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You are here: Home / Archives for Blog / Life Issues

Band-aids for the Heart

May 5, 2010 by FamilyLife Leave a Comment

Contributed by Peggy

Every parent and grandparent knows the importance of a band-aid and a kiss to a child in pain and how it always makes everything better.  For a scrape on the arm, a skinned knee or a bruise, it is like a miracle drug.

Four years ago I lost both of my parents.  On March 12th my father died of heart failure. Then on October 12th my mother lost her battle with cancer.  Realizing that I would have to depend on the memories I had with my parents and would not be experiencing new ones was an adjustment.  The funeral service for both of my parents was officiated by my son and one of my nephews.  They did a wonderful job reminding us of the great legacy we had been given by the lives my parents had lived.  The responsibility to carry on that legacy was now in my future.

As I sat quietly remembering all those special moments in my life with my family, tears trickled down my cheek.  At that very moment I felt a gentle touch on my shoulder and a note slid into my lap.  Then I noticed the precious first-grade writing on the torn paper and began to read, “Dear Mimi, I am sorry you are so sad.  I love you.” It was signed by my granddaughter: “Love, Grace.”

At that moment I knew the feeling every child has when someone lovingly places a band-aid on a hurt and gives a kiss to ease the pain.  It really does make everything better.  It’s amazing that grandchildren can give such treasured “band-aids for the heart.”

I’ll always remember this one.

Filed Under: Blog, Life Issues Tagged With: Grandparenting, Grief and Loss

Bedtime Prayers

May 14, 2010 by FamilyLife Leave a Comment

By Jen Powell

I love to pray over my sleeping children at night.  With the busy day behind us and the scent of Johnson and Johnson shampoo in the air, it’s a time of recalling the triumphs and trials of the day and embracing the promise of a new day.

It is a precious time for me in the stillness of the night talking with God.  I cry out to Him asking for wisdom and guidance as we raise these kids for His glory.  I work through the “tug of war” emotions of being a mom: Protect them, but allow them to experience enough to need You, Lord.  Bless them, but not so much that they stray from You, Lord.  In a full circle of emotions, God draws me to the foot of His cross.  Once again, I lay them down as Abraham did with Isaac of the Old Testament: Lord, they belong to You.  I trust You with their lives and their futures.  God reminds me of my own life and my own walk.  It hasn’t been without suffering.  In fact, my most intimate times with Jesus have been in times of tremendous pain and loss.

Recently, we moved to an area of the country with tornados and it wasn’t long before we experienced our first one.  Our children were attending an evening at church and my husband and I headed out for a date night.  All plans were abruptly interrupted by tornado sirens.  Rushing back to the church we found all the kids evacuated and hunkered down with their heads between their knees.  My heart raced!  An hour would go by before the leaders were able to determine the storm had cleared our area without further threat and bring the children back to classrooms.  I headed straight for my daughter’s group.  She greeted us with a huge smile as she began to share her experience.  She said was scared initially, but it got her thinking about what would happen if she died that night.  She knew she would go to heaven.  She expressed she felt happy and peaceful inside—she knew she belonged to Jesus.  My heart soared!

In the stillness of that night, with tears streamed down my face, I thanked God for the events of that evening.  I praised Him for allowing this experience and for so lovingly and faithfully drawing our daughter to Himself.  She is safe and secure in His care, wherever that takes her.

The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.  Psalm 18:2

Filed Under: Blog, Life Issues Tagged With: Prayer

Believe It! God Works for Our Good

May 18, 2010 by FamilyLife Leave a Comment

By Branden DesCarpentrie

There was a time in my life when hearing Romans 8:28 made me cringe. 

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose.

I heard it all the time, especially during difficult times, and I got sick of hearing it.  The verse was a mantra for everyone wanting to encourage me.  It seemed like a cop-out when times were hard. 

Right after I graduated from college, I took a new job in the Chicago suburbs and had a shiny new car.  Best of all, I purchased a diamond ring for the woman I loved and became engaged at Christmas.  I had it all together, right?  Wrong. 

I was a self-absorbed pretender.  Sin had a stranglehold on me: anger, lust, pride, debt, impatience.  A few months later my fiancé broke off our engagement.  My house of cards fell apart.  I could hardly get out of bed for a few weeks, lost a lot of weight and work was impossible.  Of course, most everyone thought she had made a big mistake, but privately I knew I would have been a terrible husband to her.  In my brokenness, people would try and encourage me with Romans 8:28.  The problem was I really didn’t believe the verse.  To me, it was an easy thing for people whose lives were going well to say to someone whose life was full of hurt.

