She knew something was up. Usually on Sunday mornings she would be the first one up but this morning there were stirrings in the house before she was fully awake. Then the kids and dad burst into her room, tray in hand with pancakes, a bowl of fruit and a fresh cup of coffee! She was getting breakfast in bed! Then they presented a big Mother’s Day card with signs that everyone had contributed to making it. Inside the card were lots of, “You’re the Best Mom!”, “Thanks, Mom” and “Luvya, Mom” along with service coupons for everything from washing her car to washing the dog to getting themselves ready for church. It was a special Mother’s Day for sure!

Don’t panic dads, you have another week. I thought you might appreciate a heads up with some tips from my bride. read on...

Dad moved his family five times in her first nine years of life. His daughter had attended four different schools by the time she entered the fourth grade and he was still traveling about 75% of the time. He had not made one parent-teacher conference, not one school activity and even missed her stage debut when she got the lead in her second grade production – 468 marbles lost.

On their last move, a friend shared a story ...read on

It was quite a wedding – a beautiful bride and nervous groom. I wondered if they really understood the love they were committing to “until death do they part”. In his book, “The Five Love Languages” Gary Chapman says the “tingly” love phase in marriage - when neither can do any wrong in the other’s eyes, may last 2 weeks to 2 years. Then couples must learn to love as husband and wife – a man is to love his wife as Christ loves the Church; and a woman is to respect her husband (Eph.5:33).

Then they must learn to love as parents. What a fabulous moment it is when ...read on

Mountain stream, pure bottled water is the advertisement. What are the benefits? In areas where the water supply has been contaminated, bottled water can certainly be a life source. And for emergency preparedness, a supply of bottled water serves a very practical purpose. But the day to day consumption of bottled water has almost become an obsession for pure water. The idea of drinking water out of a faucet, or heaven forbid out of a water hose, is not acceptable for many.

This obsession with purity does not extend to various media flowing into the home. read on ...

In the movie City Slickers, Curly resolutely holds up one finger and answers, “One thing” when Mitch asks him about the secret to life. “What’s the ‘one thing’?” he pleas. Curly says, “You have to figure that out.” In “The Power of Habit”, Charles Duhigg documents how when a person will focus on changing one habit, the impact on other areas can be phenomenal. One young lady in the study focused on her smoking habit. Her conviction that she had to give up smoking touched off a series of changes that would ultimately radiate out to every part of her life. She replaced smoking with jogging, and that, in turn, changed how she ate, worked, slept, saved money, scheduled her workdays, planned for the future and so on. She had found the ‘one thing’ that got her life back on track.

A while back a dad was struggling with relationships in the home, stress at work and general frustration with where he was in life. He was challenged to ...read on