Unlocked: Daily Devotions for Teens

Imagine you wake up one morning and begin to get ready for the day. When you look at yourself in the mirror, you are horrified by what you see: you have a massive case of bedhead, eye crust is piled …

Do you yearn to break free from the chains of your past? Are you weary of running Or wearing a mask? Pain, guilt, shame, and despair Ugly, heavy—it’s too much to bear Hope shines through the dark…

We have all experienced the pain of betrayal, unkind words spoken, and possibly even more serious hurts inflicted by someone against us. What is the natural response when people wrong us? Retaliation…

I recently had an experience that still makes me smile each time I think about it. I was carrying my five-month-old nephew while his two-year-old brother was running around in the house. We made a g…

When you mess up or wander away from God, you might feel like that’s it. You might think, “The things I’ve done are too much. God couldn’t forgive me.” But that is not true. The amazing thing about…

Your friends don’t always understand what has you upset. You are unique, and when it comes to things that hurt you and your feelings about what is going on in the world, not everyone will be affected…

While hiking on a trail in the Smoky Mountains, my husband and I needed to make a decision. The sign had said the trail was only a few miles—but it didn’t say we were headed uphill through rough terr…

“Go in peace,” the worship leader said at the end of my first chapel service at my Christian university. I had never heard the phrase before, but after hearing it at every following chapel, I learne…

We tend to feel confident when the people in our lives respect us and celebrate our accomplishments. We feel good when we do big things. But when we are struggling and no one seems to notice us, we m…

Recently, I was on a flight from Chicago. Shortly after takeoff, we reached our cruising altitude. The pilot warned us about some possible turbulence. “No big deal,” I thought. Suddenly, the plane dr…

I have days when I wonder, “How am I going to get through this?” It feels like the things I need to do and the steps I have to take are too much for me. I wonder if I will be strong enough to keep mo…

I used to have a little baby bird that I raised all on my own. Her parents neglected her since she was disabled and not as strong as the rest of her siblings. I fed her many times a day, including ge…

If we are honest, at one time or another we all have doubts about our faith, what God is doing in our lives, or God’s character. In Mark 9, a man brought his son, who had been possessed by a demon s…

I recently learned of two newborn babies who died, mere days and weeks after being born. Having a baby of my own, learning of such tragedies breaks my heart. I look at my sweet baby boy and hug him a…

Abeo sat alone in his room. He heard laughing and talking coming from downstairs. “Are they singing?” He laid back on his bed. He’d told everyone that he wanted to be alone. He really wished that …

The psalmists weren’t afraid to admit when they were afraid. They even talked about feeling abandoned by God. Some of my favorite psalms are those that cry out desperately to God. You can feel the wr…

Do you get frustrated with the amount of stuff accumulating in your space? For some of us, it’s easy to get things but not as easy to get rid of those items when they are no longer being used. Alth…

I swam to an old sea cave before the battle. Our odds of winning were beyond scary. Soon my kingdom could be enslaved to the Sinades again. There was already talk of surrender. Once inside, I removed…

My heart aches for unity in the church. I see so many divisions—Christians disregarding each other, judging, shaming, excluding and I feel powerless. Unity seems impossible. One day I shared my feel…

June 4, 1942. Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, leader of the Pearl Harbor attack, was steaming across the ocean on the aircraft carrier Akagi, alongside the powerful Japanese navy. Six months after cripplin…