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Merry Christmas from the entire Practice Makes Parent team! On this episode Danny and Rebecca discuss the joys and complexities of Christmas. They share personal stories, family traditions, and the challenges of maintaining a Christ-centered, less materialistic holiday. We touch on family dynamics, managing expectations, and the impact of grief during the holiday season with commentary from Mary Hunt, Kathy Lip, Greg and Erin Smalley, and Levi and Jenny Lesco. We also talk about how parents can promote charitable activities that will bless others, too.

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Goliath was an enormous man. Measuring nine feet nine inches tall, he was, and still is, an intimidating presence. However, Goliath didn't intimidate David. The only giant he saw was God—he knew God would help him. What about the giants in your life? How do you handle them? Straight on like David, or do you avoid them, in the hopes someone else will fight them?

In this Best of 2025 interview, the late Dr. Gregory Jantz addresses the increasing anxiety being experienced in modern culture. 1 in 5 adults struggle with anxiety and 1 in 4 teens. With his whole-person approach, Jantz unpacks the myriads of reasons for this trend and shares practical solutions for healthy living. He will help you to attack the three-headed monster of worry, anxiety, and stress by asking you to take personal inventory, choose healthy habits and diet, and address your spiritual needs through God’s Word, prayer, and Christian community.

One of the large churches in our area started a new building and they announced it would be for community outreach. But they did something I've never seen a church do before. They gathered the congregation around the just-completed foundation of that new building and they asked them to throw something into the foundation. Now you've no doubt seen people's names on the outside of a building's foundation, especially on the cornerstone. But these folks were actually putting names inside the foundation - the names of people they care about who don't belong to Jesus yet - people they are hoping and praying will be in heaven with them some day.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Names on Your Heart."

That's what should be at the foundation of every church, every ministry, every child of God - the names of specific lost people who we want to rescue. Here's a great example of how it's supposed to work. It's in our word for today from the Word of God.

In John 1:41-42, we find that a young fisherman named Andrew has just discovered Jesus Christ. Notice his very first instinct: "The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, 'We have found the Messiah'... And he brought him to Jesus." Notice the first thing that happened was that Andrew had a name laid on his heart, a specific person he wanted to meet Jesus as he had. And we all know what a world-changer Simon Peter turned out to be because of someone who loved him enough to bring him to Jesus.

There's someone like that in your life - someone who may never make it to Jesus if you don't bring them. And God is trying to plant their name deep in the foundation of your heart, so that person becomes your own personal spiritual mission from God. You need to begin to pray what I call the 3-open prayer on their behalf right now: First, "Lord, open a door." That's a natural opportunity for you to bring up your personal relationship with Jesus. Then, "Lord, open their heart." In other words, do things in that person's heart or life that will make them surprisingly ready to hear about You. And, finally, "Lord, open my mouth." Give me the courage, the words, the tone, and the approach. Let's try those: "Lord, open a door. Lord, open their heart. Lord, open my mouth." By the way, you don't have to pray, "If it be Your will." It is.

It's one thing to talk and pray generally about all those people out there. It's something else to have a burden with a name - a burden that acknowledges your personal responsibility to be the one to introduce that person to Jesus. That's why Jesus put you in their life in the first place! You've been divinely assigned to them.

And lost people should be the consuming passion of every Christian church, every Christian ministry. Our Lord's personal mission statement was to "seek and to save what was lost" (Luke 19:10). How can ours be anything less than that?

For all of us, it's just so easy to fall into doing what's easy - which is to have a ministry that's "all about us," "by us," "to us." But Jesus is all about "them." We've got to ask Him to help us see what He sees when He looks at the people all around us. They are the future inhabitants of hell, unless someone intervenes with the love and the hope that only Jesus has.

So would you make the names of some lost people that you want to be in heaven with you part of the foundation of your life, your priorities, your passion, your prayer. They're why He came, and they are why He put you where you are.

Read: Genesis 1:1; John 1:1-3

“Grandpa’s going to like that birdhouse you’re making for him, Tomás,” said Dad. “It looks great—but I see it’s not quite like the one pictured in your woodworking manual.”

“No,” replied Tomás. “I left the perch off and made the hole smaller. This way, starlings won’t move in before the songbirds get a chance.”

“Good thinking!” said Dad. “That reminds me of the model plane you made that flew twice as far after you changed the design of the wings.”

Tomás grinned. “I like to make things work better. Maybe I’ll be an engineer when I grow up.”

