I grew up in a two-parent home. At a very early age I recognized the role of mother and father as it pertains to rearing children. Now that I think about it, I saw the nature of God in both of my parents. Mommy was the nurturing, caring, feeding, organizing, long-suffering nature of God. And Daddy was the providing, protecting, structured, watchful, consequential, disciplining nature of God. As I grew up, I came into an understanding of WHY children need both parents. In my opinion,...

Yvonne is my mother and none of the other people who have influenced my life exist without her story. No other man or woman is more responsible for my existence other than her. At 79 years old, she mostly stays at home, plagued unfortunately with a host of health-related issues.  I don't understand them all and conversations about her challenges, too many times result in conflict.  I wanted a life with her that requires her to be more active and engaged.  She is struggling sometimes to...

Mark 10:46-52 tells the story of a blind man whom Jesus healed. I think it’s easy to skip over stories like this, especially when we’ve heard them so many times before. But I was reading this passage recently, and something stuck out to me. In the story, Jesus and his disciples are leaving town. As they do, a blind man named Bartimaeus is sitting in the road and immediately begins calling out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” The crowd tries to shush him, but he continues to call...