The Connection Corner
A daily source of encouragement and inspiration to connect your heart to hope and faith.
Daily Devotional
Hope in Life’s RiptidesAugust 6, 2026 - 7:00 am
Kindness Delivered to Your DoorAugust 5, 2026 - 7:00 am
The Greener Grass TrapAugust 4, 2026 - 7:00 am
Fireworks Fade, Freedom LastsAugust 3, 2026 - 7:00 am
The Power of a PauseAugust 2, 2026 - 7:00 am
What To Do with Unanswered PrayersAugust 1, 2026 - 7:00 am
Rescued From Life’s RiptideJuly 31, 2026 - 7:00 am
Clear Truth in an Upside-Down WorldJuly 30, 2026 - 7:00 am
Wisdom Works When You ListenJuly 29, 2026 - 7:00 am
Trusting God in the FreefallJuly 28, 2026 - 7:00 am
HEART OF THE ARTIST
Holding on Through HeartbreakJuly 5, 2026 - 7:00 am
Faith That Falls ForwardJune 18, 2026 - 7:00 am
From Dusty Bibles to Daily BreadJune 14, 2026 - 7:00 am
Leaving No SurvivorsJune 7, 2026 - 7:00 am
When Joy Fills RoomsMay 31, 2026 - 7:00 am
STORIES ABOUT SONGS
One Way Through the ChaosJuly 26, 2026 - 7:00 am
The Gospel Still Changes EverythingJuly 12, 2026 - 7:00 am
The Beauty in the Broken RoadJune 28, 2026 - 7:00 am- From Dusty Bibles to Daily BreadJune 14, 2026 - 7:00 am
- Leaving No SurvivorsJune 7, 2026 - 7:00 am
Stories About Songs
- One Way Through the ChaosJuly 26, 2026 - 7:00 am
- The Gospel Still Changes EverythingJuly 12, 2026 - 7:00 am
- The Beauty in the Broken RoadJune 28, 2026 - 7:00 am
- From Dusty Bibles to Daily BreadJune 14, 2026 - 7:00 am
- Leaving No SurvivorsJune 7, 2026 - 7:00 am
Fly Higher, Together
Daily Devotional, David HallI still think about those backyard trampoline days. They were something else.
The neighborhood kids would come over, and before long we were making up games or playing classics like “crack the egg”—you know, the one where everyone bounces around trying to get someone tucked into a roll.
But if I had to pick a favorite part of those afternoons, nothing beat the feeling of getting “double bounced.”
You know what I’m talking about.
Because at just the right moment, your bounce would meet your friend’s bounce, and suddenly you were flying twice as high. It felt like you could touch the sky.
Now, if you were the friend doing the bouncing, it didn’t feel quite as magical. Your timing had to be right, your legs took the strain, and your own jump got interrupted. You were absorbing impact so someone else could go soaring.
But it worked because you knew the rhythm would shift. At some point, it would be your turn to rise.
And then there were days when no one was outside. No games. No timing. No lift. Just me jumping alone—no rhythm, just effort.
And honestly, that’s where life can start to feel like too.
We start believing we’re meant to do everything on our own.
“Me and Jesus, that’s all I need.”
But Scripture paints a fuller picture than that.
That’s what Peter is talking about here. God has given each of us gifts—not for isolation, but for building one another up.
Life with God was never designed to be solo jumps in an empty yard. It was designed for community, where what He placed in you strengthens someone else, and what He placed in them strengthens you.
Because if we’re honest, living alone can start to feel like that solo jump—no rhythm, no lift, just effort. But God never intended us to stay there.
So stay in community.
Because in God’s design, no one was meant to jump alone.
And sometimes, the very thing you need is someone willing to help you rise again… and sometimes, you’re the one God is calling to lift someone else.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Lifted Up With Love
Brenda Price, Daily DevotionalThree teenagers were riding bikes when they heard faint cries coming from a storm drain below them. Most people would have just kept on going, but not these guys. They stopped, they listened closer, and they discovered a scared little puppy trapped below.
My heart would have been breaking watching that.
Well, these teen boys worked together using their hands, a stick, and a lot of patience to get that little pup to safety. And when they finally pulled him out, the animal just looked at their faces in pure joy.
That moment when fear turns into relief… even the smallest things feel beautiful.
And I can’t shake what that picture does in me. We don’t get rescued because we’re strong. We get rescued because Someone stronger stops, hears, and reaches down.That’s what Psalm 40 is describing—God drawing us up, not leaving us where we fell.
SAnd maybe you’ve felt that too—stuck in a place you didn’t plan for, wondering if anyone even sees you there.… stuck in life’s storm drains, buried under the weight of stress and anxiety and everything closing in. It’s the kind of place where it’s dark, where it feels like nobody notices, and where your voice sounds small even to yourself.
But what gets me most is this. Those boys didn’t just hear something and move on. They leaned in. They got low. They stayed, and little by little, they pulled that puppy up out of the muddy pit into something solid again.
Even when we feel trapped or overlooked in life’s darkest places, God sees, hears, and gently rescues us with compassion and faithful care.
That’s who He is. He doesn’t pass by. He hears what others miss, and He steps into the miry mess with a patience that doesn’t give up.
And I don’t know what you’re sitting in right now, but maybe there’s something here for you too… a quiet reminder that you are seen, heard, and not forgotten in the pit—and that God still knows how to bring people out of places they can’t climb out of themselves.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
From Compassion to Checkmate
Bri Dunn, Daily DevotionalIt started with a chessboard and an almost-missed moment.
I have a really good friend named Martina—she lives in Shreveport—and one day she went out to coffee at her favorite spot. There was a guy there who was sitting outside playing chess by himself, and he looked up and said, “Hey, do you want to play?”
She thought, “Not really.”
But then something inside her nudged her heart, and she said, “You know what? Yes!”
She sat down, and they moved the pieces back and forth. Little by little, he started opening up. You could hear the disappointment in his voice. As they played, he started opening up. He told her he’d drifted away from Jesus after his great-grandmother passed away. Somewhere in his grief, he’d stopped believing altogether.
And listen, grief is grief. It doesn’t matter how old someone is or how long you’ve had them. Loss hurts. But what struck Martina was that this woman had lived to be 112 years old. What had been an extraordinary gift somehow felt, in his pain, like something had been taken from him.
But Martina didn’t argue. She didn’t preach. She just stayed and listened. She played another round, and by the time they said check mate, she already made the decision to come back.
Every week, she would make it her mission to play another round of chess with him. She knew his grief tried to rewrite the story about who God is, but she became determined to introduce him to God’s real love that tells a different story.
And not just her. She began pulling in a few friends and sending them to go and play chess too. To be community for this man.
And when Martina told me that story, I thought, “This is what love looks like.”
Love doesn’t always show up with the right words, but it always shows up.
Love shows up because we’ve already been loved first. As Christians, we’ve experienced the greatest love of all through Jesus.
So maybe it looks smaller than you expected. Maybe it’s coffee. Maybe it’s a park bench. Maybe it’s you and a couple friends deciding to keep showing up for someone who’s silently drifting.
And somewhere between the first move and the next, a person who thought God had abandoned him might begin to see that God was pursuing him all along.
All because someone pulled up a chair.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT