Using Conflict to Strengthen Your Relationships
We can use conflict to batter one another. Or we can use it to sharpen ourselves and build deeper relationships with friends and family. The choice is ours.
Why Porn and Adultery Rock Our World
Porn and adultery have become the new cancer of our society. And church-going Christians are not being spared the devastation to marriages and families.
Why We Lie
Lying to others is deplorable. It erodes trust, the glue in any relationship. You don’t have to look to the political arena to see it either. Look at your workplace, in your home, and even in your own heart. But lying to ourselves (and to God) is worse than lying to...
Change Bad Habits with the Power of Replacement
Replacement is my new watchword. It’s my key to changing anything I don’t like about my life. This may seem simplistic and even intuitive but let’s see how well we measure up with this little quiz. The Vacuum of Habit If you answered true to any of these questions,...
Overcoming the Need to “Medicate” Emotional Pain
It is human nature to flinch and flee from physical and emotional pain. And the torment from abandonment, rejection, verbal abuse, and shame can linger long after physical trauma has healed. But because those wounds are on the inside where no one can see them and...
3 Signs of a Tender Conscience
Last week, my husband got into a bit of a funk. As we lay in bed after another exhausting day of parenting, work, household chores, and church activities, he opened up about feeling like he wasn’t doing his best to help our special needs son, to support our family, and in serving others in the community. We can all feel like we are not living up to God’s expectations. We question our…
Two Corpses Walk into a Bar…
This week I was reminded why I decided to go into teaching. And no, it wasn’t some fulfilling teachable moment I had with a student or the epiphanic stare that tends to follow a windfall of understanding in a 13-year-old’s eyes. It was much more selfish than that. I...
Plucking the Gray-Fruit (and Dealing with our Sinful Nature)
I’m 52. I don’t look 52, or so I’m told, but my hair is slowly surrendering to the inevitable. And other than a single “wild” episode of highlights, I’ve never colored it. So when gray hairs started presenting themselves front and center, I viciously tweezed them out....