Posts by Katy McCown
Today’s Truth
He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love (Ephesians 4:16 NLT).
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I passed her as I exited the room. She retracted a little as I walked by, then darted into the room I had just left.
Armed with a can of disinfectant, she sprayed the room I had occupied minutes before. Long before the days when we knew of a term called COVID-19, I had come to work sick, and there was no hiding it.
My face told the story. Sunken eyes, a pale complexion, and probably a red-tinted nose … and if that weren’t enough, I carried a box of tissues with me everywhere I went.
No one wanted to approach me. Whether they had their own health in mind or something else, my sniffles and cough were enough to send
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Today’s Truth
In the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another (Romans 12:5 CSB).
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They lined up one by one, no questions asked.
They didn’t come begrudgingly. They came with an eagerness you could see on their faces. They were ready. They were excited. And they were together.
The front lawn of our local elementary school was the stage for the epic tug-of-war championship between two fourth grade classes … while some may call tug-of-war a game, I feel confident the fourth graders holding the rope approached this as anything but a game.
Mrs. Johnston’s class formed a line down one half of the rope, while the opposing class took their places on the other half. Because I had a daughter in the class, I had heard the stories of disagreements and misunderstandings. I knew
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Today’s Truth
Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest” (Mark 6:31 NIV).
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Like clockwork, it happened every night.
For weeks, under a pitch-black canopy and hum of the fan, a guest would appear. One night I even felt fingers crawling up my arm. I jolted up out of my sleep to see my daughter, nose to nose with me, looking for a place to lay her head.
Most nights she came alone, sometimes she brought her brother with her. But every night, whoever showed up in my bedroom wanted the same thing—the coveted spot in the bed between Mom and Dad.
Now, I know many parenting books would scorn me and tell me to take the child back to bed. I’m not winning any Mom-of-the-year awards here. Nor am I encouraging you to mimic
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Today’s Truth
As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it (1 Samuel 17:23 NIV).
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I crouched behind a wall in my living room, peeking out only for a few seconds at a time. I didn’t really want to keep watching, but for some reason I couldn’t stop.
A real-life tightrope walker dared to cross a gorge near the Grand Canyon on live television. I didn’t know this man from Adam, but my fear for him and his potential plummet to the bottom of the canyon was real. With each step he took I prayed, please God let him make it across!
The wind blew so hard at times he stopped and crouched down on the rope to lower himself beneath the gusts. He would pause and pray then stand up and continue across.
Yet quite
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Today’s Truth
A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies (Proverbs 31:10 NIV)
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It’s as though the worn-out piece of wood can tell the future. Years of use have literally left their mark on the old stick, and each time it appears, anticipation swirls in the hearts of my little people.
During the days of my husband’s youth, as he and his siblings grew in age and size, Luke’s mom took a wooden board and made it a measuring stick. Year after year, Luke and his brothers and sister would scoot their heels all the way to the wall, stretch their necks, and wait anxiously to see the new line that marked how much they had grown.
Now, decades later, my children like to measure themselves on this same old piece of wood.
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Today’s Truth
When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you (Isaiah 43:2 NLT)
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“I’m not doing this again,” I proclaimed, and I meant it with all my heart.
Just a few days before, I spent a dark, rainy weekend packing our lives into boxes and then unloading them into a new place in a new city.
Though the bulk of the work was behind me, I felt exhausted and unsatisfied. I didn’t look forward to new memories and planting roots, because this new place had no more certainty than the last one. I feared another weekend much like the one I’d just experienced was all too close.
So, I announced I wasn’t doing it again … but my husband’s career required us to relocate often. Although I knew I couldn’t cling to the
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Today’s Truth
Do everything without grumbling or arguing (Philippians 2:14 NIV).
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I heard the crackle under my foot and knew what had just transpired.
I shut my eyes and felt sure my ears must be turning red. I didn’t know whether to cry or scream.
