Let's talk about something you will learn at this year's Hopes and Dreams Conference. Do me a favor. Take out a piece of paper and draw a circle in it. Now write out some things that go on in your life anywhere else on the paper. Work….hobbies…family…faith…charity…etc. Now write in the middle of that circle…
Today is my anniversary! I am pretty excited about it so I want to give something away. I’m looking forward to giving all sorts of good things away over the upcoming days. We’re going to be giving away a book by a local author, gift certificates and all sorts of cool gifts. Today, I am…
Part one can be found here and part two can be found here. There is a great scene in the animated movie, The Incredibles. The son Dash is being "encouraged" by his parents. One of his parents tells him that everyone is special. Under his breath he replies, "Then no one is." We are stuck…
Does it seem to you like in today’s society, everyone wins? Do you feel like people get rewarded just for showing up now? Have you heard something like, “Hey the other team outscored you by fifteen runs but we want you to feel good about yourself, so you win too!”? Yesterday I wrote about how…
In graduate school I had to take extra classes because of the institution that I attended. Many of these extra classes were put together in a string. One of those strings was a connection of three theology classes. Normally, these classes would be have been taught by three different professors. Due to a confluence of…
We start a very difficult topic today over at our blog on Creative Solutions. We are starting a conversation about the issue of sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is happening or has happened to people you know. Th statistics are absolutely scary. The topic is uncomfortable. The conversation is absolutely necessary. Understanding the implications of this…
One of the common issues that I deal with in couples counseling is related to the aftermath of mistakes. A spouse cheats A spouse uses painful words like a scalpel to cut as deeply as possible. An angry outbursts scares the bejezus out of a spouse A secret offense is brought to light. The list…
There has been a song running around in my head recently. In it a young lady sings that someday she's going to live in a big old city but the person that she's singing to is only going to be mean. Besides asking you to not judge me about my music tastes (and what's the…
Justice is usually considered to be the righteous application of law and order against those who misuse power, break laws, and harm others. Justice punishes and corrects the evildoer and warns others from urusuing a similiar path. What is problematic in this definition is it neglects the victim and fails to see that grace is…
