What We Read This Week

Each week, we bring you interesting stories from around the web. Here’s what caught our eye this week!

FAITH

What to Pray When You Don’t Feel Like Praying

From Relevant Magazine

LIFE

Gillette’s inspiring new ad shows a Dad walking his trans son through his first shave.

Back in January, Gillette sparked a major discussion in American culture about toxic masculinity with an advertisement that was more of a public service announcement about the need for change in our culture. Even though that ad drew a fair amount of controversy, Gillette has doubled down with a powerful new advertisement showing a father taking his transgender son through his first shave. Read Full Article

From Good Is

LIFE

On Suffering: How I Stopped Asking ‘Why’ and Started Asking ‘How’

Actor Ed Asner said, “Raising kids is part joy and part guerrilla warfare.” He couldn’t have been more correct! The absolute best, most joy-filled thing in my life is my teenage son. But parenting him hasn’t been all T-ball games and birthday parties. It’s also been the most gut-wrenching, heartbreaking experience of my life. Some days, “guerrilla warfare” sounds like Sunday afternoon tea compared to being a mom. I thought I knew a thing or two about suffering. I’m no stranger to loss and failure. But nothing has ripped my insides out like my son’s battle with a serious eating disorder. I’ve spent the past several years accompanying him through every circle of hell. It would be an understatement to say that this has challenged my faith to its core. Read Full Article

From Busted Halo

FAITH

Christians Considering Surrogacy Encounter Conflicting Views

Rachel Checolinksi, a 34-year-old mother of three, had watched for years as her best friend suffered through years of infertility treatments and what would eventually be six miscarriages. Checolinksi wanted to help support her in any way possible, and began to consider the possibility that she should offer to be a gestational surrogate for her friend. But Checolinksi, who describes herself as “born again” Christian and attended a Pentecostal church in Fond du Lac, Wis., at the time, wanted to know if her faith had anything to say about the idea. So in 2016, she approached her pastor’s wife about the situation and was surprised to learn that the pastor’s wife had also offered to be a surrogate to help another infertile friend. Read Full Article

From Sojo

CULTURE

The Real Difference Between Creators and Influencers

It was 2011, and YouTube had a problem. The company, which was then a hub for low-quality cat videos and user-generated content, wanted to attract more premium advertisers and raise the quality of its programming. To that end, executives had been paying special attention to a growing class of users who were attracting large audiences of tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of subscribers. These users were loosely referred to as “YouTube stars.” Read Full Article

From The Atlantic