Blended families -- if you're in one, you know how hard "blending" can be. 

Is there chaos in your life? Do you feel overwhelmed by work, life, and relationships?

Do you feel like you've blown it big time? You know, maybe you've committed a huge sin, or you think God will never love you, or He'll never forgive you? If you've sinned and you know it's wrong but you don't know where to go, this message is for you.

[This post was originally published on May 2.]

Mother's Day 2016 is only a few days away. Hallmark will claim record-breaking sales, and florists will hire extra delivery staff to make sure that the roses and daisies make their way to the doorsteps of moms old and young, new and seasoned.

I recently sat for hours going through my own Mother's Day cards… or as my youngest used to say, “polishing and tumbling the memory agates,” alternately smiling and weeping. Smiling over the stories and weeping over the ever dear and precious words in cards, notes, and letters over five decades. Joybox after joybox. Words of encouragement, words of gratitude, tender words of love and appreciation for being an example in hard times… for pointing them to Jesus… for loving them unconditionally.

Fear - it’s a powerful emotion. Have you ever experienced fear so intense that you couldn’t move - that you couldn’t breathe? Maybe had a panic attack? We all experience fear, but God has an antidote for it.

As I began to prepare my mind and spirit for the January 2016 Inheritance of Hope Legacy Retreat^®, I was also preparing my two boys for a music camp that they would be attending the weekend I was away.  Each of my boys is fairly musical, and this camp’s focus was on “musical improv.”  Up until this time, the boys’ instruction had been extremely methodical, rote, and memorized.  I was eager to see how they would do with this new introduction to flexibility and freedom.

One day, they told us, an enormous snake—much longer than a man—slithered its way right through their front door and into the kitchen of their simple home. Terrified, they ran outside and searched frantically for a local who might know what to do. A machete-wielding neighbor came to the rescue, calmly marching into their house and decapitating the snake with one clean chop.

Do you feel blue, kinda down, depressed? We all get that way from time to time. But when that emotion threatens to pull you under, what do you do? Where do you go? Who do you turn to?

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A year ago, I reflected on the wonder of “Unto us a child is born,” which took on fresh richness as Allison and I experienced new parenthood along with Advent. Now we can hardly believe that we have been parents for a year already! Our baby girl has grown and changed so much, and so have we. As Advent scriptures and songs once again circulate, different parts of them grab my attention. In a recent reading of Isaiah 9, the phrase “Everlasting Father” struck me. I love my little girl to death, but that is tragically literal – some day death will interrupt my fatherly love. An “Everlasting Father” is worthy of reflection.

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Sheryl Sandberg recently shared movingly about what she has learned about motherhood through grief. But how do we help someone who is grieving?

We don’t know what to say. So, too often, we say nothing. Or worse, avoid.