With six little ones under my feet, dinner to be made, and another practice to get ready for, the chip on the floor threatened to make everything fall apart … especially when I stepped on it.
While enjoying an after-school snack, a chip slipped through some little fingers and fell to the kitchen floor — the same kitchen floor my hurried feet shuffled through and consequently crushed the forgotten chip into a million tiny pieces.
With my emotions already on the edge of irritable, this chip created
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Today’s Truth
The people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them (Jonah 3:5 ESV).
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I knew that sound too well. It had etched its way into my mind the first time I heard it and now it was unmistakable.
A few years ago, doctors diagnosed my daughter with asthma. From that moment forward, any warning of the asthma-induced cough sent me into action. I grabbed medicine, called doctors and asked her to stop any strenuous activity. I knew her life depended on it.
Like me with my daughter, we’re usually quick to respond to physical warnings. When we have a fever we call a doctor. When we have a headache we take medicine. We go for yearly check-ups and do at-home examinations.
Why don’t we treat our spiritual health the same way?
Today’s Truth details
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Today’s Truth
“The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands” (Psalm 138:8 ESV).
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I couldn’t believe my eyes. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined it would turn out this beautiful. I stared in amazement and kept coming back for another look. A tear may have even formed in the corner of my eye.
What I viewed seemed like a masterpiece to me.
This masterpiece was a family picture. Only a few weeks before, I had given birth to our baby girl. We positioned a small, white sofa in the middle of a field of green grass. We brushed our hair and dressed in coordinating colors. Reds, blues and creams brushed across the autumn background of our very first photo as a family of eight.
That alone was enough to make
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Today’s Truth
“When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13 NIV).
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A few years ago, my family and I teamed up with our local church family and went out into our community for a week-long event complete with bounce houses, food, music and God’s Word. We’d never attempted anything like this before.
For months we prepared. We hung signs about the event and held training sessions for our workers. When the week of our community block party finally arrived, I scurried about with my clipboard making sure everything went as planned … What I did not do was clean my car.
As the week went on, my car accumulated trash, crumbs and anything else I didn’t feel like dragging into the house. (Let’s be honest – it wasn’t all that different from what I do
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Today’s Truth
Thus the men of Israel were subdued at that time, and the men of Judah prevailed, because they relied on the Lord, the God of their fathers (2 Chronicles 13:18 ESV).
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It’s possible I had never searched the internet more in my entire life.
My dad had become ill and despite the seriousness of his condition, no one seemed to have an answer for what was happening. I felt sure that with the right combination of symptoms and information, I would land on the answer to what was causing the problems. But no matter how hard I tried, I could not come up with a concrete answer. My search proved more frustrating than freeing, and I finished more confused than comforted.
2 Chronicles 13:18 tells us about a king that chose to rely on the Lord in a time of crisis, “Thus the men of Israel were subdued at that
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Today’s Truth
“Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26 ESV)
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We couldn’t decide what to name him. We knew, however, that he needed a name.
He was a beautiful and determined red bird who seemed to want to become a part of our family. Every day for weeks, this cardinal would come to the windows around our house; and when I say windows, I mean every single window around our house.
He visited the windows in the kitchen and in the family room. He perched outside my bedroom windows and the ones in my daughters’ bedroom. He even stopped by the window in the bathroom once.
But he didn’t just visit. He hung around. It was as though he wanted to be a part of our conversations. If we had
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Today’s Truth
“And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay” (Revelation 10:5-6 ESV).
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We dreaded this moment every year.
As summer ended, my husband, Luke, packed his bag to leave for NFL training camp. After a decade of doing this year after year, I still teared up as I walked him to his truck and gave him one last kiss good-bye.
On the calendar we penciled in the day we expected training camp to end, usually with several exclamation points included! But ultimately, we knew the coach would make the final call. If he wanted to break camp early, he would. If he wanted to keep the team a few days longer, he would.
As we longed for Luke’s return, the kids and I kept ourselves busy. If we stayed productive, it eased
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