This Sunday is Mother’s Day in the U.S.—the perfect opportunity for you to tell mom that you appreciate all that she’s done for you. Sure, she always nagged at you to eat your veggies and wash your hands before dinner, but thousands of changed diapers, dozens of trips to the children’s doctor when you got sick, and all the time and money spent raising you gives her the right. Here are a few items to help you think about your mother, and motherhood in general, this Mother’s Day:

• Revive Our Hearts has a five-part radio series about motherhood, much of it discussing the value of motherhood. If you’ve ever been tempted to think of motherhood as a lesser calling for women, be sure to check out No, Not Just a Mother, The Value of Motherhood, and Mother and Wife: Dueling Roles.
• Winning at Home has a lot of good articles and radio shows about parenthood and related family topics, but this Mother’s Day, take a look at Mom’s Big Four, a tribute to moms and the underappreciated advice they were always giving you when you were a kid. On a different note, the essay Dad’s Out of the Picture calls attention to the challenges of single motherhood, and encourages us to notice and lend a hand to the single mothers in our communities.
• Joe Stowell has a great devotional message up today called Thank God for Mothers, in which he encourages us to—you guessed it—give thanks for mom. Be sure to read the discussion points at the end, where Joe challenges us to be thankful even if a broken relationship or grief makes Mother’s Day more painful than joyful.

Even if you aren’t able to be with your mother this Sunday for some reason, it’s worth considering these words about motherhood, and the important role that mom played in our lives. So pick up the phone, set aside any lingering grievances you might have for at least one day, give mom a call, and tell her how much she means to you!

Each week, Past the Popcorn offers a thorough look at the latest round of films opening on big screens.

Last week brought us the second entry in the summer blockbuster sweepstakes and a solid slate of releases. This week, the pace doesn’t slack off even though it’s not up to last week. And the checkered flag goes to…… Speed Racer!

Read the rest of this entry »

Amidst the destruction and continuing fallout from Cyclone Nargis there is a tremendous need not only for support (if you’re looking for a place to give, try International Aid) but news.

One of our gospel.com community members is Mission Network News, which is a news outlet that offers a missions-focused take on the news. From their about page:

Mission Network News is a mission news service dedicated to keeping Christians informed on evangelical mission activity around the world; in doing so we hope to educate and motivate Christians to prayer, participation, and support of missionary work to help further the Great Commission.

They’re currently covering the Cyclone Nargis catastrophe and have been updating as much as possible. You can read all of their Hurricane related articles here.

From their report today called Ministry encourages churches in Myanmar response:

Global Advance’s David Shibley notes one prospect: “The government is being resistant to aid. However, this does give opportunity for some mission groups that are already on the ground there to be very significantly used.” There are some agencies with projects in the hard-hit areas that will be able to make use of an already-established distribution network.