Dear Friends, Thanksgiving is over, which means it is officially the Christmas season. So decorations are going up, Christmas music is playing, and the countdown to the day we celebrate the birth of our Savior has begun. In the midst of all the activity that usually accompanies this time of year, one of my favorite passages to meditate on is Isaiah 9:6. If you’re not familiar with that verse, it says: “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will

Dear Friends, “Surrender” is one of my least favorite words. But for the sake of full disclosure, let me follow that statement up by saying that the reason I dislike it so much is because it’s something I really struggle to do. Now, in some areas of life, having difficulty surrendering is a good thing. For example, if we’re trying be more healthy in our eating, it’s a good thing if we don’t surrender to our desire to eat a whole plate of chocolate chip cookies. That’s just