1. Finding contentment in a world of want: Lara d’Entremont is always excellent. She explains, “We miss the mark on this, however, when we seek the virtue of contentment only through positive thinking and gratitude lists. Yes, we should be grateful for all God gives us, but we mustn’t ground our contentment in what fails, fades, or falters. Contentment takes our sights off ourselves and our possessions and focuses on Christ.”

2. How to pray for a loved one struggling with a mental illness: David Murray concludes this wise article, “For the believer, mental illness can be like a little taste of hell on earth. As such, it can help us to see the horrors of the hell we have been saved from, as well as to long for the health and holiness of heaven, the place where all our diseases and disorders of mind, emotions, and soul will be immediately and fully healed upon entry—a healing our bodies will also fully participate in after the resurrection.”

3. Five encouraging church trends right now: Aaron Earls reports, “Prior to the pandemic, the median in-person attendance for a U.S. house of worship was 65. By 2021, that had fallen to 45. In spring 2022, median attendance inched back up to 50. By the spring of this year, it had jumped to 60.”

4. Men are from right-leaning Mars, women are from lefty-Venus: Taylor Combs reports on the growing political rift between men and women and how the church can respond, “An array of empirical data provides evidence of this growing trend. Generations, the new book by San Diego State University professor of psychology Jean Twenge, demonstrates that among high school seniors, 30 percent of young women identify as conservative—down more than 10 percent in the last decade. Meanwhile, the number of young men who identify as conservative is more than double: an all-time high of 65 percent.”

5. 36 hidden messages in company logos you see all the time: There were a bunch of these I didn’t know. Amazon, Goodwill, and Sony Vaio were fun ‘a ha’s’ for me. And the Pittsburgh Zoo is really cool.

6. Bird photographer of the year: My favorite is “a moment of prayer.” What is yours?

Photo by Taleon Pinheiro on Unsplash