Why I Stopped Paying It Forward in the Drive-Thru

February 21, 2022January 14, 2025 Rebekah Matt6 Comments

I have what may be an unpopular opinion about paying for the person behind me in the drive-thru. It’s not the “paying it forward” (or is that backward?) aspect that I have problems with. It’s what the practice has morphed into in the past few years.

Quite a few years ago, our local Christian radio station began encouraging people to “spread joy” during the first week of each month. Many people chose to do this by paying for the person behind them in the drive-thru lane (Starbucks, McDonald’s, wherever). My middle son was a young teen at the time, and we spent more than a little time together in the drive-thru lanes of fast food restaurants. When he heard about this new way to spread joy, he was all over it.

“Let’s do it! Next time we go to McDonald’s, we should do this!” The radio DJs talked up what a blessing we could be to others, to surprise strangers with a message that their bill had already been paid. My 13-year-old was 100% on board with this. Who was I to tell him that no, I didn’t want to bless others?

Faith

Be Careful, Little Hands, What You Type

February 7, 2022January 14, 2025 Rebekah Matt6 Comments

I’ve been writing professionally for more than 30 years. Most of those have been part-time from home—a small vocational and financial miracle from God that allowed me to stay home with my kids.

Nearly two years ago, during the spring of 2020—the Pandemic Spring—I began this blog. I’d been thinking about doing this for a long time, but life kept getting in the way. During the Pandemic Spring, the many plans I’d had were cancelled left and right and I suddenly had the time to consider blogging for real. Everyone else’s plans were cancelled, too, so my tech-savvy and artistically talented daughter was also on hand to help me get this blog off the ground.

Faith

Who’s in Need of Redeeming Love?

January 24, 2022January 14, 2025 Rebekah Matt4 Comments

The reviews are in on “Redeeming Love,” and redemption is not what our culture thinks it is.

I can’t begin to estimate how many female Christian friends have urged me to read Francine Rivers’ 1991 bestselling book Redeeming Love over the years (so many!), and I finally got around to it last year. Now, romantic fiction, Christian or not, is not my cup of tea, and I’ve read very little of it. So I’m a poor judge of books in this genre. I would have a hard time reviewing something in a particular category that I’m mostly unfamiliar with … other than that it’s a book, and I’ve read plenty of books.

Faith · Schooling

Glue Sticks and Bible Songs

January 17, 2022January 14, 2025 Rebekah MattLeave a comment

The sweet smiles of two- and three-year-olds … a catchy song written for preschoolers that I still sing to myself decades later … the feel of a tiny hand in mine, clutching a fat glue stick with intense focus … the shining eyes and serious faces of little ones as they hear parts of God’s great story for the first time …

In his wisdom and grace, God gives us people, situations, and experiences that we often don’t recognize as priceless gifts at the time. Some of those gifts were given to me 20 years ago, and it’s only recently that I’ve begun to truly appreciate those busy days of teaching, corralling, discipling, and loving the lively and earnest little children that were entrusted to my care every Sunday morning.

* * * * *

Faith

A Gift for Your Scripture Writing

January 1, 2022January 14, 2025 Rebekah Matt2 Comments

Whether you were inspired to begin Scripture writing by this recent post, or you’ve been doing it for a while and enjoyed seeing the many different reasons and methods for it, or if you’re still contemplating giving it a try, I have a gift for you.

Faith

Ready to Try Scripture Writing?

December 20, 2021July 9, 2025 Rebekah Matt25 Comments

Why and How to Do It • Plain or Fancy Methods

Daily time in the Word is a struggle for many Christians, and for many years, I was no exception. Despite my good intentions, I couldn’t seem to find the time or motivation to read my Bible every day, even though I truly wanted to and knew that I should.

Since 2018, I’ve been reading the Bible daily without fail, and I can give credit to one simple thing that has made this change possible. Scripture writing has utterly transformed my spiritual life (no exaggeration), my mornings, and my Bible time.

Recipe for Disaster

December 5, 2021January 14, 2025 Rebekah Matt3 Comments

Ingredients:

One 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle, 2/3 complete, left unattended for less than five minutes
Two cats in the immediate vicinity, washing each other’s ears with increasing intensity, which often leads to a spat
One smooth wooden puzzle table, left (did I mention?) unattended for—really!—less than five minutes

Faith

Loved by God the [Not Absent, Not Abusive] Father

November 15, 2021January 14, 2025 Rebekah Matt4 Comments

By the time I was ten, I had had three earthly fathers.

The first father was the absent one, my biological father. My parents divorced in a storm of anger and legal drama when I was just a few months old, and my mom and I lived with her parents for the next several years. Father Number One left the country he despised for a new life on a new continent, where he stayed.

The second father was the abusive one, my stepfather. My mother had impulsively married one of her more promising boyfriends, and while it seemed like a good idea at the time, his physical abuse started within weeks and escalated rapidly until one final beating which put her in the hospital just before Christmas. She and I fled in secret to another state a thousand miles away and Father Number Two never found us.

Faith

The Hidden Gift of Spiritual Amnesia

November 1, 2021January 14, 2025 Rebekah Matt4 Comments

Some time ago, a young friend mentioned that she heard something in a sermon—a spiritual truth of some kind—that she had always known, yet had forgotten up until that point of hearing it again. She was disappointed in herself for forgetting, knowing that Satan delights in our tendency to forget God’s promises, his faithfulness, and his Word.

She might have thought she was alone in her difficulty, or maybe she thought that she was just too young to have overcome it yet, but the truth is, we’re all victims of spiritual amnesia. How many times have you heard a sermon, read a devotional, sat in on Bible study, or received counsel from a friend in Christ, and thought to yourself, “I already knew this, but I had to be reminded of it yet again!” You might have felt discouraged, surprised, or frustrated that you had forgotten. You might have thought, “Why am I always forgetting this about God?”

Faith

Wanted: Spiritual Mothers

October 4, 2021January 14, 2025 Rebekah Matt6 Comments

Whose voice do you hear when a much older Christian woman speaks into your life?

When I was eight years old, I became a grown-up. Changing life circumstances and a mom who needed my help in many areas of her life caused me to say good-bye to most of the rest of my childhood and learn how to be an adult quickly.

One recent Sunday, almost 50 years later, I sat in church and listened to a prayer written and spoken by a woman a little older than my mother would have been if she were still alive. Her prayer was just a minute or two long, and by the end of it I was in tears. Now, I cry easily for many reasons, so the tears themselves didn’t surprise me. The surprise was that I was crying for something I longed for without knowing, like a memory that had never happened or a desire just out of reach.