Sarah Dixon Young's Blog: Love Much, page 2

How Long, O Lord?

I have a Whisperer at Bible Club.

She sidles up to me, cupped hands around her mouth, ready to whisper shocking details about any of the other little kids sitting nearby.

This week, it was, “Sarah, did you know that [so and so] said he was going to steal [so and so’s] bike?!”

“We won’t gossip about it though,” I tell her, winking. She shrugs dismissively. She was hoping I would be scandalized by the sinfulness of her neighbor. 

In one way, sin is always a scandal. Whether it’s whisp...

Carrying the Banner

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I love that movie from the nineties called, “Newsies.”

Homeless, streetsmart boys find employment selling newspapers, and they often do it by embellishing the headlines. Their theme is that they are “carrying the banner.” 

I thought of the movie, and its catchy song, this week at backyard Bible club. The kids in my neighborhood were full of news, complete with embellished headlines and dance steps.

Like the movie portrays, I found that the most sensational headlines we...

Survey Says…

I only see that old game show “Family Feud” now in doctors offices, but I watched a lot of it as a child. 

I remember the host saying in his dramatic voice, “Survey says…” while all eyes turned to the results on the screen.

Every summer, I get a general survey of what is troubling the hearts and minds of children and youth in my community.

Some years, the survey has said “Poverty.” Other years, it’s been “Illness,” “Fatherlessness,” “Addiction,” or “Abuse.”

This year, survey says….....

Big Sins, Little Sins

I cradled the little rubbery model of a 12 week old fetus in my hand.

“You were only this big when your mother was three months pregnant,” I said to the little girl I was talking to.

Her eyes grew wide. “I was so little!” she said.

We talked about how God made her, planned the days of her life, and provided for her eternal life too by sending Jesus to die for her sins.

She had a lot of questions. Did brother who died as a baby go to heaven? And where is Jesus now?

But perhaps her...

Acquainted with Grief

A married couple came to me after Sunday school.

They had eaten supper with one of our students, and they were troubled.

“This little girl shouldn’t even know about the things she was telling us,” the wife said. 

The husband agreed and asked the girl’s name again so that they could pray for her. Both husband and wife had experienced trauma growing up themselves, and it grieved them to find another child caught in the same malicious trap. Their grief was transformed to compassion as the...

Safe Room

Impending thunderstorms prompted the Spirit Lake Nation to announce locations for taking shelter last week. 

Many people planned to shelter in the sturdy recreation centers, and some of our church family planned to use the basement of the parsonage house as their place of safety. Everyone in our community formed a plan before we heard the first rumbles of thunder.

Thankfully, our area did not have the severity of damage that nearby communities experienced, and our safe rooms can be saved ...

An Earthenware Vessel

While we were at family camp last week, Israel bombed Iran, and I sprained my ankle.

Forty-five people went with us to camp, and it was a wild and woolly week full of Jesus, fellowship, and fun. We were worshiping together around a campfire when a friend leaned over and showed me her phone screen. Her husband had texted, “Israel bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities!”

After spraining my ankle during a high-intensity basketball game, I laid on my cot and read my daily Bible reading. It was ...

Hamstrung Horses

I recently visited the Hi-Line Railroad Bridge in Valley City, ND.

In operation since 1908, the bridge is 3,860 feet long and 162 feet above the Sheynne river. It was amazing to watch a train cross it as I stood watching from far below.

“Because the bridge was of vital importance in moving supplies and men,” the state tourism site reads, “it was closely guarded during both World Wars to prevent sabotage.” American Legion volunteers kept the bridge safe until the National Guard could be assembl...

Another Chicken Parable

The weather has been warm enough to move my chickens out of the coop and into the chicken tractors.

Chicken tractors are mobile coops that roll around the yard.

After a whole winter cooped up in the coop, the chickens should have been very happy to graze green grass and feel the Spring breezes.

But they weren’t.

They went from laying eight or nine eggs a day to none. I thought maybe the stress of being caught (my eight year old helped) kept them from laying, but after two weeks with...

A Prayer Listen

“Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil,” the Preacher wrote in his book of Ecclesiastes.

This past Saturday, there were a lot of things I could have been doing, but I participated in a prayer drive with a group from my church. 

A prayer drive is where you walk or drive (or bike or run) through your community and pray for the people, places, events, and spiritual...