The Unscheduled Appointment

child plane

Every Thursday we’ll post something to do with relational or emotional concerns. Hope it helps. — The Unscheduled Appointment I love what I do for a living, and count myself hugely blessed when I remember how rare it is for your work and your first love to be the same. I come alongside men getting serious about their holiness, I write on subjects that matter to me, and I speak to churches and conferences, all of which I’d do as a volunteer if I had to do something else for income. My work is my passion, so I’m a pathetic brat if Continue Reading

How Do I Know He’s Getting Better? Five Things to Look for When a Man Says He’s Repentant

Remind him that you’re his partner and want the best for him, your marriage and your family.

Every Tuesday we’ll post something to do with restoring marriages. Hope it helps. — How Do I Know He’s Getting Better? Five Things to Look for When a Man Says He’s Repentant  Wives often ask my wife and I how they can really know their husband, who’s committed some form of sexual sin, is getting better. While there’s no acid test, there are some things I believe a woman can and should expect when her man says, “I was wrong; I’ve repented of it.” If that’s the case, here are the top five things I think she should Continue Reading

Darts Among Friends

Othello relating his adventures

Every Thursday I’ll post an article having to do with either relational or emotional matters. Hope it helps. — Darts Among Friends Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. - Ephesians 5:16 In Shakespeare’s Othello the evil character Iago acts out his hatred for one man, and his contempt for people in general, by dividing. He whispers insinuations to Othello, then to his beloved wife Desdemona, and his caption Cassio as well, arousing suspicions between them Continue Reading

From the Ashes – Lessons from 9/11

911 Memorial

You remember, of course, where you were when it all came down. And what you were doing, and with whom, and how you felt when you first saw the surreal images that caused so many of us to say “This can’t be happening.” Nothing in modern American history approaches the magnitude of September 11, 2001, though the Kennedy assassination and the Jonestown/Guyana tragedy may be close runner ups. So today we remember, and as a couple, Renee and I are asking ourselves what we learned from that horror, and whether or not the lessons have stuck. Two Continue Reading

Starting Over

new growth

I’m on vacation this week and so am repeating some prior posts. Looking forward to being with you again next week, with new material. God bless. — Starting Over The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself - the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us - that's where it's at.  - Olympic Gold Medalist Jesse Owens In 1984 I stepped into a professional counselor’s office for the first time, frightened at the prospect of discussing things I’d never spoken to anyone about, and Continue Reading

To Love, Honor and Heal

From the movie The Goodbye Girl

Every Tuesday we’ll be posting an article about restoring and strengthening marriages that have been damaged by sexual sin. Hope it’s helpful. — To Love, Honor and Heal “On the other hand we ask of our beloved to correct all of the wrongs that these early parents or siblings inflicted on us. So that love contains in it a contradiction, the attempt to return to the past and the attempt to undo the past.” - from the film ‘Crimes and Misdemeanors’ Every so often the guys in Hollywood get it right. Even Woody Allen, a man Continue Reading

The Unscheduled Appointment

child plane

Every Thursday we’ll post something to do with relational or emotional concerns. Hope it helps. — The Unscheduled Appointment I love what I do for a living, and count myself hugely blessed when I remember how rare it is for your work and your first love to be the same. I come alongside men getting serious about their holiness, I write on subjects that matter to me, and I speak to churches and conferences, all of which I’d do as a volunteer if I had to do something else for income. My work is my passion, so I’m a pathetic brat if Continue Reading

Cheaters Never Prosper

Lier

Every Tuesday we’ll post something to do with strengthening marriages. Hope it helps. — Cheaters Never Prosper “Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. Defraud ye not one the other ---“ - I Corinthians 7: 3-5 Sins of omission are harder to spot, and easier to justify, then their more deliberate, obvious counterparts. When I cross a clearly defined line the moral question isn’t a question at all – I shouldn’t have done that. But when I should do something, yet Continue Reading

Married with Impact: Part 1 The Prayer Bond

couple praying

Every Tuesday we’ll post something to do with strengthening marriages. Hope it helps. — Married with Impact: Part I, The Prayer Bond “ --- and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.” - I Peter 3:7 Two areas of married life couples often neglect are two of its most important aspects, to my thinking: the Prayer Bond and the Sexual Bond. Both are easy to ignore since they don’t demand immediate attention. The kids have to get to school; that can’t be put off. Meals need cooking; Continue Reading

Random Ramblings #35: Weekly Reflections, Lessons and Homework

pen

Every Friday we’ll take a break from topical posts and will post some random personal thoughts.  — A Cuppa Joe - Random Ramblings from a Fellow Struggler It can be interesting and helpful to look at what you’re going through during a given week and ask, “What’s the lesson here, and what’ll my homework be?” Everything we experience is, after all Father-Filtered, in that God allows it with some purpose in mind. (Romans 8:28) So Renee and I are trying, with some success, to break the pattern of reflexively stressing over the Continue Reading