer. I presumed my time wasn’t over with these teens just yet.
Staying meant more late evenings befriending teenagers, learning all the greatest ‘70s Wii Rock Band songs, helping students with homework, and running dodgeball games in the gym. I prayed my time with the teens would instill in them a sense of worth, almost all of whom had experienced much more pain and hardship than I could confess in my ten years their senior.
A few months passed and then two girls walked through those club doors whom, in hindsight, I realize were the reason for God’s instruction to “stay.” Their group home mom introduced them to me as Nicole and Natalie Brown, twins about to turn 14. But I was too busy doubting they would like it here to remember much else about the conversation. Their similar faces seemed to stonewall me—this young, perhaps naïve woman who stood before them in her Boys and Girls Club polo.
I would later learn…
*Click the button below to read my family’s full foster care story:
If you’re like me, you’ve already begun to sense that creeping-in feeling of those bittersweet holidays. Like an eight-legged arachnid that crawls its way onto the leg of your new fall jeans while you’re trying to enjoy a moment in nature, the holidays creep in, threatening to steal your joy, sanity, and what little you have left of peace.
It could be because my girls have already hijacked my playlist and replaced it with Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas” blazing from the open windows of our 2014 minivan while we take in the last breaths of semi-warm air. All the while reminding me that Read more
One of the hardest things in the life of our faith is making big decisions. How do we keep the faith when the impact of our decision could be consequential? My friend and fellow writer, Sharla Hallett wrote the following guest post for Something Like Scales as an alternative takeaway of Paul’s Acts 9 “something like scales fell from his eyes” story. Here’s Sharla.
The Biblical examples of people having to make hard, but impactful decisions of obedience are aplenty. God asks his servant to do something that does not make sense to him or her, perhaps even putting them in harm’s way. They must decide whether they will trust and follow God or do what makes sense to them in the moment. Read more
What’s your biggest fear? For me, it’s been my health. In recent years, I’ve had some nagging health nuisances—little things that, over time, developed into bigger issues. I’ve been sent to the hospital, had repeat blood workups, and seen my practitioner’s head turn sideways, perplexed. In short, in the last few years, my immune system had seen better days.
Notice my verb tense: had not has. I am working on treating this as a thing of the recent past, not the present. But I’ll get to that shortly.
Amid my health fears, I was called to Mexico Read more
Prayer feels weird for a lot of us for a lot of different reasons. But prayer is powerful, and the awkwardness of it or the struggle you feel in finding time to do it ought not to stop us. When we pray, we are calling down heaven into our present circumstances. We are calling on the God who created all things to exercise his power among us. The question isn’t so much Read more
Though I normally write about Disney and the gospel, this one makes it worth deviating from the norm. Disney-produced or not, this Jon Favreau-directed film became a Christmastime classic in my house almost twenty years ago. Since it’s considered newer to the repertoire of classic must-see Christmas movies, it’s hard to believe it’s been around that long. Along with so many others, the joy-filled, child-like antics of Buddy, the beloved giant green and yellow elf, will probably be featured on our screen sometimes after the turkey dinner on Thursday and before the tryptophan coma kicks in.
But…have you ever thought of it as a messenger of the gospel?!
You know the story. Starring Will Farrell as the main character, the movie, Elf depicts Read more
It’s All Saints Day. I’ve always felt a little under-educated about what this day means and its origins within the Christian tradition. I know there is a somewhat complicated history between the Jewish festivals featured in the Bible and the holidays that came along thereafter, which are still celebrated around much of the modern world today. All Saints Day falls the day after Halloween. It’s a day when many are turning their interests from a holiday that focuses on the human experience of fear to a season that celebrates the One who came to rescue us from all fear.
SLOW is a four-letter word in our society. Like, one of those four-letter words. For some people, they may need to put asterisks and dollar signs in place of some of the letters because it is a BAD word. We don’t like slow. It is the opposite of progress. It is a sign of the weak. It means Read more
The stairwell was filled with raccoon droppings. We tip-toed around each one and made our way into the large steel-framed room that opened up near the bottom of the staircase. Letting our flashlight lead the way, the yellow beam caught glimpses of material hanging down from Read more
