I grew up in Sacramento, California in a family of five. We went to church, but I found it boring and irrelevant to my life and family. When I was a teenager, my parents divorced and I deeply felt the loss of a father figure in my life. I had no use for religion at the time and found new gods-sex, drugs, and rock and roll. I was fifteen when I...

This story is told by Jaylene Johnson, written by Gail Rodgers Fourteen year-old Jaylene flung herself onto her bed crying. It was only then, while “girl talking” about the new world of periods and pregnancies, that she did the math. The new realization hit her in the pit of her stomach. Her parents had married because of her. She knew...

In the backseat the younger three kids—toddler Erin in her safety seat and the kindergartner twins, Jonathan and Jennifer sitting beside her—were quiet for once. They didn’t understand why yet another change had to happen in their lives but they trusted me to keep them safe and make things okay. Beside me in the front seat my oldest child,...

We have a tendency to limit our Christian experiences by “boxing” them in a confined space. We label our spiritual boxes, both large and small, and place our boxed experiences neatly on the shelf of our minds…. along with other boxes we’ve collected over the years. It all makes for a tidy intellect, an organized life, manageable encounters...

The very first time I used the phrase “kiss of heaven” was just after the birth of our first daughter, Amy Jaye. I was scrambling to find a way to describe knowing that the supernatural has intervened to bring you to the place you are in today. I think my heart had asked to be a mother as long as I can remember. Years before we became pregnant,...