Join the quest and Accept The Love Challenge!
How do you love your enemy? Jesus loved in all sorts of challenging circumstances, but none more difficult than Mount Calvary. As he hung on the cross, Jesus’ prayed for his enemies [Luke 23:34]. When praying for our enemies, it becomes easier to love them. Praying for our enemy opens our hearts and allows us…
![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….
![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….
We’ve all been “ghosted” in some form or fashion in our lifetime, haven’t we? Perhaps we’ve even ghosted a person or two ourselves? “Ghosting” occurs when someone suddenly cuts off communication with you without any explanation, leaving the “ghosted” person scratching their heads wondering, What went wrong!? Ghosting, in most instances, says more about the…
![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…
![“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…