“I thought you didn’t like long trips,” said Tomás’s little sister, Liliana. “Wouldn’t you get tired of riding on a train all the time?”

Tomás laughed. “I don’t mean the kind of engineer who drives trains. I mean the kind of engineer who designs things, like bridges and buildings. They don’t just get thrown together. Engineers carefully figure out how to build them so they’ll be strong and safe and work the way they’re supposed to. They draw up the plans for skyscrapers and roads and all kinds of things.”

“Wow!” said Liliana. “I bet you’ll be the best engineer of all!”

Tomás grinned. “Thanks!”

“Actually, the best engineer of all made more than buildings and machines,” said Dad. “He designed the whole universe—the forests and the deserts. The canyons and the mountains. All the plants and animals. The sun and the moon and the stars. Even us!”

“I know who that is,” said Liliana. “God!”

“Right,” said Dad. “God made everything. He knew how much we’d like to watch the birds and animals, and how much we’d love climbing the mountain trails and seeing all the stars at night. He also drew up a plan to save us from sin by sending Jesus to die for us so we could be with Him and enjoy His beautiful creation forever. Aren’t you glad He created so many amazing things and carried out His wonderful plan of salvation?”

Tomás nodded. “That’s an engineering job no one could ever match!”

–Katherine E. Swarts

How about you? Are you impressed by things people make—like big buildings and new technology? God created humans with the ability to do amazing things, but only He could engineer the whole world and all that’s in it. He also drew up a plan to provide salvation—forgiveness of sins and eternal life—by sending His Son, Jesus, to die for us. By trusting in Jesus, you can have eternal life and enjoy God and all His wonderful creation forever! (To learn more, go to Have You Heard the Good News?)

Today's Key Verse: God created everything through [Jesus], and nothing was created except through him. John 1:3 (NLT)

Today's Key Thought: God engineered everything

Peace with God is never the result of our works—only of His abundant grace through Jesus Christ.

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The brain is remarkably small, but stress can make it even smaller. Recent research has revealed that cumulative stress can shrink the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for managing emotions, impulses, and social interactions. This shrinkage is linked to anxiety and depression, highlighting the toll that a lifetime of stress can take. But there’s good news—the brain’s plasticity allows it to heal through intentional practices like exercise, meditation, and meaningful relationships.

The psalmist in Psalm 119 understood this idea of growth and healing after facing stress and hardship, “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees” (v. 71). Affliction, though painful, became the psalmist’s teacher—taking us from being “astray” from God to choosing to “obey [His] word” (v. 67). The psalmist expresses gratitude for his bitter medicine and God’s goodness (v. 68). While he understood that affliction and suffering could diminish him, he trusted God to use those experiences to refine and restore him (v. 66).

Like our brains, our spirits are capable of being stretched. God uses this stretching to cause growth and renewal. Through Scripture, prayer, and a Spirit-inspired perspective, God can reverse the effects of our hardships. He can use our afflictions for our spiritual growth, transforming pain into purpose.

Giving Tuesday serves as a wonderful reminder of how God calls us to live generously. But what if this day could also inspire a lifestyle of intentional giving all year long? On the next Faith & Finance Live, Al Mueller joins Rob West to talk about how to give with impact, evaluate ministries well, and experience the joy of stewardship. Then, it’s on to your calls. That’s Faith and Finance Live—biblical wisdom for your financial decisions, weekdays at 4pm Eastern/3pm Central on Moody Radio.

Faith & Finance Live is a listener supported program on Moody Radio.  To join our team of supporters, click here.

To support the ministry of FaithFi, click here.

To learn more about Rob West, click here.

To learn more about Faith & Finance Live, click here.

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Segment 1

• The #1 song on the charts is AI-generated.

• Can something that a machine created truly be considered worship?

• Worship isn’t simply content… it’s communion with a personal God.

Segment 2

• AI music might seem slick— but it lacks true soul.

• You wouldn’t watch robots play football… so why let them lead worship?

• AI sermons may soon multiply, but authentic worship can’t be automated.

Segment 3

• Praising God with stuff your computer wrote is laziness, not worship.

• “AI worship” exposes how shallow modern Christianity and the western church is becoming.

• Our secular culture is trying to tell us that “climate change denial” is a spiritual issue.

Segment 4

• Government handouts are not the fruits of the Spirit.

• If generosity is required by the government, it’s no longer truly generous or charitable.

• True giving flows from a renewed heart, not from legislation.

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