Giving, and giving, and giving “And the tree was happy…..” The children’s book The Giving Tree follows the relationship between a little boy and a tree as the little boy goes through his life. From giving her shade and apples, to eventually giving all of her wood, the tree gives and gives and is left […]
A Family Kindled by Faith
Meltdown in the Home In a world with with access to so many internet resources, YouTube channels, and philosophies that support the idea that we can develop a properly virtuous person simply through either self-experience or nature such as those of Aristotle or Jean-Jacques Rousseau, many people have come to believe that the problem of […]
Why Do We Make Friends?: The Lasting Gain of True Friendship
Humans innately crave social interaction. We form relationships with others from a young age, usually starting with our parents, grandparents, and other immediate family. By shaping our physical and emotional development, these relationships also shape our conception of the world. On a surface level, primary caregivers support children’s growth through physical protection from external hazards. […]
The Shadow of the Mountain
The Quilt The waters in the creek were dark. They always have been. Since Jesse was a boy, the color had never changed—a grayish brown, merely because the sky beckoned it to be so— and one could never see beyond its surface. The dark silhouettes of the figures above reflected off its surface, which rippled […]
From Genesis to Revelation: The Bible as a Christian Framework
What I think I now understand is that the substance of the Bible, its fundamental message, is how God created us, pursued us through Israel, redeemed us in Christ, poured out the Spirit upon us, and seeks to recreate us in the image of Christ both now and in the new heaven and new earth. […]
An Imperishable Crown of Glory
Ancient Greek society revolved around the concept of κλέος, a word which can be translated as “glory.” In The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, Gregory Nagy explains how this word he translates as “glory” derives from the verb κλύειν, meaning “to hear,” and can be more literally translated as “that which is heard” [1]. […]