Abby Mae Rayder

Come, behold the wondrous mystery
Slain by death, the God of life
But no grave could ever restrain Him
Praise the Lord, He is alive

[BoomerGary1958 @garyboomer58]

What if I told you the reason you can’t afford a home really is the avocado toast and lattes

[domestic grace @holyhomemaking]

saw a reel of a woman being like "things I do to fund my book collection: my husband" and all the books are "dark romance" porn. imagine if a man bragged that his wife paid for all his OF subscriptions. so embarrassing

[Noah Burnett @noahdaneburnett]

We really need some “slow to anger” talks in our camp right now.

NCP’s 24hr delayed response is a great example. Get off of X for a day if you are about to sin in your anger.

God is pleased by slow anger and quick love.

[Abby Mae Rayder @MaeRayder]

@MrsSkippyPetro I sew!!! Not as frequently as I like, but I'm currently making mittens for our advent calendar! One at a time 😅

[Abby Mae Rayder @MaeRayder]

@shairnn I have a great+ grandmother in the tree named Captola

[Louise Lorent 🦬🦬 @LorentLouise]

I don't see any way to put this nicely.
Little kids are really dumb sometimes.

[Noah Burnett @noahdaneburnett]

@tompawnbadil

[🌷 LIZZIE🌷 @farmingandJesus]

Transgenders caused this.

[Calvingelical @calvingelical]

This is true.

I’ve discussed this with a ton of my credo-baptistic friends and also those who are of paedo-baptistic congregations.

Presbyterian churches (including mine, which is a member of the PCA) will allow folks to become members if baptized as an infant or based on profession..even from a non-Presbyterian church (which can include Catholics & Orthodox). Exceptions may include if it was a non-Trinitarian cult.

Baptists generally will invalidate an infant baptism prior to membership.

I was dunked twice as a Southern Baptist and I was welcomed in.

[The Joyful Wife 🌷🐰 @basedhomemaker]

A great response from the Ogden guys and a good reminder to wait for formal responses before spreading lies, slander and judgement.

[Abby Mae Rayder @MaeRayder]

@The_Kings_Hall about to make "How the Irish Saved Civilization pt. 2"

[BasedBlondexx @BasedBlondex]

American men need to start acting more like the Irish men right now..

[Amanda Fortini @amandafortini]

There is nothing less cool than being 35 years old and fretting about aging.

[Lexy Sauvé @Lexy_Sauve]

It’s Monday morning.

Your husband could probably use some sort of word of encouragement to face all the good work ahead of him this week.

Don’t forget to actually open your mouth and say the words.

[Cassidy @cassidoo]

My toddler has started to correctly say "blueberries" instead of "blue babies"

[BC🕯️🧺 @BeckyTheChicken]

I put a scoop of ice cream in my iced coffee this morning.
I love being an adult.

[Justin Peters @JustinPetersMin]

Haters will say this is fake.

[Summer Jaeger @SummrWrites]

If you tell me you “slept like a baby” I’m gonna have to assume you meant you woke up every 45-90 minutes and cried while drinking straight from a milk carton.

[Michael Foster @thisisfoster]

Tragedy and the suffering that follows it are a fire. To adapt an old phrase, the same flame that melts the wax hardens the clay.

There is no escaping tragedy. It visits every life, sometimes in isolated moments and sometimes in long, relentless seasons. Over the last six years, we’ve been living through what I’ve come to call a swirl of death. Multiple family members and friends have died in unexpected and heartbreaking ways.

Each time, we have been forced to decide what that fire would do to us. Would it melt us into a sorrowful but Godward faith? Or would it harden us into self-centeredness and self-pity?

Every trial presents a person with an opportunity to confess what he truly believes. Suffering has a way of exposing the deepest convictions of the heart. In the fire, everyone makes a confession, even if he does so unknowingly.

We live in a trauma-obsessed culture that treats suffering as a kind of moral exemption. Many people assume that tragedy, even relatively small tragedies, gives them permission to live faithlessly toward God and resentfully toward others. Suffering becomes a license for self-pity and bitterness. It becomes a reason to question God’s goodness without end.

How often have grieving people been told, “It’s okay to be mad at God”? No, it isn’t. It may be understandable, but it is not okay.

A wise and compassionate person recognizes the frailty of the human heart. In times of suffering, we are tempted to doubt God’s goodness, wisdom, and love. We should not be surprised by those temptations. But neither should we indulge them. Doubt is not something to be coddled. It is something to be confronted. Faith must be reasserted. The truth must be preached to our own souls again and again.

God is good. He is good when He gives and when He takes away. He is good when we understand His purposes and when we do not. Christian maturity is not gauged by the absence of tears but by the presence of faith in the midst of them.

The immature man allows suffering to turn him inward. He becomes consumed with himself and his pain. The mature Christian grieves honestly while refusing to surrender to self-pity. He learns to say with Job, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.” The goal is not to suffer less but to suffer faithfully.

In the last three years, I have buried my younger brother, my mother, my baby son, and three good friends. Yet I know there are many who, in that same span of time, have suffered just as much or more. Suffering is not a competition. We all must face the reality of living in a fallen world. Some endure heavier burdens than others, and those burdens often come in different seasons. But every one of us will eventually walk through the valley of sorrow.

Because of that, suffering should not become a scoreboard by which we measure whose bitterness is most justified. Nor should it become an excuse for faithlessness, self-pity, or sinful behavior. Rather, our common experience of suffering should cultivate compassion for one another. It should remind us that we are all frail and dependent upon the grace of God.

It should also give us the courage to lovingly confront those whose faith is wavering. The answer to suffering is not to lower our view of God but to raise our eyes to Christ. The reason we need the good news is precisely that we live in a bad world. The reason we need a Savior is that sin, death, and the devil are real enemies. The gospel is not a message for people who have escaped suffering. It is the announcement that Christ has conquered the very things that make suffering so painful. He has defeated sin. He has broken the power of death. He has crushed the serpent’s head. One day, He will make all things new.

Until then, we grieve. But we do not grieve as those who have no hope.