When I first moved to California, it took me a little while to figure out whether I liked the mountains or the beach better. The beach won, hands down. I love love love love the beach. However, in all the years I lived there, though I went many times to the beach, I never went…
A Whiff of Heaven
Our sense of smell is something we rarely think about until we actually smell something. Many people are sensitive to certain scents, so they are unable to be around strong perfumes or to use certain laundry detergents. Often certain scents or smells trigger a memory within us. The smell of orange blossoms will always remind…
Becoming a Kingdom Power Couple
Power couples: they dominate the media and we love them for it. Like the recent marriage of Prince Harry and his fiancée Meghan Markle—now the Duke & Duchess of Sussex—power couples have confidence, authority, influence, money, separately successful careers, and good looks. All eyes dart to them when they walk into a room together. They’re just as…
Single Christians, Take Back Your Ground
This weekend, we’re celebrating Memorial Day. I guess the wonders of spring were supposed to distract us from the fact that the longest stretch between federal holidays is the three months plus between Washington’s Birthday and Memorial Day. Lots of barbecues, picnics, and pool parties are being planned for this first holiday off in over…
Foods, Attitudes, and Other Things We Outgrow
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I imagined as a child. But as soon as I was a man, I put away childishness. 1 Corinthians 13:11 NMB Do you have a favorite food from childhood that you still love? I really, really love me some cotton…
A Tribute to God’s Single Grandmothers during Mother’s Day Week
My dad’s mother was tough. She was a single mom. Her husband, an evangelist, was very abusive to my grandmother. She left him when their youngest was seven to flee from his abuse. She found a place for her and all the kids to live, came and got them, and never looked back. She never…
Do You Have the Number One Church Addiction No One is Talking About?
There is a pervasive, destructive addiction that has recently been seeping through the body of Christ. Actually, it seems to have been around the entire existence of the human race and simply worked its insidious way into the faith community. You probably know someone from church who has at least one of these symptoms: They’re…
Musings About Getting Old Alone
I am what would be considered “slightly older” and have never been married. I definitely did not plan it that way. I planned on being married a long time ago and having children and grandchildren. Life did not turn out that way for me, but I am actually not bitter. Anyone else out there like…
How to Start Your Guilt-Free Bible Study
I’m sure you’ve heard how we are always supposed to have our Bible Studies in the morning. “It’s the best time of the day to get alone with God!” they said. “You don’t want to start the day on the wrong foot, do you?” they said. Not so fast. Images of perfectly groomed women (at dark…
Five Times When It’s Not a Good Idea to Get Premarital Counseling
If you’re a counselor, therapist, pastor, or church leader, and you read my title and thought of ways to blow off or blow up my lackadaisical attitude toward marriage: Wait! I’m actually all for premarital counseling. I’m a counselor, too. I am all for strong, biblically-based, well-prepared marriages. So why this topic? I, like you,…