The Connection Corner

Faith Around the Flagpole

1 Timothy 4:12 –Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.

Coach Jeremy stood a step back from the circle of students at the flagpole, hands in his jacket pockets, fighting the coach’s reflex to lead.

He reminded himself what he had told faculty and parents: this was student-led, not a show for adults. His job this morning was to watch, to pray quietly, and to make sure the kids owned what they were doing.

Nash Wisner was one of the middle schoolers there. His shoulders were squared, eyes sweeping the crowd. Coach Jeremy knew the kid’s family and liked them. Nash had a steadiness to him and seemed to care about things that mattered.

By the time the clock edged toward 7:30, the crowd had swelled to two-hundred. The sound of them filled the small courtyard.

Between the songs, students like Nash Wisner stepped forward. They were awkward at first. Their words weren’t polished, but they were leading their peers. They prayed for friends who were struggling, for teachers carrying heavy loads, and for families needing strength.

Jeremy thought of how rare it was to see middle schoolers stand in front of peers and live their faith out-loud like this.

As their prayers came to a close and the school bell rang across the campus, the coach’s throat tightened as he looked in the eyes of these students. It was like each of them were given a jersey with their name on it.

Nash and other students knew they were agents of change, and today they were going to live like it.

Coach Jeremy stayed where he was for a moment under the flag flicking overhead. He knew on a day like today how easy it would be to sleep in or blend into the crowd without anyone noticing. But these students, along with others across the country, chose faith over comfort.

And as he followed them inside, he decided he would too.

September 24, 2025/by David Hall

The Bible That Prayed

Brenda Price, Daily Devotional

Isaiah 55:11 — It is the same with My word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.

She almost didn’t find it.

There was no spotlight on it. No labeled box. As she searched through the closet, she pulled a stack of old blankets down, one by one, until something hard and flat slid forward and landed in her lap.

It was her grandmother’s Bible.

The leather was the color of coffee left in the pot too long. It was cracked at the edges, soft in the middle. The spine sagged under strips of tape that had yellowed after decades.

She carried it to the kitchen table and sat there for a moment, just running her fingers over the cover. Then she opened it.

It was beautiful in the way only old things can be. The pages were soft as tissue. Corners were bent from years of folding.

And then the names.

There were dozens. Scrawled in the margins. Squeezed into the white space between verses. A cousin she hadn’t thought of in years. A neighbor who passed away before she was born. A church friend from decades ago.

Every name was written by a verse. A promise. It was like her grandmother had gone through the whole Bible and decided that no one she loved was going to leave this earth without being prayed for according to God’s Word.

She felt tears come before she even realized it. She took it home for safekeeping, and that night, she opened her own Bible.

It had clean pages and plenty of white space.

So, she started writing names and started praying.

And here’s the part that gets me—some Bibles are read through, while others are prayed through. If you believe prayer is powerful, imagine just how much more powerful it is to pray for people according to God’s word.

Because God’s word will not come back empty-handed.

September 23, 2025/by Brenda Price

When God Sends a Friend

Daily Devotional, Lauren Kitchens-Steward

Matthew 7:7 — Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

When Dad passed to glory, his beloved pup Billie Jo lost her reason for getting up in the morning.

She’d been his partner in crime in every conceivable way. Every morning, she’d ride shotgun for the coffee run. Every evening, she’d curl herself up into the crook of his knees.

After he was gone, she wasn’t interested in anything—or anyone—else. Our dogs tried, bless their hearts, to pull her into a game or two. She’d just turn her head away. She ate just enough to keep living, and her eyes stayed fixed on the door, like maybe she was waiting for him to walk back through.

I prayed for her one night while rinsing dishes. It was just a quiet, “Lord, help her find someone to love again.”

A few days later, Steve Holland—our funeral director—came by. Steve is the sort of man who can step into a room where grief is thick as blazes and somehow make it breathable. He stepped in a few days before the service, wearing that warm, steady smile of his.

Billie Jo was lying in the corner when Steve came in. She lifted her head, studied him for half a second, and then… well, she crossed the room and pressed her head into his chest. Steve wrapped his arms around her without missing a beat. It was like they’d both been handed exactly what they needed.

By the end of the week, she had a new home at Holland Funeral Home. Steve calls her “Boo” now, and she’s earned her place as a full-time comforter of the brokenhearted. She sits quietly beside those who can’t find words, reminding them they’re not alone.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. God has a way of taking small prayers and giving them big answers. And I have to wonder, how many miracles do we miss because we never think to ask?

September 22, 2025/by Lauren Kitchens-Steward