This past weekend I had the honor of hosting thirty incredible servants at the retreat center in Maria Stein, Ohio. The location was perfect for what can only be described as an opportunity to recharge and re-engage the vision of the Care Network at Ginghamsburg Church....
Just this past weekend my wife and I had our son’s baseball team over to celebrate a successful year. There were kids everywhere, parents were laughing, and it was an absolute joy. As the chaos subsided and the house came to rest, Karen and I had to go into clean-up mode. Having ten boys aged 8 to10 boys in the house and back yard lends itself to a certain amount of clean up. We were both okay with it; we knew it was coming.
We’ve been remodeling our home for the past six months. I can’t tell you the jubilation I’m feeling at knowing that there might come a day that won’t require a trip to the hardware store. But unfortunately this isn’t about that. This is about how much of an idiot I can be.
I once heard someone say, “People don’t fall in and out of love, they fall in and out of commitment.” This is a mantra that I have taken into my own life, a mantra that I live by. Commitment, more than anything else will have an impact on success.
I’ve been on vacation with the family for the past week, and the Disney Magic amazes me. Since we arrived on the property, Disney has gone out of its way to make us feel special. From the “First-time Visitor” buttons to the cast members calling my kids “princes” or “princesses,” Disney cares about our experience....
For the past five years I’ve been working on a project. The project has taken many different forms, different shapes, and lots of different words. That project is a marriage book.
The goal was to create something that would help...
This year America is celebrating 238 years of existence. It looks good on America, but there are some tough lessons that we have learned along the way. Some of my favorite lessons are ones that are applicable to marriages, and it would do all of us some good to remember the past as we look forward.....
Karen and I are people who are always on the move. I’m in school, we both work, Connor has baseball, and we are on a coed kickball team. Throw in the occasional doctor’s appointment or family gatherings, and every hour of the day feels occupied with something....
This past weekend at Ginghamsburg, Pastor Mike talked about something that I found both scary and enlightening. He talked about how we tend to put Jesus into our own worldview, meaning that we want to make Jesus more like us and less like who he really was. As I spent time wrestling with this concept, I came to the clear conclusion that I do the same thing in my marriage....
For the past two and a half years Dave Hood and I have been meeting at 5:30 in the morning to work out. Okay, we meet most mornings – let’s say three to five times a week. It started because we both wanted to get healthier, and while we didn’t know each other that well it continued because a deep friendship was forged. Over the past several years I’ve learned a lot (or many things) from Dave and from our time working out – here are my top five.....