Help for Sibling Relationships

Social distancing plus shelter in place plus kids and family dynamics and stress and upheaval and PHEW! How are you doing?

I’m a mom of 8 over here, and while that gives me heaps of experience, it doesn’t mean I’m not thrown for a loop every now and again. I maintain that one of the best things we ever did for our kids was to give them lots of siblings and lots of practice in relationship navigation and negotiation, but still, they can manufacture upheaval faster than it took us to conceive them. Ahem.

My friend Lynna has a helpful site and podcast that addresses sibling rivalry and relationships. If you’re finding you need a little help, go check out her resources, written with the gospel front and center.

[affiliate link]

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What to Do When You Can't Do Church Anymore —> Watch This

What to Do When You Can't Do Church Anymore

If you think you just can't "do church" anymore, this one's for you. I sat down with the crew of Steve Brown, Etc. and Key Life Network to discuss leaving church and how to plant yourself in a place where religious behavior isn't the point. Give it a listen (or a watch!)

My favorite part? “Oh no, Jesus and I are good.”

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Who, If Not the Muslim, Is Our Neighbor?

King Solomon wrote, “There is nothing new under the sun.”

Last night I wore my Huguenot Cross to the mosque. I almost always wear it everywhere I go, but last night as I sat and listened to the grief and the sorrow and the condolences shared among our local Muslim brothers and sisters, I was struck by the symbiotic symbolism of the cross I wear and the events experienced last Friday in a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand.

The Huguenots were the French Protestants of the 16th and 17th centuries, emerging out of the Reformation like their Protestant brothers and sisters in nearby countries of Germany, Switzerland, England, and Scotland. They suffered severe persecution at the hands of French Catholics.

On August 24th and 25th, 1572, some 3,000 Parisian Huguenots were dragged out into the streets and massacred, their bodies thrown into the Seine and their homes and business burned to the ground. Plotted by Catherine de Medici, the killings continued outside of Paris into all of France, with the death toll reaching nearly 70,000.

“Carts piled high with the dead bodies of noble ladies, women, girls, men, and boys were brought down and emptied into the river, which was covered with dead bodies and ran red with blood,” -Simon Goulart

And as I sat there last night surrounded by grieving Muslim men, women, and children, I could hear the cries of the Huguenots. My heart ached as it recalled the wailing of the Jews, the millions (yes, millions) of Bengali Hindus, the Sikhs, Baha’is, and people who follow smaller factions of faith. Each, at some point in history and many today, experience hatred and intolerance.

In it all, there is this truth:

“The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

The lie is that we have the right to step in and act as God, deciding who lives and who dies. And as Christians, we have two great commandments: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

Who, if not the Muslim, the Jew, the Sikh, the Hindu, the Bah’ai, the Catholic in your community, is your neighbor?

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