How often do you dwell on your mistakes? If you’re anything like high school Michael, then probably a lot! Not all of us are wired the same way, but there seems to be a common thread during the teenage years of being hyper aware of the things we aren’t proud of and then dwelling on those things. This awareness can often lead to a spiral of guilt and shame, resulting in feeling pretty down in the dumps…

We know that God loves us, and we see it most clearly in the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. The greatest act of love in human history is Christ dying on the cross and bearing our punishment. Jesus Himself tells His disciples this before He is crucified. In John 15:13 He says, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

From childhood, one of my favorite verses was, and still is, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God”. I learned this as a song in a chapel service at a private christian elementary school I attended at the time, and it has always stuck with me.

Another one of my long time favorite verses is where God promises to give “peace…which transcends all understanding”.

And a verse I consistently recite to myself when I am in need of keeping my mind from sinful thoughts is, “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things”…

2 Corinthians 12:9 became a comforting truth during a more challenging season of my life as a young adult. From a young age, a clear calling toward a career in the medical field gave my life direction and stability. However, after graduating from college, my path took an unexpected turn. Rejections from several medical schools left me very uncertain about my future and with a pre-med degree I had invested the past 4 years studying for that I wasn’t too sure what to do with…

Proverbs 11:14 “Where there is no guidance the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.”

I’ve made a lot of poor decisions in my life. I tend to try to only recall the good decisions, but if I were keeping score of the bad decisions vs the good decisions, I think the game would have been called off a long time ago. Since graduating high school, it seems like it is the theme of life to be presented with opportunities to make tough choices. It never ends…

Philippians 1:21 says “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” This is a verse that is on my mind all the time. When I was in Ranger School, we would walk for hours, and we would not talk at all. I repeated this verse in my mind over and over just thinking of the implications of it. I wrote it on the inside of my hat so whenever I took it off, I would read it. I would daydream of ways this should look in my own life…

I grew up an Air Force brat, which means my childhood was spent moving and starting over every 2-3 years. I spent my high school years in Hawaii and Germany. While that gave me a chance to experience amazing things, I was often filled with insecurity. As soon as I felt settled somewhere, we’d be packing up for another move. At one point, we lived in 5 houses and 3 hotels in just over a year…

“So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day, it is said, ‘On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided” Genesis 22:14

When I was expecting my third child, I read a book called Radical by David Platt. He tells of how he challenged his church to do radical things as God called them—some sold houses and gave the money to missions, some left high-paying jobs to join the mission field, etc…

I grew up homeschooling in the 1980s. Homeschooling was a bit of an anomaly back then and though I knew it was a good fit for me, I found myself developing a long wish list as I became a teenager. My desires for experiences grew quickly...wishing I had more friends, or for the ability to go to "extracurricular activities", or just to be more independent. I felt uncertain about my future and longed to know what God had in store for me…