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Our values should dictate our decisions. What we value should impact how we live our lives. In every area of life we should be intentional to make sure that the things that we are doing (the the activities that fill our schedules) actually represent what we value. In the Gospels, Jesus gives a great illustration what this “values dictating decisions” thing should look like with our faith. In Luke 18, Jesus introduces us to a crazy, driven widow who continually approached the…

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Have you ever been tempted to quit, give up, coast, let up on the gas, or straight up check out mentally? I know there have been many of times in my own life when I have been tempted to throw in the towel on a commitment I have made or season I am in. The one thing I find true every time in these scenarios is that it is easy to quit, but hard to finish strong. There is just…

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The average millennial checks his or her smartphone 43 times and spends 5.4 hours on social media per day (Entrepreneur). Does anyone else find that a little obsessive? I do, and I have been just as guilty of picking up my phone almost every half an hour to see what I have missed on social media. Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, and whatever new platform is coming out next…I seem to love and enjoy them all. And just so it is…

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Have you ever started a new dating relationship with every good intention to pursue sexual purity, yet within a few weeks you cross a line you promised you never would? Are you currently in a dating relationship and your purity is hanging on for dear life, with too many close calls with your boyfriend/girlfriend every date night? Maybe you have managed to withhold from going “all the way”, but that “not so bad” stuff has become common place in your…

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Have you ever made a mistake? Have you ever messed up royally? Have you ever blown it big time? If you answered “No” here’s what I think:  “Liar liar, pants on fire!” Let’s be real, we have all had a time when we’ve blown it. Remember, we’re human. From the very beginning when Adam and Eve had the first big mess up, all of us after that point have had a 100% chance that we would make a mistake. I’ll…

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There is an epidemic blindsiding many young marriages these days. It does not start as an affair. It does not start as financial stress. It does not even start as a lack of communication (although all three of these obstacles are often results of this epidemic I am talking about). This epidemic starts as something much more subtle. Something that comes from our thinking, and if it is not dealt with, it can literally make your marriage miserable, unsatisfying, or worse….

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Not many people enjoy stretching. I mean let’s be honest, who wants to voluntarily push their muscles to the limit and experience that intense burn? Back when I played college basketball at Northwood University there was one season that our coach hired a personal trainer to get my team in better shape before the season started. The running, agility and strength training was actually manageable, but it was the stretching after every workout that many of my teammates and I…

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Pornography (Porn)…yup, I just said it! A word that is packed with so much emotion, experience, desire, curiosity and shame. A word that is so commonly typed into Google that 28,258 people are watching it on the internet every second. A word that describes a form of media that is becoming so mainstream in our culture today. And a word that, unfortunately, I am all too familiar with myself. I saw my first pornographic image in six grade, and from…

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To be thankful, ungrateful, or complain? It is a choice we have to make every single day. In the day in age that we live in, we are constantly bombarded with negative news and faced with hard times. It seems like it is the easy default for many of us is to side with ungratefulness or complaining. The crazy thing is that it is a sign of the times, as it says in 2 Timothy 3:2 that in the last…

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Communication is one of those things that can either make or break a relationship. Whether you are dating, married, or just have really close friends, we all need to make sure that we are not shying away from healthy communication habits. At the core, we all know that good communication is all about seeking to understand, being humble, and preferring others over ourselves. However, when we try to put those principles into practice it is always harder than we think….

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