How Your Prayers Change the Future

Tricia Goyer
Discipling Children, Following God, Hope, Parenting, Prayer

I'd like to think I'm an expert pray-er. I can clearly see how my prayers changed things. For example, I have three little kids—not birthed from me—running around my house who are examples of that. Yet the way that my prayers changed the future is different than you think.

God is not a genie in a bottle. My prayers weren't effective because I figured out the right words to make God do what I want to do. I used to think that. As a young Christian I'd try all sorts of things:

  • praying in the morning
  • praying at night
  • praying on my knees
  • praying out loud
  • journaling my prayers

I wouldn't admit it out loud, but I believed deep down if I said the right things, at the right time, in the right way, that God could be swayed.

Six Words My Husband Needs To Hear

Ruth Simons
Faith, Following God, Marriage/Relationships

They say that the longer two people are married, the more they begin to look like one another. They complete each other’s sentences and can order for their spouse at a restaurant. They know when the thermostat is set too high or too low for the other, and they can tell who the other is speaking to, simply by how he answers the phone.

And yet with all that is comfortable, assumed, predictable, and known between a husband and a wife, we often overlook six simple words we so easily offer to others:

How can I pray for you?

Though I can’t relate to my husband and I growing in likeness, I do realize how much 16 years has knit our hearts to one another and melded our goals and desires. Yet, have you ever heard your spouse share a prayer request to others in a way that surprised you? I have.

Ten Ways to Keep the Darkness at Bay

Kate Battistelli
Discipling Children, Following God, Hope, Parenting, Prayer

I know most of us here are Christian moms but we want the same things as every other mom right? Every mom wants to keep her kids safe, help them grow up healthy and strong,  protect them from monsters and let them believe they’re super heroes, agreed?

All mothers can pretty much agree on these points but as moms following God, we have different standards and we see a bigger picture. We see beyond keeping our children safe to making them holy vessels fit for the Master’s use. We see far past our children’s temporal lives and gaze into their eternal futures.

If you’ve ever seen the first Hobbit movie, you might remember this line:

Everybody's a Fixer Upper

Ashleigh Slater
Marriage/Relationships

I'm not sure who was more excited. My four daughters or me. You see, we were about to attend Frozen on Ice.

Unlike many moms and dads and babysitters and grandparents and teachers, I haven't grown weary of the tale of Anna and Elsa. You won't find me plugging my ears and humming loudly when "Let It Go" plays on our Pandora Disney channel. Nope, I jump right in and belt it out with my girls. And when my kids hit "play" for the five-hundredth time on the Blu-ray disc, I seem to cry harder at this story that so beautifully illustrates the power of love to cast out fear. And I marvel once again at how well-crafted the script is. (You can graduate the film student from film school, but you can't take the need to analyze films out of her ... even 11 years later.)

12 Fun Family Traditions To Try This Holiday

Guest User
Fun For Kids, Homemaking, Marriage/Relationships, Parenting

Entering the holiday season can be familiar and exciting, but it can also be overwhelming because it comes so quickly. If you are like me you wish it was extended over a longer period of time just so you can savor all of the seasonal benefits such as holiday themed cups at coffee houses, the smell of wet concrete from rain or even snow, pumpkin everything, and of course eggnog. This time of year is special and can often times bring up fond memories of the past, especially if families made an effort to incorporate traditions. We find ourselves taking turns in conversations reminiscing of past seasons and what made it the most special to us. Don’t you agree?

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