Love Brightly

Every evening my 2-year-old has been asking me to read a little paper back illustrated version of the Gospel that was given to us by our church in Louisiana for our first Christmas as parents. We have multiple children's versions of the Gospel, and this one is not my favorite of them all, but we want them to hear God's word as many times and in as many different ways as possible, so this one remains in the girls' bookcase. Our eldest ("4-and-a-half, almost 5" she will tell you) never chooses this Jesus story--I think mostly because it shows a picture of the crown of thorns up close and says how it made Him bleed. She is very sensitive, and doesn't like to think of Jesus hurting. Usually she is taking her pre-bedtime trip to the potty when her sister brings the book for me to read. But on Wed. Aug. 11, she unusually finished quickly and plopped herself on the couch beside me and said, "Can I listen too?" "Of course," I answered. When ...

"90% of kids who grow up in church turn their backs on God by the time they graduate college." It is a statistic that is staggering, hard to believe, but we see it everyday. People think, "That won't be my kid. My kid will be the one who stays faithful." (That's what I think about my kids). But for 9 out of 10 college students, that won't be the case. This article helps pinpoint why that is while calling teenagers "fake Christians": http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/08/27/almost.christian/index.html?hpt=C1