Chuck Hartman

According to professors of psychiatry C. Sue Carter and Stephen W. Porges, love is a vital phenomenon that influences every aspect of our lives. Humans cannot thrive without loving relationships, even if all basic needs are met.

There was a small child who was terrified of thunderstorms. After saying his bedtime prayer, she expressed her fears to her dad because they were experiencing a very loud storm at the moment.

Several years back, I wrote about Moses’ five excuses. They were made at the burning bush and recorded in Exodus chapter three.

Horatio G. Spafford, a Presbyterian from Chicago, was a successful businessman and devout Christian.

Recently, I heard someone share a funny epilogue about mothers of famous children. It went something like this: Columbus’ mother: “Chris, I don’t care what you discovered. You could have taken time to write me.”

As we discussed in my last column, 1 Samuel 16:1-13 is genuinely a narrative of faithfulness: God’s faithfulness, David’s faithfulness, Samuel’s faithfulness, and Saul’s lack of faithfulness. We left off with the idea that David had an excellent foundation on which to build his life because he recognized God above everything else. David was found faithful, even in the small things.

A father was teaching his 4-year-old The Lord’s Prayer. She spoke the prayer with her father each evening at bedtime. One night, the young child desired to sing. She carefully pronounced each word correctly right up to the end when she innocently said, “Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from email.”

In my last two columns, we have considered Jesus’ teachings on prayer. His disciples desired to know, so Jesus gave them a model prayer — in the church, we often call this model “The Lord’s Prayer.” Then, Jesus told them a parable from Luke 11:8-13 concerning the importance of our persistence in prayer.

The last two times, we have considered Jesus' teaching on prayer. His disciples desired to know, so Jesus gave them a model prayer — in the church, we often call this model “The Lord's Prayer.”

Where did the summer go? I cannot believe we are back to school and gearing up for autumn. Often, we forsake our routines in the good old summertime. We stay up late; we get up earlier and go on vacation.