My all-time favorite fruit is the Filipino mango. While mango trees can live for 300 years, how do they stay standing when typhoon-force winds blow? There's only one answer: their roots. The taproot of a mango tree can go down twenty feet deep into the soil, and, in addition, mangoes grow wide-spreading feeder roots that penetrate deeply.

When as a parent you have young kids, it's as if you're in God's waiting room. You're anticipating the day when the "rosebuds" will mature and bloom. You nurture the plants, feed them, and care for them, but you can't make your kids "bloom."? But eventually God will--if you leave the timing to Him.

In the last verse of the last chapter of the last book the apostle Peter ever wrote, he gave us some valuable instruction.  He said, "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18 NIV). What did Peter mean about growing in grace and the knowledge of Jesus?

Candy wrote,

"Today I lost my wallet! And I put a big bald spot in my husband's hair! Do you ever have those days where your brain is just not functioning properly???!!! This was me today.... but amidst it all, kindness shone so bright that I have to share about it." 

The young boy grabbed his lunch, tucked it in his tunic and took off for the countryside to spend the day listening to the Teacher, Jesus of Nazareth. We don't know if he packed his lunch himself or if his mother prepared those five barley loaves and two fish for him. But you can be sure he had no idea that soon his simple lunch was going to be used by Jesus to feed an estimated 15,000 people—5000 men plus women and children.

Dark periods in life come to all of us—times when all you know about God is being put to the test. The Apostle Paul had an experience like that. It started when he had a vision of a man begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us" (Acts 16:9). Sensing this was God directing him, Paul and his helper Silas immediately went to Philippi, a leading city of that area.

Mention any date since 1980 to Jill Price, and she can tell you what happened to her on that day—"what time she got up, who[m] she met, what she did, what she ate. In effect, she is a human diary," writes Barry Wigmore.[1]

Temptation comes to all of us in one form or another.  Who at one time or another has not felt an intense desire to do something you really knew you shouldn't do?

When life throws at us circumstances we can't understand, we have two choices: question God or trust Him. Lisa Beamer learned that lesson--twice. 

Sometimes I wonder if we are so busy accomplishing certain things every day that we miss opportunities to bless the people around us. God's quiet voice may not be heard as He points us to where He has something special for us to do—a loving touch, comforting words, even a short prayer with someone who is hurting.

Pastor Glenn Burris tells that one of the ways he helps around the house is to haul the large garbage containers out to the street for pickup—a five-minute job.  But one time, he relates, the simple task took on an unexpected twist.

John's phone rang.  It was the call that all parents hope they will never receive. His teenage daughter, who had recently received her driver's license, was involved in an accident. Would John come?

One time Jesus said to a busy woman, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things" (Luke 10:41- ck. NIV). I can certainly relate to Martha. How about you? If you're like most women, you don't worry about just one thing. Because we're good at multi-tasking, we usually have a whole collection of things we're anxious about.

Many, many children today are growing up in one-parent homes. Maybe when you were a child your father turned his back on your mother for another woman, and your home was torn apart. You may not think you're worth very much or surely your dad would have stayed with the family.

A fighter jet pilot flying upside down at tremendous speed became disoriented.  Confused as to which way was up and which was down, he pulled the flight stick in the wrong direction. A few moments later, flaming wreckage was all that remained.