The Trust Factor

Today, let’s talk about the Trust Factor. Are we coming apart as a society?  What role does trust or the lack of it play in what appears to be a tearing apart of our nation? What role will you and your family play in making your community and your world a safer place to live?  The Trust Factor is critically important in life. There’s a lot in the news nowadays about trust, or the lack of it, when it comes to our government leaders. Folks all over America are doubtful […]

Trust, A Delicate Flower

Webster defines trust as “assured reliance on the character, strength, or truth of someone or something.” Let that sink in a minute. Where do your thoughts take you? Do you have an unreliable vehicle or appliance? One of our greatest needs as human beings is to feel safe with others, to believe another person can be trusted to always want and seek what is best for us. This kind of faith is the glue that makes your marriage and friendships work. Trust in you as their parent is what helps […]

How Can I Change?

How can I change? “I want my daughter to feel better about herself than I did growing up. But how can I help her with that if I don’t feel good about myself?” These are the words of a single mom who had become painfully aware of the destructive toll her anger and immaturity were taking on her daughter. I understood her painful question to mean there was a glimmer of hope for her relationship with her daughter. The weeks of therapy had created an awareness and an uncomfortable level […]

How Do I Change Directions?

How do I change directions? This blog addresses the last of the “Four Important Life Questions” series. There will be one more blog to continue the discussion of this very important question. Thank you for hanging in and doing the hard work required by honestly answering the previous three questions: (1) Where am I?, (2) How did I get to where I am?, and (3) Where am I going? Are you ready to change something about the way you do life? The change may be something small or truly life-altering. […]

Where Are You Going?

Where are you going? What is your destination if you stay on the road you are now traveling on?  Are you going to look back on life and regret bad decisions that set you on a destructive course? Will you wish you had taken a chance or a risk instead of being frozen by fear? Have you, day after day, continued on the broad road of least effort or resistance, giving little thought to where the road would end? Does this sound familiar? Is this what Jesus had in mind […]

How Did You Get To Where You Are?

How did you get to where you are? In my last blog, I raised the question, “where are you?” Hopefully, you’ve given some serious thought to what it is that is causing some real discomfort and pain in your relationships or other areas of your life. You know that getting that problem resolved would make life much more pleasant and easier for you. You may think you know the problem, but where do you start to fix it? This could come as a surprise to you, but what you think […]

Where Are You?

Where are you? This is the first important life-question you must think deeply about and understand if you are to make the changes necessary to get you to a better place in life. In order to plan a new course, to change direction, you must deal with the reality of the here and now. Thus, the first question. Where are you?  Let me explain what I mean by this question. So far as I know, the first recorded instance of this question was God’s question to Adam in the Garden […]

Risk vs. Reward

About twenty years ago Cecelia and I were blessed with Anna Katherine (A.K.), the first of our four grandchildren. Wanting to do something for her and others who might follow to enjoy, I built a sturdy structure for a swing close to the creek that runs through our property. What a great idea and what a wonderful return on the time and money I spent to construct the swing!  That swing has witnessed lots of laughs and screams as A.K. and the three grandsons have enjoyed it through the years. […]

Toxic Thinking

Toxic thinking. Have you ever known someone whose thinking has been poisoned by the words and actions of others? I’ve known several folks like this. Many of them developed toxic thought patterns about themselves because of verbal abuse by a wounded parent. There is an old saying in Scripture that goes something like this, “The parents have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” Toxic or poisoned thinking is often a generational issue; the grandparent is angry from an unhealed wound, afflicts their child with their […]

Longing for the “Good Ole Days”

While considering what to share with you today I ran across a piece of commentary by Paul Harvey (1919-2009). Harvey was the guest speaker at my graduation from Belmont in 1966 but is better- known for his radio broadcasts for over a half-century. He specialized in telling “The Rest of The Story.” He took the basics of a news event or story and  went behind the scene to explain the extraordinary details of human sacrifice and compassion which were not part of the news; thus, “The Rest of the Story.” […]