When you look back on your childhood, I hope that you have great memories. I have a lot of great memories. Most of them were just temporary moments though. I will hold onto them forever because they were special. But my everyday life was not a catalog and certainly wasn't very pleasant. A daughter of a divorced couple, raised by a low-income single mother, living in a difficult neighborhood, moving from one evicted apartment to another one, I had very little consistency, no spiritual discipleship, and rarely had a parent at home to care for me. I was a latch-key kid of the '80s who learned how to grow up much younger than I would have liked. But I did it. And I survived. And I met Jesus in my mid-20s after searching for Him my whole life. 

God does not waste anything. He doesn't waste words in His Word. He doesn't waste moments in our lives. Everything we experience is part of our testimony. How and when He chooses to use it is mostly unknown. This episode is my testimony of what He is doing in my heart, in my life, and hopefully in the lives of many others that are living that latch-key life now. This is a story of hope for when we fall short as parents. God redeems. Nothing is wasted. All will come to good in His perfect timing. Take heart, He has overcome the world and the imperfection of our parenting. 

Scripture in This Episode:

Luke 8:39

Check out more about Roca Kidz Club here. If you'd like to support them financially, you can do that here.

Oxford Languages defines "neighbor" as "a person living near or next door to the speaker or person referred to" and "(of a place or thing) be situated next to or very near (another)." We often think of this person as someone outside of our home, but the truth is that it is our very own domestic family that is our closest neighbor. Our spouse and children are our neighbors too. Do we follow the second greatest Commandment with them? Do we love them as we love ourselves? Do we treat them with neighborly affection and kindness or do they get the worst of us only? Do we save our best for others or do we also give it to them? 

Years ago, when I first read the book "Triggers" by Amber Lia and Wendy Speake, I was convicted of this very thing. Here's my story of how God made a beautiful change in my heart through this realization. 

Scriptures in this Episode:

1 John 4:11, 20-21

Leviticus 19:18

Mark 12:31

Matthew 22:39

Galatians 5:14

Romans 13:10

Matthew 7:12

1 John 4:18

1 Corinthians 13:1-3