"Am I fake?" Has this thought ever crossed your mind? You are not alone. When someone decides to become a Christian, they might be surprised to discover they still struggle with sin. Even if they are working hard to follow Jesus and reshape their life choices and patterns, mess-ups inevitably happen. Trials come. The old [...]

Imagine you wake up one morning and begin to get ready for the day. When you look at yourself in the mirror, you are horrified by what you see: you have a massive case of bedhead, eye crust is piled up in your eyelids, last night's dinner is stuck between your teeth, and you look [...]

Do you yearn to break free from the chains of your past? Are you weary of running Or wearing a mask? Pain, guilt, shame, and despair Ugly, heavy—it's too much to bear Hope shines through the dark When all else seems lost He took all our sin When He bore the cross No longer slaves, [...]

We have all experienced the pain of betrayal, unkind words spoken, and possibly even more serious hurts inflicted by someone against us. What is the natural response when people wrong us? Retaliation is often our first instinct. But is that the loving, Christian response? When someone wrongs us, God calls us not to do them [...]

I recently had an experience that still makes me smile each time I think about it. I was carrying my five-month-old nephew while his two-year-old brother was running around in the house. We made a game of the younger one chasing the older one, and soon both boys were shrieking with laughter. It made me [...]

When you mess up or wander away from God, you might feel like that's it. You might think, "The things I've done are too much. God couldn't forgive me." But that is not true. The amazing thing about God's grace is that it's not too late for you. There is still hope for you even [...]

Your friends don't always understand what has you upset. You are unique, and when it comes to things that hurt you and your feelings about what is going on in the world, not everyone will be affected the same way you are. When you feel misunderstood, know that God sees you. Your family might get [...]

While hiking on a trail in the Smoky Mountains, my husband and I needed to make a decision. The sign had said the trail was only a few miles—but it didn't say we were headed uphill through rough terrain. Hot and weary, we considered going back, but once we realized how far we had already [...]

"Go in peace,” the worship leader said at the end of my first chapel service at my Christian university. I had never heard the phrase before, but after hearing it at every following chapel, I learned that some churches close every service with the words “go in peace.” It was amusing at first to anticipate [...]

We tend to feel confident when the people in our lives respect us and celebrate our accomplishments. We feel good when we do big things. But when we are struggling and no one seems to notice us, we might start to question our value. As humans, we want to impress others and to be accepted [...]