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Some of you spend Christmas day surrounded by your families. Possibly you have a large family—ten or twelve are at home on that day, with a grandchild or two. I will tell you what your greatest joy is on that day: it is to see the happiness of your children and to mark how they enjoy what you provide…

Think of your dear little one at home. He cannot yet read a letter in a book; he knows nothing of the things that his elder brother studies; but he knows his father. He may not know very much about his father; he could not certainly speak to others about his father’s business or his father’s wealth,…

Suppose one of you had a boy who said, “Father, I do not like my home. I do not care for you, and I will not endure the restraints of family rule; I am going to live with strangers. But father, I shall come to you every week, and I shall require many things of you, and I shall expect that you will give…

When Chelsey Haley finished school and began teaching, she joined the Teach for America program to make a difference in a low-income school. She never expected to encounter a boy named Jerome, who made her question her motives and future as a teacher. She went to an elementary school in Louisiana, where…

Orlando was an 11-year-old Arizona boy who had spent years in a Mexican orphanage before winding up in foster care in Phoenix, AZ. When he joined Jodi Kacz’s reading intervention class the teacher took a shine to Orlando. Kacz had a heart problem that kept her from having her own children but when she…

In “Giving & Receiving,” Bryan Catherman writes, “It is clear that God wants us to communicate with Him. He desires that we pray and ask him to meet our needs. He wants to provide for us. In order that we recognize his goodness, God directs us to ask and become keenly aware of him before he delivers…

When the building where she lived in Mumbai suddenly collapsed killing her entire family along with 70 others, seven-year-old Sandhya Thakur found herself alone in the world and homeless. She spent the next 23 days in a hospital. The senior nurse during her hospital stay, Veena Kadle and her husband…

In the movie Taken, a sex trafficking ring kidnaps Kim while she is visiting Spain with a friend. Her father was an ex-CIA agent with an expertise in tracking anyone, anywhere. In the end, her father goes through utter hell to find his daughter, and ultimately finds and rescues her from her Saudi Arabian…

According to an AP news report, Moshco-Piro people of Amazon jungle in Peru do not associate with outsiders, but create their own compartmentalized community. An archaeologist says that it is even harder now to communicate with them because the only interpreter who knew their language was murdered, and…

Keeping the 5th commandment to honor father and mother becomes difficult, if not impossible, for the thousands of children who know their fathers only as “Donor.” For many of them it creates an identity crisis that has no solution. Alana Stewart is one of those fatherless children. Telling her story…

In the motion picture, Ironman 2 Tony Stark is a conflicted character. Stark is a brilliant and wealthy industrialist who inherited the company his father founded. His invention of a weaponized suit has revolutionized warfare, and ended many world problems. Despite his successes Stark is not complete…

Matthew Roberts, adopted as a baby, wanted to know about his birth parents. He began the search hoping to expand his family with two more people who would love him. He found his biological mom living in a cabin in Wisconsin. She had no phone, no car, and the adoption lady told him, "She is a little bit…

FATHERS Brett Favre is 40 years old and still playing Quarterback in the National Football League. Favre is playing for the Minnesota Vikings, the fourth team of his storied career. He has won one super bowl and three times he has been voted the Most Valuable Player in the NFL. One of the reasons, perhaps…

Some of my favorite memories of being a son and being a Dad surround the game of baseball. I don’t know what memories Steve and his daughter Emily have developed over the years, but I suspect neither of them will ever forget a day they spent together watching the Phillies play. 32 year-old Steve Monforto…

Actor Michael Douglas grew up with an absent father. His father, actor Kirk Douglas, was hardly around during Michael’s childhood because he was off making movies. Now Michael’s own child, Cameron is facing up to 10 years in prison for drug abuse. He grew up with the same kind of absent father. Michael…

Derek Redmond was prepared for the 400m semifinal race at the Olympics in Barcelona in 1992. He felt he was in the best shape of his life. Despite eight operations on his Achilles tendons over the past 4 years, he felt very confident. His father Jim, sitting in the stands, also had high hopes. Jim and…

FATHER’S DAY In the Disney/Pixar animated feature Finding Nemo, Nemo is a little clownfish who is in big trouble. In an act of rebellion against his father, Nemo defiantly swam away from the safety of the oceanic reef where he lived to touch a boat anchored in the open ocean. Before he can return to…

PRACTICALITY Jim Sandall, pastor of Agape Baptist Church in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, recently received a joke over the internet that made a spiritual impression in his heart. The joke went like this: A psychologist, and engineer, and a theologian were on a hunting trip in Canada. Seeking shelter, they…

CALVARY In the movie Air Force One, Harrison Ford plays a fictional President who pledges to be tough on terrorists—never to negotiate, under any circumstances. But when terrorists took over Air Force One, and held a gun to his daughter's head, he suddenly was willing to negotiate. I don't blame him,…

LOVE In the book, Godly Love, A Rose Planted in the Desert of Our Hearts, Stephen Post says he always knew human beings longed for God’s love, but it took an encounter with a man named Jim to help him understand the need. Post says he meet Jim in a nursing home in Ohio years ago. Jim was very forgetful,…

TRAGEDY This side of heaven, I'll never fully understand all that's happening in our world. This past week, I found a chapter entitled, "Contending with a Tragic World," in Teresa Turner Vining's book, "Making Your Faith Your Own: A Guidebook for Believers with Questions" that is helping me as I grapple…

Father's Day Can I be totally honest with you? I struggle with Father's Day. It's not the holiday per se that bothers me, it's the challenge it presents me as a pastor. I used to think Father's Day was a male version of Mother's Day, but it's not. Traditionally, Mother's Day is a time to recognize the…

Writer Augusten Burroughs writes in his new book, about growing up with his distant, neglectful father. One part, in particular, was so raw as to make me almost cringe as I read it. Burroughs writes about how, as a 7 year-old child, he realized that whenever he’d try to crawl in his father’s lap, his…