Happy Wednesday

Comfort & Encouragement
For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 2 Corinthians 1:5

The Chicago Tribune published a story about 15-year-old Douglas Maurer. He had suffered from a high fever and flu-like symptoms for several days. So finally his mother took him to the hospital where Douglas was diagnosed as having leukemia.

The doctors explained the disease to him and said that for the next three years he would have to undergo intense chemotherapy. They told him of the side effects that would follow-baldness and a bloated body-which sent him into a deep depression.

To lift his spirits, Douglas' aunt called a local floral shop to order and send him a flower arrangement. She told the clerk it was for her teenage nephew who had leukemia.

When the beautiful flowers arrived at the hospital, Douglas read the card from his aunt. Then he saw a second card attached that said: "Douglas-I took your order. I work at Brix florist. I had leukemia when I was 7 years old. I'm 22 years old now. Good luck. My heart goes out to you. Sincerely, Laura Bradley." For the first time, his face lit up.

Douglas Maurer was in a hospital filled with sophisticated medical equipment and technology. He was being treated by some of the best doctors and nurses around. But it was a simple sales clerk in a flower shop that took the time to care. She was the one person who gave Douglas hope to carry on.

Is there someone in your life suffering from some sort of affliction who needs comfort? If so, seek to show him or her love, compassion, and encouragement through Christ Jesus. You could be the one person who can make a difference in the life of another who is suffering without hope.

PRAYER CHALLENGE: Pray that the Lord would help you to bring comfort and encouragement to someone who needs it more than ever today.


Daily Smile:
The Army has been experimenting for years to come up with a liquid that will eat through anything and they finally did it. It eats through glass, stainless steel, iron,and all kinds of metal, rock and granite. Now if they could only find something to put it in.

In The News:

Brown University to Cover Students' Sex Changes
Starting in August, Brown University's student health insurance plan will cover sex change operations for students who want to change genders, Baptist Press reports. "We identified this as an important benefit for students to have access to," Jeanne Hebert, director of the university's insurance services, told The Brown Daily Herald, the student newspaper. Insurance companies typically consider such surgeries cosmetic and exclude them from coverage. The total package of "sexual reassignment surgeries," hormone therapy and related services can cost up to $50,000 per person, the newspaper said. Kelly Garrett, Brown's LGBTQ Center coordinator, said the insurance policy changes were part of a broader effort to keep transgender students from being discriminated against at the university. In addition, Garrett said, the university is training people in health services and psychological services to be sensitive to transgender students, and the LGBTQ Center is compiling lists of gender-neutral restrooms on campus and advocating for gender-neutral housing options for students.

Study: Parents Prefer the Pill Over Condoms for Their Teenage Daughters
"If your teen's doctor found out your daughter was having sex, is it acceptable or unacceptable to you for the doctor to provide birth control to your teen confidentially?" The question was posed to a diverse group of parents of girls aged 12 to 17. On a scale from 1 to 4, researchers at UC San Francisco wanted to know, how comfortable were they with their daughters being given birth control pills? Condoms? Emergency contraception? An intrauterine device (IUD)? Per the results, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, 59 percent said they'd be okay with birth control pills, while only 51 percent approved of condoms, reports Jim Liebelt. And way down the scale, past injectables (46 percent), emergency contraception (45 percent), the transdermal patch (43 percent), and the implant (32 percent), was the IUD, with only 18 percent approval. "The lower-than-expected acceptability of condoms likely reflects parents' overall low acceptability of contraception in general for their daughters," said lead author Lauren Hartman. "It also highlights the importance of educating parents about the importance of condoms, both for protection from STIs and pregnancy." Parents who believed their teenager was likely to have sex in the coming year were more likely to accept their use of emergency contraception and condoms. The authors suspect that they only begrudgingly OKed those two because "parents may associate these methods with a single episode of sex rather than condoning an ongoing sexual relationship, which would require a more permanent contraceptive method."