In some parts of my lawn, the grass is thick and green. In other areas, it's sparse and dry. There are even a few places where the grass is missing entirely.

When I mow the lawn, I notice that where the grass is healthy, there are no weeds. Where the lawn is sparse, there are a few. Where there's no grass, the weeds flourish.

Every time I notice the weedy spots, I think, I really need to pull those ...

[My daughter], Allison,* came home for the weekend. She opened the door, didn't speak, and dropped her duffel bag. Smudges of mascara circled her eyes. I whispered a "God-please-no" prayer.

"Come tell me about your classes." I patted the sofa.

"Gotta take a shower."

As she clomped upstairs, I analyzed the recent changes in her: complaints of not having any money, rarely answers the phone, weight loss, ...

I hail from a long line of worriers. From my dad, I inherited an inability to sleep until I resolve whatever issue is currently on my mind; from my mom, I received a proclivity for stomachaches before exams.

It's not all bad, I suppose; worry has historically been a powerful motivator for me. One Saturday night I went to sleep unprepared for the sermon I was set to deliver the next morning. I dreamed ...

Jesus warned against piling up money on earth, because money comes and goes. A sad reminder of the vulnerability of money came with the June 2009 news story of an elderly woman in Israel who had hidden her life savings of one million dollars in her bed mattress. Every night she slept on one million in American dollars and Israeli shekels. She must have felt very secure with her fortune literally inches ...

New in Town tells the story of Lucy Hill (Renee Zellweger), a high-powered consultant in love with her upscale Miami lifestyle, who is sent to New Ulm, Minnesota, to oversee the restructuring of a blue-collar manufacturing plant. When she's ordered to close down the plant and put the entire community out of work, Lucy is forced to reconsider her goals and priorities. Upon arrival in New Ulm, a frigid ...

According to a 2009 survey by Qwest Communications, 47 percent of Americans say they can last an hour at most before feeling "antsy" about checking email, instant messaging, or other social networking sites. Of those surveyed, 46 percent said they could only make it one day. The remaining 7 percent said they could probably go a week without checking in.

I was finishing up a premarital counseling session for a wonderful young couple. We were only a few weeks away from the wedding, and we had already put the finishing touches on the service. As we came to the end of this last meeting, the groom-to-be blurted out, "I just have to say that I am so scared of this!" He suddenly had the undivided attention of his fiancée. He quickly added, "Oh no, ...

The Waltons was a popular television series in the 1970s that told the story of a large family living in Virginia during the Depression era. An episode from the show's eighth season, entitled "The Lost Sheep," focuses on Erin Walton (Mary Beth McDonough), the fourth oldest of seven children. She has been dating a young army officer named Ashley (Jonathan Frakes) off and on for a few years. While on ...

A few years ago, ChristianityToday.com asked readers to share how much their mothers and grandmothers meant to them. In response, Bill Fix, of Taylor, Michigan, shared a moving testimony about his mother's faithful witness:

[Mom] grew up around the coal mines where her daddy worked, deep in the mountainous regions of Virginia. She came from a large, poverty-stricken family, so she learned how to be ...

I was on an airplane and the flight attendant started going through the pre-flight spiel, instructing us on what to do "in case of a water landing."

I looked around. We were on a 747 jet. This plane isn't equipped with pontoons. A 747 doesn't "land" on the water. It explodes on impact into pieces the size of my toenail.

The proper way to prepare for an event like this is not to stick your head between ...