My mom taught first grade at a local elementary school. One year, the group of students in her class included a girl named Rosa. But Rosa struggled to pronounce the letter R. When she introduced herself, the other kids thought she'd announced her name was “Wosa.” Throughout the early months of that school session, the [...]

CRASH! You failed. Again. You are sad and mad at the same time, not to mention humiliated. We have all experienced failure: making a low grade on an assignment, forgetting to complete a promised task, giving in to temptation to sin, etc. Usually, we can handle the minor failures. Though embarrassed, we carry on. But [...]

How do you feel about libraries? They're one of my favorite places! As the library doors swoosh open, I love breathing in the familiar scent of book pages and seeing the colorful spines lined along the shelves. I don't even have a favorite section; I love them all—from history to literature to comparative religion to [...]

Levi was not a popular guy; in fact, most people didn't like Levi at all. In Jewish society during Jesus's time, tax collectors were despised as the lowest of the low. They worked for the enemy—Rome. They cheated their own people, and they got rich doing it. That was the kind of man Levi was—but [...]

When I wake up in the morning Let each breath be love When I go out and aboutLet my actions spread your love When I come home againLet me love those around me When life gets hardLet your love surround me When others hurt meLet me respond with love When I am scaredLet your love [...]

Sometimes, thinking about the future makes me feel stressed. I can get caught up trying to figure out what I'm going to do, and I can miss out on a lot.One of the most important things I can miss out on when I'm only thinking about the future is the present. I might not notice [...]

The air was cold and bitter as Taylor trudged up the mountain path. She was after a rare flower; this flower was the last hope of saving her village from a deadly illness.The flower only grew in the harsh northern mountains. Many had gone before Taylor and had returned with nothing but broken bones and [...]

I remember when I got sheepskin winter boots in middle school. That might not seem significant, but they weren’t just any winter boots. Everyone at school seemed to have them. When you got them, it was like you joined a club. My mom knew how badly I wanted a pair of these boots, and she [...]

Have you ever been to a candle shop or watched people make candles? There are so many variations in candles! It seems like the possibilities are almost limitless. Differences in size, shape, color, design, fragrance, intended use, rate of burn—all these contribute to the huge variety in candles. But there is at least one thing [...]

As you get older, the problems in your life can seem to get bigger and scarier. When you were younger, there might have been someone who would take on your struggles for you, but now you have to face more of these challenges without help from others. Yet, God is still in control, even when [...]