Those times remain etched in my heart because an assailant at the Covenant School in Nashville shot and killed that custodian. I flew back to Tennessee to play for Mike Hill one last time – at his funeral. The opening hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness, includes the line I often use in my prayers, “Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.” Sitting at the piano, just a few yards from the casket of that dear man, I purposed to play that hymn with zeal and passion – as a believer, not just a mourner.

Praying during seasons “…when sorrows like sea billows roll” can be difficult. The words seem elusive, and faith often falters. Caring for my wife, Gracie, for nearly forty years through a relentless and painful journey of severe disabilities, those seasons of sorrow often seem interminable. What do I petition God to do in those times: ease her pain, grow her legs back, or guide the surgeon’s hands on her upcoming 86th operation?
All those questions (and many more) have flooded over me countless times. Yet, in those moments, I find solace in the hymnal. A pianist longer than a caregiver, I regularly retreat to the piano in dark moments when words fail. Picking up a hymnal, I find comfort, strength, and resilience in the prayers of those who penned the cries of their hearts and set them to music.
The stories behind those hymns add an even greater poignancy to the lyrics. Horatio Spafford’s timeless “It Is Well,” written over the watery grave of his children in the Atlantic Ocean, continues to comfort people worldwide. Reverend Cleland McAfee wrote “Near to the Heart of God” after disease took the lives of his young nieces in the same week. When penning, “In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief,” William Walford pointed the world to the “…Sweet Hour of Prayer.” Despite being deserted by his father during childhood, Henry Lyte gave us the incomparable “Abide With Me,” and William Monk wrote the tune for that hymn – after the death of his three-year-old child.
Those are only a few of the countless hymns written by those who took their agony to God.
We all face moments when our heartache overpowers the ability to speak. During those times, I sit at the keyboard and use the music and words of others. Sometimes I played them in a hospital chapel, and other times, in an empty church sanctuary – particularly in a large church we attended years ago when we lived in Nashville, TN. While playing in that sanctuary, I discovered I wasn’t alone. The church’s custodian, Mike Hill, swept, organized hymnals, and frequently sat in the back to listen as I poured out my heart at the piano. I often stopped and asked if there was something I could play for him.
His simple response was always, “Just keep playing.”
Those times remain etched in my heart because an assailant at the Covenant School in Nashville shot and killed that custodian. I flew back to Tennessee to play for Mike one last time – at his funeral. The opening hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness, includes the line I often use in my prayers, “Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.” Sitting at the piano, just a few yards from the casket of that dear man, I purposed to play that hymn with zeal and passion – as a believer, not just a mourner. He would have wanted me to do so.
“Just keep playing.”
Even when our words fail us, a treasure trove of words remains in our church hymnal. The writers and composers of those hymns left us a legacy that provides text to our grief and strengthens our weary and troubled hearts.
The closing hymn of Mike’s funeral in Nashville echoed lines from Pastor Ray Palmer’s “My Faith Looks Up to Thee.” When waking in the “…valley of the shadow of death”, this hymn settles my soul and fixes my eyes forward.
“While life’s dark maze I treadand griefs around me spread,be Thou my guide.Bid darkness turn to day.Wipe sorrow’s tears away,not let me ever stray from Thee aside.”
While prayers seem easy to some, I often struggle to express my heart to God. In those times, I remain deeply grateful that so many took time to journal their anguish – and leave exquisite prose for those of us who often feel at a loss for words.
Peter Rosenberger hosts the nationally syndicated radio program, Hope for the Caregiver. His newest book is titled, “A Minute for Caregivers – When Every Day Feels Like Monday.” 

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When we think of holiness, our first thought can’t be “I need to try harder to obey.” Rather, our first thought must be “I am set apart for God.” When we dwell upon that reality and all that means, the rest will follow as the tail follows the dog.
If we are going to take holiness seriously and see progress in our lives in the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit, the place to start is…

To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:2, NIV84)
We try so hard to be holy. After all, doesn’t the Bible tell us to strive for holiness without which no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14). The pursuit of holiness is constituent of the Christian life (1 Thess. 4:1-8). God’s will is for our sanctification, wherein we die more and more unto sin and live increasingly unto righteousness. We are to be holy as He is holy, a calling expressed in terms of obedience and the conduct of our lives (1 Pet. 1:14-15).
Yet we regularly, often emphatically and even willfully fall flat on our faces, plunging back into the dissipation from which God rescued us, despite scriptural warning to the contrary (1 Pet. 4:1-3). The Spirit convicts us of our sin and, once again, we repent and confess our sin, claim forgiveness in Christ, and purpose with the Spirit’s help to try harder – all quite sincerely.
And on it goes. It’s reminiscent of the cycles in the book of Judges. We forget God, presume upon our position as His people, and give ourselves over to sin. From the bondage into which we have subjected ourselves, we cry out to God and He points us to His Deliverer, only for us to wander again.
What can we do? Simply try harder? God shows us a better way.
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In this life we learn more by getting things wrong than by getting things right. It is one of the great routes to wisdom: Learn by your mistakes. A child has to have some independence in order to learn to take responsibility. They need to be let off the leash so that they will understand the need for self-discipline. Otherwise you are deceiving yourself. So back off occasionally and see what he/she does.

There is nothing easy about parenting, and nothing easy about the responsibility of training our children in obedience through discipline. Because discipline is unpopular and unpleasant, parents often find themselves looking for substitutes. In her book Parenting Against the Tide, Ann Benton lists five poor substitutes for disciplining our children—five poor substitutes that fail to address the heart.
Excuse Them
This is the voice of therapy culture. Sometimes we make excuses for our child’s misbehavior. We say, “he’s tired, she’s had a hard day, he’s disappointed, she’s traumatised, he’s got low self-esteem …” Now all of these things may be true. But that is not the point. The point is this: Are we going to allow our children to take responsibility for their own behavior/misbehavior or not? Or is it always going to be the fault of someone else or of the circumstances? I am not saying we cannot be understanding or sympathetic. But if we are going to praise our children when they do well, surely it is logical to chastise them when they do badly. They make choices, which are moral choices, all day long. If we commend them for the good we cannot merely excuse them for the bad. That is very poor training because it teaches them to blame-shift.
Ignore Them
This is the voice of liberalism, which would be inclined to allow the children as far as possible to do as they like. When called upon to intervene, liberalism refuses to recognise an absolute moral worldview, whereby some things are definitely wrong and some things are definitely right. This is a failure in discipline because we need to instruct our children’s sense of right and wrong and that this is quite outside of how they fell about it. It might feel great to pull someone’s hair but it is wrong. Children have a moral sense, they have a conscience and this conscience is your friend when you discipline. Bring in right and wrong as absolutes. And be clear that the fundamental right course of action for a child is obedience to you.
Organise Them
[This is] the voice of strategic management. Some parents work really hard to avoid the occasion for misbehavior by organizing their children’s life and surroundings.
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