Dear Rebecca and Burns,

A co-worker and I started carpooling to work about a year ago. About 3 months ago, her car broke down and the repairs were so much, that she had to sell the car.

My dilemma? I now drive us every day, AND now she is comfortable asking to borrow my car to run errands during lunch. She has offered to help SOME with gas money, but there is more to wear and tear of a car, and it limits what I can do for lunch. She is a dear friend, and I want to help but this has gone on too long.

Any suggestions?

A study came out over the weekend on what they are calling pandemic fatigue. I don't think I need to define that for you because if you're anything like Don Burns, Jay Allen and myself, you're going through it too. Saturday morning I woke up and I just kind of hit my breaking point so in my journal, with my time with the Lord, I made a list of all the things I cannot control. Of course, the pandemic is at the top of that list. I can't control it. However, I can control my response.


Then I made a list of all the ways the Lord has blessed me and my family in the midst of the pandemic which was WAY longer than the list of things that I couldn't control. then I started to thank the Lord for each one of those things. Essentially, I started to praise Him and it was this moment that I thought about Psalm 146. It goes like this:

"Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, my soul. I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live." - Psalm 146:1-2

Do you know what happened when I read that? My heart was lifted, my anxiety was gone, and I was a totally different person. There is power in praising the Lord! We've talked about it over and over again, you can either worry or you can worship. If you spend your time worshipping, it will change you. It won't necessarily change your circumstances, but it will definitely who you are and your response to those circumstances. There are all kinds of psalms in the Book of Psalms like Psalms of sorrow, Psalms of anger, but the last five Psalms in the Bible are devoted to nothing but praise. So as you're reading this, we invite you into a moment of worship. Give the next few minutes over to the Lord. Yes, your circumstances will still be there when you're done, but just remember that the God who led the Israelites to the Red Sea did it because He knew He was going to make a way through it.

What began as typical teenage rebellion landed Jarrad Stuart in prison for over ten years. Recently released, now Jarrad and his mother, Debbie, share their story of heartbreak and redemption on the Honest Conversations Podcast. If you or anyone you know is parenting a prodigal (or challenging) child, this episode is a #must hear #mustshare.

Like what you hear? Please review, rate, and subscribe to the Honest Conversations Podcast where we look at tough topics through a biblical lens.

Order the book: Redeemed Rebel: 20 Perspectives from a Prodigal and His Mom. Available for purchase at [email protected]. Venmo: DebbieStuart-11.

You can listen to the full episode here: https://www.kcbi.org/honest-conversations/

If you were to ask any nutritionist or health expert, they would tell you one of the most important things for us to do is drink more water.  Every now and then, I just get a little urge to research random things so I decided to research water. You probably knew that your body weight is approximately 60 percent water and I'm sure you knew that your body uses water in every single cell, organ, and millimeter of tissue in your body to help regulate temperature and also maintain other functions.

You lose water through breathing, sweating, and digestion. The standard amount of water one should aim for is about eight cups a day, but that actually depends on how active you are. So you can go without food for quite some time, but you can only go for a couple of days without water. I find it very interesting that Jesus refers to himself or the Holy Spirit as Living Water because water is the number one thing we need to survive. I mean, we need oxygen, but water is a close second.

We intake water and it affects every single thing in us. Not one cell goes unaffected by water and I think it's the same with the Holy Spirit. When you come to that place in your life and you realize you just can't do it on your own, you finally surrender that thing to the Lord. The Holy Spirit permeates every single aspect of your life and one of the things that I think can be hard to understand in Bible study is the notion of God being a jealous God. God's not jealous of us, He's jealous for us that He wants every aspect of your heart, every aspect of your life to refresh you, revive you, restore you, and ultimately to resurrect you.

Dear Rebecca and Burns,

This Spring, I started homeschooling my two kids, and it went really well. Recently, my 12-year-old stepson moved in with us permanently, so, of course, I am adding him to the homeschool group this Fall.

My dilemma? His mother now wants to drop off her two kids at my house during “school hours” so I can teach them as well. She didn’t really ask, and she doesn’t understand why I might not want to add her children to the mix.

Any suggestions?

Let's be honest, we all have at least one that we would qualify as a "problem person" in our lives. Sometimes they can frustrate us so much that we want to pull our hair out or jump around a room and scream so it's no secret that it's hard for a lot of us to be grateful for these people. But the reality is that if we read God's word, we're called to love people sacrificially and to be thankful in all circumstances (Ephesians 5:20 & 1 Thess 5:18) & abound in thanksgiving. (Col 2:7). So with that being said, with the help of our friend Chuck Lawless, here are some reasons we can be thankful for difficult people in our lives and how it can change our perspective.

For those who have been a fan of the show for a while, you know that Rebecca's gift of rhyme is legendary. Recently, she went to Main Event and their way of encouraging people to wash their hands was through a fun rap that you could recite while washing your hands in the sink. However, Rebecca thinks that Main Event should've hired her for her rapping skills as she makes some much-needed changes to their 'wash your hands' rap. What happened next was pure greatness.

There is a book in the Bible that you may or may not have read called Hosea. Hosea is one of the 12 minor prophets and even though he is a minor prophet, the book has a major message. God instructs his prophet, Hosea, to marry a prostitute and this sounds really, really strange, but what God is doing is He's having Hosea live out God's love for Israel. This is because God compares Israel to a rebellious wife who bears children to him out of wedlock, who is idolatrous, who sells herself over and over and over again. This picture presents possibly the clearest vision of God's ferocious love and ruthless pursuit of His people.

Interestingly enough, I got to have a conversation yesterday with a woman who spent years on the street and was a prostitute. We talked about worth and shame and one of the things that occur to me is that we all have pockets of shame from our past. You've got things you regret, but you don't get to define your worth. That's not your privilege. You didn't create yourself. You don't get to define your worth. Only your Creator gets to define your worth. God says you are more precious to him than gold and He says you are worth more than all the precious jewels in the world.

"For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect." - 1 Peter 1:18-19

"But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." - Romans 5:8

"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." - Ephesians 2:10

In fact, you're worth the blood of his very son. Regardless of what you've done, God's still pursued Israel and He still pursues you. He calls you worthy and you've got to let that be enough.

Geocaching turns every location into an adventure. Join the world's largest treasure hunting game and discover the world around you in a whole new way. Millions of cleverly hidden containers called geocaches are waiting to be found.

SMU Dedman School of Law is offering free, coronavirus-related legal information through a “helpline" that launched June 1. Just call 214-SMU-COVD.