A neighbor up the street added a new puppy–a cockapoo–to their family. She trained their pup to ring a bell when it needed to go to the bathroom. At first they positioned its paw or its nose to help it ring the bell at the door whenever it needed to go out. Eventually it learned …
A memorable movie line spoken by the character Yoda in “The Empire Strikes Back” exhorts, “Try not! Do or do not, there is no try.” The apparent point was the statement—”I’ll try”—which conveys a lack of confidence and commitment, basically assuming failure before even making an attempt. In contrast, one of my dad’s many aphorisms …
Do you ever get annoyed when it turns out you were wrong? I find my assumptions, conclusions, and guesses to be wrong more often than I’d like. It’s humbling. In the business world, one “soft skill” employers like to see in a prospective employee is a willingness to learn. I’m sorry to say that for …
What have you been thinking about so far today? We seldom consider the path our minds take on a given day; we just get up and go. We’re often thinking about what’s ahead, and far too frequently those thoughts are laced with anxiety. How can we meet this need? How should we handle that challenging …
My wife is a woman of vision. She has amazing spiritual insights, but she also carries a practical and aesthetic vision for rooms in our home. One place that’s been in development lately is our basement gym. Recent enhancements include two strong resistance bands, equipped with handles and ankle straps, that we clip onto wall-mounted …
What does the name Thomas Edison bring to mind? Or Abraham Lincoln? How would you describe Walt Disney, Lucille Ball, or Michael Jordan? If you read their biographies, you’ll find they all had one thing in common—multiple failures! Yet when someone mentions a name like Oprah Winfrey, no one says, “Oh, you mean that woman …
A month ago, Carrie and I drove to a neighboring state to witness a natural occurrence of global renown. Every spring, a particular bird species descends in droves upon a small stretch of the Platte River in America’s midwest as they migrate north. Tour tickets in hand, we drove most of the day to get …
Last year I found myself getting bored at work. I had been at the bottom of the totem pole in my department and was itching for a new challenge. But there didn’t appear to be any way up or out of that role. I had conversations with my manager (who is wonderful, by the way) …
In 1872, John Godfrey Saxe wrote a poem entitled The Blind Men and the Elephant in which six blind sages each describe their wildly divergent conclusions after encountering an elephant. The last two stanzas read: And so these men of Indostan Disputed loud and long, Each in his own opinion Exceeding stiff and strong, Though …
Our state is known for unpredictable weather, perhaps because we live so close to the Rocky Mountains. The most recent weather adventure has been high winds, affecting utilities. Our lawn furniture was blown about and some branches fell. But the biggest surprise this blustery weekend was a church service without electricity. That meant no lights, …
Maybe because I just had two molar implants, I’ve got teeth on my mind. I even thought of a New Testament truth related to the dental world, in fact. But first, let’s talk teeth. When children reach the age of six they start to lose their baby teeth. Their original teeth get loose and fall …
Testifying to King Agrippa about his conversion to Christianity, the apostle Paul included an interesting phrase Jesus had spoken to him on the road to Damascus. Formerly known as Saul, this Jew was known for his zeal for the law and his intense hatred of Christians. We first hear of Saul watching the stoning of …
