Join the quest and Accept The Love Challenge!
![Talk to Your Kids… [Active Shooter Alert: The Call No Parent Wants to Receive]](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/0F8C2CC7-7265-4C67-B4FE-DE28DE7A004D.png)
One fall morning in 2015, I received a call no parent wants to receive… An active shooter was reported on my daughter’s campus. And not only was the shooter in her immediate vicinity, but he was headed towards the College of Business. As she took cover in a professor’s office along with her classmates, we…
![How to Be Kind To Others… [a back-to-school message]](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/F3256CB8-A3A2-4FBF-BCD1-0FE3F3C8A7C3.png)
As kids head back to school, it’s a great time to remind them to spread God’s love through loving words and kind deeds. Kindness is the “new cool.”* I love how an educator [and member of the #tlccommunity] expresses the reminder–so simply, yet so profoundly. “You don’t have to be fake, just [be] kind.” KINDNESS…
![How to Love [Others] When We Disagree…](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/F618BE7F-2E85-49F8-A7FA-3780E1F687F4-1.png)
No matter where you fall on the recent Supreme Court decision, one thing is certain. All of us share a singular commonality—our humanity. So often as believers, we identify ourselves as “Jesus overturning the tables” in the courtyard of the temple. But rarely do we ever identify ourselves as “Jesus on the Cross” who prayed…
![God’s [Amazing] Grace…](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/82344DE5-AFBE-49FE-9753-6EDB5FBDF097.png)
At the heart of accepting The Love Challenge is a “holy yearning” for God’s LOVE to illuminate your life. When we meet the challenge to love a broken world with God’s amazing grace and unfathomable love, we are transformed to Christ-likeness. LOVE is the light of the world and extraordinary grace the distinguishing mark of…
![I Am From poem… [Finding Hope and Healing]](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/0191D615-E662-4543-AB5D-8533679CD733.jpeg)
I am from Gospel sounds. From Sunday dinners made from scratch. I am from parents who tried as best they could, but also lost their way. I am from magnolias tall whose beckoning branches encouraged me skywards—always. I am from hand-me-down dresses and scrapbooks full of girlhood achievements. From Jack and from Nellie. From as…
![Random Acts of Kindness… [today and everyday]](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/4FBFC7F5-6C8E-4717-9740-C9513401BBFF.png)
The most random acts of kindness we can commit is to answer unkind words and deeds with extraordinary grace. True kindness is Spirit-produced and matters most when it is the least expected [or warranted]. The key to Spirit-filled kindness begins with the idea all of us are undeserving in light of the cross. Jesus didn’t…
![How to Love in Challenging Times… [a true story]](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/3CE4BA17-E174-4B1D-AC16-D66F04BE9E20.jpeg)
“It’s a bad day for beautiful trees.” I said to the foreman as we stood there assessing the damage. The cuts already made… and the damage done. Alas, there was no turning back. What once was a tree that brought me immense joy in a season of hard was now mangled beyond repair. And would…
All of us will be called to accept the challenge to love a broken, unlovable world in 2022. What will your answer be? “Not only to be so full of God’s love for all the world to see, but to SHINE so bright.” This is my quest, join me? Nearing the end of the ice…