It might just be that I’ve got four daughters, but from my vantage point, girls today have it tough. The world they’re growing up in… Portrays a very narrow view of beauty—one that doesn’t represent most women. Gives a numeric way to rate their self-worth: more followers and likes on social media = more value. Tethers self-worth to a man’s (or men’s) attention. Tethers self-worth to some version...
God Loves Unique You
What will it take for you to believe? In the 1991 movie, Hook, Robin Williams plays Peter Banning, a successful and busy accountant, with hardly enough time for his wife and children. When they travel to London to visit extended family, Peter’s children, Jack and Maggie, are abducted from their beds the family’s first night there. The police are baffled, with no leads, while Peter’s elderly...
One:One | Conversation with Emily Audio
Conversations about sex and pornography have, for too long, been relegated to men’s groups. Confusion and temptation don’t target a specific population, but confront all of humanity. In a recent conversation we had with a college student here at Regen, she shared her story of hiding, sin, and the importance of community and grace. If we, as a culture, invite authenticity and vulnerability, then...
Thieves
God knows life hurts sometimes. This is reality in a world that’s fallen. Jesus’ forewarning that “in this life you will have trouble” (John 16:33) was certainly about more than traffic jams and tax increases. It hurts when your marriage isn’t holding together, when you’re single but long to be married, when homosexual desires persist though you’ve prayed they’d change, when you look at porn...
Temptation and Soul-Care
Underneath whatever persistent temptations you’re experiencing you have a God-given need for something—something good, clean, and life-giving. A friend of mine recently visited Haiti. One morning, he saw a young boy walking to school along a muddy dirt road pocked with tire tracks. As he watched, the child pulled out an empty bottle, knelt down and filled it up with brown rainwater sitting in one...
Five Tips for Parents of Digital Natives
“Hi Daddy, it’s me.” My daughter had been saving all summer for a new iPod Touch. Those four words were her way of letting me know she’d gotten it. Just four words, but I could see her standing in the Apple store, smiling ear to ear with excitement. When she got home, she spent the evening updating her contacts, syncing music, and installing apps recommended by her older sister. I know a good bit...