Most things are awkward at the start.  Prayer is no different.  You were made for prayer, for your life to become prayer, but in almost all of us, those muscle are atrophied. Prayer is not any sort of practice of thinking – positive or negative.  Prayer is relating.  Relating to

I wrote this paraphrase of The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) for use in our small group Bible studies. I hope it can be a blessing in your life and ministry. God, you are our maker and King and we give all that we are to you. May we never take

This is important. What is God’s most common and consistent command and word of guidance for human beings?  Is it to love God or love people?  No.  God says those two are the most important, but the message God tries to get through to us most frequently is, “Do not

I’m going to say something about me, but hold on; I am really saying something about you – about all of us – and the goodness of living with God. I love writing.  It isn’t always easy, but I love it.  It helps me think and helps me discern what

As I raise my kids, it is important to me to point them towards what is right instead of holding myself up as being what is right.  I try to be a good example for them for sure, but when I’m not, when I miss the mark, it is important

I have noticed a shift in the professional coaching and counseling world from an emphasis on goals to an emphasis on habits. Being a go-getter, being able to set goals and accomplish them, has been held as a high ideal in our culture for some time.  It still is, and

Very early in Jesus’ ministry he attempts to teach his disciples something that is seemingly ridiculous.  In Matthew 5:44, Jesus says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who mistreat you.”  Now, anyone who has ever had a proper enemy before intuitively knows that “love” is not what you do

The boondoggle of how my country, America, Inc., is handling the coronavirus situation continues to unfold.  There are new layers of things to be angry about for sure, but anger is not where I live. I live with hope. Winston Churchill famously said, “You can always count on the Americans

I’ve learned from Jesus, Julius Caesar, and my wife, that sometimes to make important changes in life, we need to remove all other options. In the ninth chapter of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus tells his followers, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must take up their cross (lay their everything down)

I have written about this before, but it is worth updating and repeating. Before my oldest son was born and my wife and I became parents for the first time, my wonderful mother-in-law gave us a precious gift – a little book of advice and blessings on parenting that she