Halloween is upon us. Which means it is the time of year for scary masks in the aisles of the grocery store, age-inappropriate shows or commercials at all hours of the day on every screen, and countless other opportunities for your child to see or hear something that scares them. Unfortunately, we parents cannot completely protect our kids from these scary experiences. In this article, I hope to lay out a few ideas on how to guard your child from unnecessary fear, as well as what to do if/when they get scared. Guard Their Experiences Do your best to act...
Life After Ashley Madison – 7 Tips to Help Move Towards Relationship Restoration After You Have Been Caught
If you find yourself in the terrifying position of being caught (be it after an affair, online chat/hook-up, pornography, etc.), I want to tell you that it is possible to make it through. It won’t be easy. It will require diligence and intentionality, but there is hope - not only for yourself, but for your spouse, family and marriage as well.
Fears, My Back Porch, and the Lesson In the Stars
“I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.” –Og Mandino I’m a night person because that’s when the stars come out. I sometimes sit on my back porch in a wooden chair and stare out into the blackness, hiding from the streetlights and watching the faint twinkling of diamonds in the sky. I like to imagine what all the other worlds must be like as they orbit these massive smatterings of light against the darkness. It calms me; it centers me; it encourages me to...
What Feeds Your Soul?
I was talking with a group of graduate school students the other day about how important it is to take a break and intentionally care for ourselves. Why is it so difficult to do this? For example, I used to play guitar. Now it has been months–if not years–since I have picked one up and just enjoyed playing it. How did I get away from it? It’s something I used to love, and now it just sits there in my closet, begging to be played. It used to feed my soul, and now it’s just taking up space. You know...
Lessons from Mr. Spock
The recent passing of Leonard Nimoy brings a profound sense of loss not only for the man himself, but also for the beloved half-human, half-vulcan he portrayed for so many years in television and film. Mr. Spock is truly an American icon, curiously evoking so much love and emotion for a character who was supposedly the pinnacle of detached rationality. His role as the cool and collected Chief Science Officer of the Starship Enterprise provides the perfect foil for an often emotional Captain Kirk, and in many ways Mr. Spock is able to teach us more about what it means to be human than any of...
In need or being needy
It’s 6:45 a.m. and I am sitting in the terminal. Problem is, my flight departed at 5:30. My destination is the snow-capped mountains of Fraser, Colorado where I will be spending the next 4 days at a Ransomed Heart boot camp. My prayer to this point has been that I would be open to what God has for me, and up to now I have been pretty unsure as to what I am in need of. Which brings me back to the hard plastic chair I am uncomfortably sitting in at Jackson’s tiny terminal. I am starting to wonder if...
Grief and Groundhog Day
I remember hating the movie Groundhog Day when I was younger, mainly because it felt like the movie would never end – which was the point as far as I can tell. It dawned on me recently that this is very much like grief. The process often feels so slow it’s like you’re waking up in the same day over and over again. Nothing seems to change and all you want is to get out of it. Just like Bill Murray’s character, Phil Connors, we often feel like going to any extreme just to change the persistent pain and monotonous...
Depression, Mistakes, and Another Year
Today is New Year’s Day, and many of us are just waking up after a late night of celebration, counting down in eager anticipation of the new year. This day is lauded as more than just the first day of a new calendar; it is the dawn of a hopeful new era of possibility. Many of us even make resolutions about how we plan to make this year better than the last. For others of us, however, today is the next day of a long winter. Hope seems far away, and simply making it through the next 24 hours is...
Anxiety!
Anxiety is the only mental problem with which I KNOW I’ve ever been diagnosed. (How’s that for an opening line?) As such, I’m intimately aware of how exhausting it can be. For example, I used to fill my plate with food, then proceed to eat only one item at a time. I’d sooner walk across hot coals than speak in public. I’ve been known to be slightly obsessive about the seam across the toes of my socks. Of course, I’m all better now. Especially about eating only one thing at a time. I never do that anymore. Just ask my wife....
Cultivate Your Child's Worldview
I was the kid who was constantly on his bike, and when I say constantly I mean it. I was also the kid who could never quite manage to make it home on time – after all, what shade of ‘dark’ did my Mom mean when she said ‘Be home by dark’? At some point a young friend and I decided to push our limits, riding past the boundary of the big hill towards uncharted territory. The thrill was intense, causing me to feel like my heroes, Indiana Jones and MacGyver, all at once. Then came the dogs. Big ones...