The Old Testament book of Exodus includes a sobering story about the high cost of ingratitude. By default, we're at risk for repeating that mistake, but we can choose a different path.

We'll see the connection between gratitude and faith, thanksgiving and character. Drawing on Dallas Willard's work in The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God, we unpack five ways we can avoid the high cost of ingratitude.

Empower yourself and your family to engage fully in God’s grand story. Subscribe to Hi(Impact) at Stephanie Presents for insights, encouragement, and practical resources!

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Are you concerned about the increasing number of children who are walking away from the faith? What if part of this is due to a lack of understanding the full Gospel?

While beliefs and behaviors is important, we must also include desires in our spiritual journeys. Yet so much of our teaching has been a "gospel of sin management," where our desires are are either ignored or indulged.

We can foster a deeper faith relevant to all of life by engaging children in conversations about their desires and discussing what we really believe about God. Do we see him as joyful? Interesting? Interested in us?

Get practical application on meaningful insights about the faith we practice and teach.

Empower yourself and your family to engage fully in God’s grand story. Subscribe to Hi(Impact) at Stephanie Presents for insights, encouragement, and practical resources!

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"Christianity is not about rules, it's about relationship," is popular. But it's also misleading and can also be harmful.

Too much of Christian teaching has focused on behavior and beliefs and left out the third critical element: desires. We need an entirely new perspective because rules and relationship are not enemies. We do not need to choose between them.

We continue unpacking key elements from Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy and discuss the gospel of sin management. How this tends to play out in one of two ways:

1) a big set of "right" beliefs + a big list of "right" behaviors; or

2) a small set of "right" beliefs + a small list of "right" behaviors.

Yet the answer isn't to meet in the middle and have a "medium" sized set of beliefs and behaviors. It is adopting an entirely new approach.

Empower yourself and your family to engage fully in God’s grand story. Subscribe to Hi(Impact) at Stephanie Presents for insights, encouragement, and practical resources!

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Navigating the complexities of today's culture is challenging for parents, educators, and anyone involved with young people!

We need all the help we can get, and the Axis organization is a great resource. Join the continued conversation I have with Kelli Rankin of Axis.org.

You can be proactive rather than reactive when discussing pressing issues such as mental health, school shootings, gender, and sexuality. With an emphasis on spiritual strength and emotional health, you'll be equipped with the tools necessary to foster meaningful connections with the younger generation.

Empower yourself and your family to engage fully in God’s grand story. Subscribe to Hi(Impact) at Stephanie Presents for insights, encouragement, and practical resources!

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Identity theft is not only about stolen Social Security numbers or bank details. It begins with your innate desire to be seen as unique and significant.

This quest for significance can lead to a distorted sense of humility, where we equate being humble with playing small. Drawing from Dallas Willard's insights in The Divine Conspiracy, we discuss the importance of recognizing our God-given agency and the drive to count for good in the world is not rooted in sin but in being made in God's image.

Yet our identity can become stolen by false but seemingly "Christian" labels like "waiting for God" or "being faithful in the small things." These can be legitimate but they can also only appear legitimate while really stealing our identity.

Salvation is not the first step in God's plan to erase us but rather restore us!

Learn how your desire to matter is a foundational part of restoring a whole identity.

Empower yourself and your family to engage fully in God’s grand story. Subscribe to Hi(Impact) at Stephanie Presents for insights, encouragement, and practical resources!

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#identity

Ever feel overwhelmed trying to keep up with the music, trends, movies, media, and lingo of the younger generations?

Want to have meaningful conversations with your kids and have at least some idea of what's going on in their world?

Fear no more! You have an amazing research assistant just waiting to help you?

The Axis organization is a storehouse of up-to-date research-based resources empowering parents, pastors, educators, and others to build a life-long faith in the young people they love, mentor, teach, and pastor.

How? One conversation at a time!

In the first episode of a two-part interview with Kelli Rankin of Axis, you'll hear about resources like:

• The Culture Translator -- a weekly newsletter keeping you up current on the music, movies, TV shows, and social media trends impacting youth

• Parent guides -- a powerful tool equipping adults with information and discussion aids on numerous topics including mental health, technology, bullying, and more

• The Culture Translator podcast -- an audio version of the weekly newsletter with additional roundtable conversation

• Conversation kits -- video series on subjects from Anxiety to World Religions to educate and inspire meaningful and ongoing dialogues

• Courses -- In-depth looks on significant and timely issues

You'll hear how innovative pastors, parents, and educators are using these resources to engage youth in substantive conversations on relevant topics from a Biblical perspective. If you want to help upcoming generations grow a vibrant, steadfast Christian faith, you'll find Axis a tremendous partner!

Empower yourself and your family to engage fully in God’s grand story! Get the weekly newsletter, Hi(Impact), packed with encouraging and empowering resources. Sign up at Stephanie Presents

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#axis

We're all part of a conspiracy. It's just a matter of which side.

Conspiracies are nothing new. They didn't start with the 2020 election, the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., or the President John F. Kennedy's assassination.

There's a long history of conspiracies (or related theories) involving leaders.

Julius Caesar was assassinated because of a conspiratorial belief he was going to proclaim himself king. Saul hunted David for years because he was convinced David was conspiring to overthrow him.

But the greatest conspiracy of all? When evil tried to overthrow God. Although they were kicked out of heaven, evil didn't quit. They just moved to a different tactic and place. Hurting God's kids and turning them against Him on a planet called Earth.

Join in as we launch into a discussion centered in Dallas Willard's excellent book, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God.

Empower yourself and your family to engage fully in God’s grand story. Get original content, recommended resources, and helpful links with the weekly newsletter, Hi(Impact).

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Attitudes are like smells. You can’t force them to leave a room when they’re bad, but they can force you to walk out. When they’re good, you can’t make them stay, but you sure don’t want to leave.

One of the greatest mistakes parents make, often unintentionally, is placing more emphasis on the beliefs they want to instill in their children rather than the emotional and attitudinal environment they create at home. Yet this is one of the most shaping forces in a child's life, not just in childhood but adulthood.

Children learn not only from what they are told but also from the emotional atmosphere surrounding them, which will shape their expectations of relationships and interactions throughout their lives.

We need to be as thoughtful in evaluating the attitudes we bring -- and allow -- into our homes as our children's food, toys, media, friends, and activities. But how?

Learn 10 ways you can put attitudes in their right place. Help your children grow their security, identity, self-control, self-awareness, and relational skills by putting these ten techniques into practice.

Empower yourself and your family to engage fully in God’s grand story. Subscribe to Hi(Impact) at Stephanie Presents for insights, encouragement, and practical resources!

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