Any parent can tell you that there are two kinds of obedience – one is a grudging compliance, the other is wholehearted engagement.  My sons, Sean and Jay, were on the ‘lawn crew,’ when they were teens at home.  At… Continue reading

A guilty conscience? Hurts, doesn’t it? The pain of shame and guilt that follow doing wrong are as common as a cold. In a moment when our resolve is weak, we make a fateful choice. A cruel word can be… Continue reading

The Dark Ages, that time in Europe from the fall of Rome to the dawn of the Enlightenment, describes a millennium of violence. (500 to 1500 A.D.) With the disappearing of the authority of the Roman Empire, a brutal chaos… Continue reading

“You keep your son away from mine. He’s a bad influence.” No parent wants to hear those words. “I am impressed at the positive impact your son had on mine.”  Now that we like, right? Peer influence IS strong –… Continue reading

Everything- means just that! The office printer just stopped working yesterday. I am tech savvy, so I did resets, restarts, unplugs – all the normal things one would do to get it going again.  A call to tech support from… Continue reading

Last week was one of stories of cruelty shocking to the extreme.  We learned that a man kept three young women locked in his Cleveland home for 10 years to serve his twisted desires. Then, on 60 Minutes, the report… Continue reading

$4 for a piece of paper, some foil imprinting, and a ribbon? The practical side of me says, “Jerry, just go fold a piece of paper, write your thoughts on it, and send it off.”   Message delivered, money saved. Am… Continue reading

The allure of the ‘supernatural’ Priests, prophets, and holy men from ages past to this day promise those who do something (pray longer, be more holy, sing more fervently, give bigger offerings) that they can make the supernatural happen. Their… Continue reading

Hob·by  –  an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation and not as a main occupation   So what’s your hobby?   Please don’t say watching TV or playing video games… sorry, that just couldn’t be helped!   A majority of Americans… Continue reading

I love music, always have.  No, I am not a musician and have little appreciation of the finer points of music.  For me, music is an emotional, more than intellectual, experience.  A country ballad evokes one kind of response; a… Continue reading