But it was during this time God got a hold of me…when I admitted I didn’t have it all together.  I needed forgiveness.  A new life.  A new love.  I needed Jesus. 

Today, almost 15 years later, I am married to a woman that I love desperately, a woman that God has used to slowly and gently change me.  My anger, lust, pride, and impatience are not conquered completely, but I yield to the Spirit much more often.  My home is filled with four beautiful children.  One came to our family through adoption, and another, a brown-eyed baby girl who we foster.  I no longer live in Illinois working as a Landscape Architect.  We moved to Arkansas two years ago to serve as missionaries.  Turns out, a lot of people were right.  God took a huge disaster and reshaped it for my good and His purposes.      

With the hindsight of 15 years, what did I learn from that experience?  How do we encourage people who are sinking in a life filled with suffering, loss, confusion, and hopelessness?  We can do more that throw a few clever verses at them.  We can encourage them to truly believe that God is working right now for their good.  We can help them cling to Romans 8:28 like a life preserver because God is not absent from their suffering.  He is right in the middle of it.  I guess it’s not such a bad verse after all!

Filed Under: Blog, Life Issues Tagged With: Spiritual Growth

Chasing Birds

March 31, 2010 by FamilyLife Leave a Comment

By Karen Winkelman

Today when I called the dog to come back in the house, she hesitated, turning away from the door one last time to chase away a bird that had flown into our yard.  She then came in and I heard myself say, “Why did you do that?  You know that bird is going to fly back again don’t you?”

The dog did not answer me, of course.  She went happily back to her spot on the rug and left me to ponder an unusual personal application: What birds have I been chasing lately?

Our dog chases birds by instinct and for fun but I’ve never known her to catch one – it’s just her nature.  I do things by my own nature as well, but unfortunately I often catch what I’m chasing, whether sin or something that opens the door to sin.

The only hope I have to not “do that again” is to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.  He was sent to be my Helper, the One who guides me into truth and helps me to bear the beautiful fruit listed in Galatians 5:22-23… love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Lately I have found myself thinking similar thoughts about someone I’m mentoring.  When she’s described her situation, I’ve wondered, “Why did she do that?”  I guess observing my dog’s natural instincts has helped me to remember where I would be without Christ, and also where the only true Help and Hope for us all is found.

Father, help me to have Your eyes and Your understanding for each person who writes in.  Give me the grace to accept her in the condition she is in and the wisdom and courage to know how to lead her to Your truth through Your Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Filed Under: Blog, Life Issues Tagged With: Spiritual Growth

Do You Remember Where You Were September 9, 2001?

September 9, 2011 by FamilyLife Leave a Comment

by Suzanne Thomas

We all remember where we were that day, September 11, 2001.  But, do you remember where you were September 9, 2001?  My friend, Cindy does, because she was attending Worship Services in the Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York, New York, listening to a sermon by Jim Cymbala.  What the pastor could not have known then, but we do know now, is that God was helping him to prepare his church for the coming days, and the tragedy that would come to be known as 9/11.

Pastor Cymbala preached that day on Romans 8:28-29, and he called his sermon “Purpose Prearranged.”  He taught that day that even though bad things happen to us in this life, those bad things can produce ten good things.

  1. Bad things in life produce convictions; cause us to walk more closely with God.
  2. Bad things in life produce honesty.
  3. Bad things in life produce priorities.  Our priority should be to love Him and walk in His ways.
  4. Bad things in life produce change.  As we move closer to God, we become more like Him.
  5. Bad things in life produce holiness.
  6. Bad things in life produce security.  Psalm 32:7; Psalm 119:17
  7. Bad things in life produce worship.
  8. Bad things in life produce humility.
  9. Bad things in life produce kindness.
  10. Bad things in life produce desire for heaven.  They remind us what a glorious thing heaven will be, that our tears will be wiped away.

As we look back and remember September 11, as bad as it was, and the losses we suffered, can you see in your life where suffering has produced a closer walk with the Lord?  Has suffering caused you to be more honest with God?

Does suffering make you re-prioritize your life?  Do bad things in your life produce change; do you become more like God because of hard times?  Do you remember all the pictures of people running to houses of worship after the attacks of 9/11?  I do.  God can, and He does, use suffering to make us into new and different people.

This weekend, as you talk about 9/11 with your children, remember to include some discussion about how God uses suffering in our lives, and that God is bigger and greater, and more awesome than any power in this world.

Filed Under: Blog, Life Issues

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