When our kids were in school, half-way through the grading period they would come home with a “progress” report. I think those “progress” reports were a source of angst for many parents in the school district! If we didn’t take them too seriously and put undue pressure on performance, they were just a good tool …
I grew up attending Mahoning United Methodist church in Youngstown, Ohio. I have many memories of that church, especially during the Christmas season. One of the traditions that I really enjoyed was observing Advent and the lighting of the Advent candles, one for each of the four weeks preceding Christmas. As a candle was lit …
Doesn’t the title of this post seem strange? Is it really necessary to categorize gratitude as a discipline? Shouldn’t gratitude be a natural, heartfelt response toward what we have been blessed with or experienced? In some respects, that is true. Webster defines gratitude as being in a “state of thanksgiving”. Often we are placed in …
In the previous post, we talked about the Apostle Paul and his example of spiritual resilience. He encourages us to keep our minds and hearts continually on things above and not on earthly things. I would like to continue to expand on Paul’s example by sharing the stories of two other people who experienced freedom and …
When you think of the word resilience, what is the first thing that comes to mind? For me, the first thing that comes to mind is a little child. I always like to find an excuse to share a picture of my granddaughter, and in this picture you can see her example of resilience in …
Are we there yet? Have you ever been on a trip and heard that phrase uttered? Maybe you expressed it yourself! Or how about this one: “pull over or else”? Hypothetically, the driver of the car may hear this request from frustrated travel companions if they neglected rest stops for the pursuit of completing the …
This is the final installment of this series on Entering the Retreat House. So far we have described the various aspects of the Retreat House. We enter the house with our lives and our experiences. The house is built on a foundation of community. We are not alone, we enter in the community of the …
Frozen pizza or fresh baked? Nothing wrong with a good frozen pizza especially as you walk through the grocery store late at night and you can have pizza in 30 minutes! But no matter how good a frozen pizza might be, there is nothing like a fresh pizza made from qualities ingredients made by expert …
Do you like to receive a gift? I don’t know about you, but I can feel my pulse speed up a little when I see a box wrapped up with a bow on top with my name on it! Webster defines a gift as “something voluntarily transferred by one person to another without compensation”. A …
In a previous post, we explored the discipline of retreat as an important way to learn to live like Jesus. If you are like me, you might be asking a question like: what do we do on a retreat? Even though retreat isn’t to be a heavily scheduled event, there is that part of me and maybe …
Do you have a favorite place to “get away from it all”? A place where you can pull back from the busyness of life and “recharge your batteries”? If there is a mountain or a beach involved, that would be a favorite place for me. The only problem I have with getting away from it …
Did you ever own a WWJD bracelet? Or have something hanging on a wall with those letters? Those four letters have been incredibly popular to help remind ourselves What Would Jesus Do? Did you ever notice that it is not always easy to do what Jesus would or is it only me? Is it even …
