By Jessica Connor ~ I pass him every day coming home from work. There, on the Columbia bus bench, right across from the high school, he sits and he waves.

By Jessica Connor. I'm a bookworm. I started reading when I was a precocious 2-year-old, and today I count books among my most prized possessions. When I'm not reading, I'm writing. Books take me to other places, other ages and sometimes other planets. They were my escape as a child, my ticket to a bright and limitless future.

By Jessica Connor. As the mother of two young children, ages 6 and 8, I try hard to make sure they are steeped in strong faith. I bring them to church, pray with them a few times a day, say blessings at meals, the usual. When hard times arise, such as when my son had a brief bout with a bully on the bus, they become good opportunities to show how God is always with us, walking beside us even when we can't see him.

By Jessica Connor. When our eyes are opened, we can see them clearly: our friends, neighbors, brothers and sisters on the fringes of life. Sometimes they don't have enough to eat. Sometimes they don't have a home of their own and stay with family members or live out of their car. Or in a shelter. Or on a park bench. Whatever they can do to survive and get by until they can catch a break.

By Jessica Connor. It's hard to keep things holy when every store you enter breaks out the tinsel and the plastic Santas before Halloween is even over; when you get gift-shopping sale ads that rival the size of small magazines day after day in your mailbox. Popular Advent ministries like the Angel Tree or Operation Christmas Child get popped right into the mix like items on a to-do list.

By Jessica Connor. There we were—my mom, sister, hospital chaplain and I—gathered in a loose circle around my grandmother's hospital bed. Gram is elderly and already struggles with Alzheimer's and respiratory issues, but she'd just been dealt a double whammy: a stroke and congestive heart failure.

By Jessica Connor. Fear is a powerful motivator. It can be used for good purposes by kicking in survival mechanisms (a healthy fear of lightning might keep you safely inside during dangerous storms, while a fear of getting burned keeps your hand out of the flame). But fear can also be used in negative, harmful ways, resulting in the oppression, alienation and victimization of other human beings usually because they are different.

By Jessica Connor. I am consistently heartened when I learn about — and get the opportunity to write about — people who are doing novel and extraordinary things for the Kingdom. A lot of times, they don't think they're doing so much. I'm just knitting, a woman will tell me, her head tucked shyly; yet to the homeless veteran who wears the soft gloves that her hands lovingly crafted, her skill means the difference between a cruel night and comfort.

By Jessica Connor. One case does not a nation make. And as we move forward in the weeks following the acquittal of neighborhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, we would do well to remember that.

By Jessica Connor. Suddenly, that's all I'm hearing: God-sized vision. God-sized dream. God-sized goal. God-sized reality. God-sized worship. Popularized by Bishop Jonathan Holston, the phrase was repeated everywhere at Annual Conference—in conversation, on the stage, on the floor, in the Twittersphere. And I've got to say, the phrase really works.

By Jessica Connor. Recently, I had the opportunity to tour several childcare centers in some of the poorer areas of the Midlands. It was a way to educate me about children living in poverty right here in South Carolina. Some of them were not too many miles from where I live with my own children.