Devotionals

According to a national poll, the most trusted professions are nurses, medical doctors, grade-school teachers, pharmacists, military officers, police officers and day care providers.  It would be interesting to know the characteristics that respondents considered when issuing high marks in “honesty and ethical standards.”  While I don’t know the criteria of the poll, I do know a list of those standards can be found [...]

When my youngest child first moved out of the house he was hyper-focused on physical fitness.  The transition to independent living meant, for the first time, he was responsible for his own grocery shopping and his own cooking.  The combination of limited finances, his desire to eat healthy and his lack of shopping experience resulted in his decision to regularly eat grilled chicken, turkey [...]

Perception of wealth is a slippery thing.  If you attend a party where the guests’ median income is much greater than yours, you may dress and speak in a way that leads others to think you have more than you do.  If you volunteer at a food bank, perhaps you intentionally dress or speak in a way that projects an image of having less [...]

Do you struggle with anxiety?  Do your life circumstances contribute to a heaviness of your soul? Do you regularly experience a sorrow or grief that leads (intermittently) to a complaining heart?  The Bible acknowledges that the struggle is real.  “Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad” (Prov. 12:25). Philippians 4:6 instructs you not to be anxious [...]

One of the recurring scenes in crime TV shows is a camera shot of a suspect sound asleep on a jail cell cot.  The insightful detective then confidently asserts that he’s found his guy because “only the guilty sleep when caught.”  While I doubt the investigative legitimacy of the theory, there is validity to the principle that a clear conscience contributes to good sleep. [...]

Horses are remarkably powerful beasts that have supplemented military operations for millennia.  Warhorses are mentioned in the Bible all the way back to Exodus and they continued as an integral military tool until the end of the 19th century.  Lighter horses were used for scouting and raiding while heavier ones were ridden by armed soldiers.  They pulled chariots into battle and preceded infantry assaults [...]