Join the quest and Accept The Love Challenge!
![How to Love The Unlovable… [in the wake of another tragedy]](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/9916C315-6131-4A51-90E8-E3AA83992B54.png)
Every time I hear of another school shooting, I always return to the same, recurring thought. “Woe is the suffering/misery this person surely endured to have committed such an unfathomable act of horror.” Often you’ll read the words, “I hope the killer rots in hell.” But clearly they’ve already experienced hell. Hell on this earth….
![Understanding Evil and Sharing God’s love… [in the wake of the Murdaugh Murders]](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/72E645C7-FF56-4574-BAAA-3EBAF938CA2D.jpeg)
So much of the Alex Murdaugh case reminds me of my own days of chasing justice. When you come up against pure evil, it becomes life-changing. You truly grasp the reality that evil walks amongst us. And the enemy of our souls is indeed present on this earth and hard at work to destroy us….
![How to Show Kindness [in an Unkind World]](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/55A8C129-B776-482B-99D3-044E0F5EA0FC.png)
The most random act 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…
![Telling the Story of His Wondrous Love… [a Christmas memory]](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/90647690-C713-4A56-B7C5-2540A3E49D4D.jpeg)
My [almost] oldest childhood friend gifted me this photo of us for my high school graduation. I believe it was taken shortly after moving to Hometown, OK from Dallas, TX. Late in the fall of ‘73 my little brother and I stayed with my grandparents while our new home was being readied for our arrival….
![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 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…
![“LOVE Makes You Do Crazy Things…” [Really!?]](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/41E420DD-46A5-4490-950A-69EC10C017ED.png)
Love can’t make us to do crazy things as suggested by Will Smith last night during his acceptance speech at the Academy Awards. Crazy good things, maybe!? But God is LOVE and love endures all things. Perhaps the wisest words of the night [regarding the incident] came from Denzel Washington. “In your highest moments, be…
![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…