Moments with You

I believe there is nothing more powerful on Earth than family. It is the single most influential force for good (or for evil) in all human existence.

From birth, it marks you. Your family crafts your conscience and shapes your soul.((READMORE))

I still remember the first time I told my mom and dad, “I love you.” Being a typically ungrateful, unexpressive teenager, I found looking my parents in the eye and saying those three little words excruciating.((READMORE))

I shared with you yesterday about three little words that aren’t always so easy to say: “I need you.” But sometimes, all it takes to get those words flowing again is just a reminder of how many ways you truly do depend upon each other.((READMORE))

It can lie. It can gossip. It can slander. It can also murmur and complain. It can manipulate and flatter. It can tear down. It can paint itself in nice words, even while cutting someone to ribbons.((READMORE))

A group of carpenters building an icehouse in the north country of Canada was taking a lunch break when a boy came upon them and heard their conversation. One was bemoaning a watch he had lost at some point in the morning’s work.((READMORE))

Kids today take “keyboarding” rather than typing, but when I was young, we learned to type on actual typewriters. In high school I struggled in my typing class, but I made a great discovery: If I could type 60 words a minute, even with 15 errors, I would get an A in speed and an F in accuracy.((READMORE))

We all come into marriage with a full yardstick of expectations—what love looks like, what our roles will be, what we’ll do on weekends, where we’ll go for Christmas. But over the years, that yardstick starts getting snapped off an inch or two at a time, until we’re left holding something a whole lot shorter than what we brought with us.((READMORE))

If you were asked to name three things that pose the gravest general threats to the health of today’s marriages—and to your marriage in particular—what would be on your list? When Barbara and I were asked the same question recently, here are the three we gravitated toward:
Threat number one is not really knowing who God is.((READMORE))

The Great Wall of China is one of the great wonders of the world, a true masterpiece of engineering. It’s the only man-made structure that can be seen from outer space. Five to six horses could trot side by side on top of it.((READMORE))

Whether you know it or not, your marriage is susceptible to the American Dream Syndrome—the notion that you can have it all, that you deserve it all. The more stuff you have, the better off you are.((READMORE))

Not long after I was born in 1948, someone gave my mother a little blue ceramic vase shaped in the form of baby booties. And in that vase was a small philodendron plant. Not that special.

I brought that vase home from my mother’s house a few years ago.((READMORE))

When you think about the great humanitarian efforts achieved by the advance of Christianity over the years, you possibly think of hospitals and rescue missions and hunger relief. But perhaps the power of Christianity is proven best every day in homes and families and marriages like yours—when people who are self-centered by nature put their spouse’s needs before their own.((READMORE))

Back when I used to do a lot more sewing, I enjoyed looking through pattern books. It was fun to select the style I wanted and then cut out the small pieces of tissue paper that indicated what went where and how everything fit together.((READMORE))

A few years ago, I went on my first real diet. My doctor told me that even though I wasn’t carrying an enormous amount of weight, a guy at my age with my family history and combination of vital statistics was headed toward an encounter with Type II diabetes.((READMORE))

When we had six children at home, I often felt overwhelmed, as if all my efforts in parenting were about to crash around me. In the middle of this busy time, some younger mothers asked if I would meet with them once a month to offer some encouragement and advice about parenting.((READMORE))

We’re all familiar with the nutritional listings on food and beverage packages. Most of us are interested in total calories per serving, especially calories coming from good or bad fat, as well as readings on carbohydrates, sugar and sodium.((READMORE))

If you’re like most married Americans, your relationship likely resembles one of these three positions:

1. Face to face. Like typical newlyweds, this couple is cruising down the highway of life in a convertible with the top down.((READMORE))

When our children were little, I would pray with them in the morning and ask God that they would “have a good day.” Something about the simplicity of that prayer seemed appropriate for what they were facing.((READMORE))

Many years ago, I was asked to marry a couple in a state where I wasn’t licensed to perform weddings. No big deal—on the Friday I arrived in town, I figured I’d just go down to the county recorder’s office and sign the right paperwork.((READMORE))

It didn’t take me long to realize that Dennis was not like my father.

My dad was an all-American “Mr. Fixit.” He loved working around the house and the yard—making repairs, painting, tinkering on the car.((READMORE))

There are two words in today’s verse given to husbands as a very specific assignment in loving their wives : “nourish” and “cherish.”

The word “nourish” means not only “to feed” but also “to nurture to maturity.((READMORE))

Bill Bright used to tell the story of a man who carefully saved his money until he was finally able to travel on a beautiful cruise ship. It was all he could do just to save enough to buy his ticket.((READMORE))

Larry Burkett once told me that of all the couples who divorce in America, between 85 and 90 percent would say the number one problem in their marriage is money. They are unable to agree on how to handle it, save it, spend it, give it, budget it, account for it and keep from arguing about it.((READMORE))

If you woke up feeling especially blah this morning, you’re in good company. January 24 is now officially “the most depressing day of the year.”
Those are the findings of Dr. Cliff Arnall, an English psychologist who specializes in seasonal disorders at the University of Cardiff in Wales.((READMORE))

“I’m writing this letter to tell you about someone I used to know.”

In her letter, the woman described a man she greatly admired as she grew up. She had worked as a babysitter for this man’s three sons.((READMORE))