The most rewarding part of traveling for me is the time to return home. No matter how visually stimulating the sights or how interesting the people I meet, usually around day seven something clicks, like an internal homing device, and I begin to yearn for the wonderfully familiar sights, sounds, and structures of home. While others may crave the excitement of the novel, I crave the ordinary. To hear the loud sounds of my children, whether they be the joys of laughter, the tears of pain, or the bursts of anger–these to me are full of life. More than that, they are the very ingredients of life, providing its texture and flavor. Read the rest of this entry »
Archive for the ‘Family Life’ Category
The Beauty of the Ordinary
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010 by Dale M. CoulterNutrition and Health
Friday, October 29th, 2010 by Diane Chandler
Every once in a while, I’m challenged to consider how I am taking care of my overall physical health and wellness. I need reminding because in our face-paced culture, it is so easy to skip meals, purchase fast food, give little thought to nutrition, and then end up selecting unhealthy food choices. Take a look at the Sugar Stacks website for how much sugar is in the beverages we consume.
Since I work in a university, I’m astounded by the amount of money that students (and others!) drop in vending machines. Healthy eating is a key to optimal health. Furthermore, healthy lifestyle behaviors contribute to our longevity (no surprise here!). Read the rest of this entry »
The Woman on the Roof
Wednesday, September 29th, 2010 by James Flynn
This week’s news contains disturbing news of another potential scandal in the making involving a large church, a powerful ministry, and the lives of several young men who claim to be victims. I won’t even mention names, because as is often the case, the individual is being tried in the court of popular media and opinion before all facts are known. Several facts are clear. We are fallible human beings that sometimes seem hopelessly broken. People love to revel in hypocrisy and rub our Christian noses in it when they even get a hint we might deserve it. We as Christians need to trust God for wisdom and mercy to keep our business straight because the world is very willing to give us a hand doing so!
Christians claim to have what the world is desperately seeking. That makes them jealous sometime. Because of our faith we understand that life is infused with meaning and purpose, and that each of us has a specific reason to live. We are not just another species of animal placed on the earth to live, breathe, eat, and die. The Master Architect has designed us for his purpose and if we chose to seek Him, He will reveal that purpose piece by piece throughout our lives (Isa. 46:9, 10). This allows us to live a life of purpose and meaning, which so many are seeking. One of the biggest dangers to realizing our full purpose and potential is that we will get distracted.
David had it all. He had the good looks (1 Sam. 16:12). He was young and courageous, able to defeat giants that left others trembling (1 Sam. 17:37). He had friends in high places (1 Sam. 18:1), married the king’s daughter (1 Sam. 18:22), and had a very successful military career. He was a “man after God’s own heart” and became the king of Israel. Life was not always easy, but he had it pretty good until one day he got distracted. It was the woman on the roof.
David was awake one evening and took a stroll on the roof top of his palace residence on top of Mt. Zion (1 Sam 11:1-17). He could see the other roof tops from his vantage point and saw something beautiful that caught his attention – the figure of a woman bathing at night in the privacy of her own roof top residence. He was taken by her beauty—he had to have her though she was the wife of another. This desire led to adultery and murder. It led to the death of an innocent child conceived by his lover and problems in his household that would never depart though out his lifetime (1 Sam. 12:9-16). All this because David was distracted in a moment of weakness. Read the rest of this entry »
Potty Training with St. Augustine
Monday, August 16th, 2010 by Wolfgang Vondey
Okay, if you haven’t figured it out by the title, this blog post is tongue in cheek. My 2 1/2 year old son is experiencing the delights and disappointments of potty training. He really wants to have a clean diapie and use the potty…but it just does not work out many times. Here is where St. Augustine comes in.
Augustine distinguishes between memory, understanding, and will. These three are not only significant components of his view of the Trinity, they emerge from his own personal struggles, so vividly portrayed in the Confessions. Memory, of course, is what we remember, what we keep stored, of the events of the past. That can include the memory of who we are and how we have lived our lives or just the memory of looking out the window a minute ago. Memory is important for understanding, since all understanding and judgment is based on the collective storage (or memory) of events and facts and previous knowledge. We cannot understand what we do not remember, and consequently we cannot make informed judgments. Those judgments of the understanding (based on our memory) informs the will to do (or not to do) things. So how does this apply to my 2 1/2 year old? Read the rest of this entry »
I Met Myself on the Plane…
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 by Diane Chandler
My blog last week, entitled “The Simplicity and Power of Testimony,” focused on the transformational power of sharing one’s personal story of God’s goodness with others. Soon after writing the blog, I flew to Vancouver, British Columbia for a work-related conference.
On the first leg of the trip, the gentleman seated beside me struck up a conversation. After some small talk about our respective vocations and where we were headed, the conversation took an unlikely turn. We soon found ourselves talking about the impact of fathers on their children’s lives (don’t ask me how). Himself a father of three young children, he was especially keen on my sharing my story about my own father and how I came to a place of forgiving him several years earlier. Read the rest of this entry »
A Word in Due Season
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010 by James Flynn
I remember getting the call at about nine-thirty in the evening as I was easing into a night at home with my family. I had done John and Sally’s wedding a few years back. Several months earlier, we had gotten the wonderful news that they were expecting a baby. The voice on the other end of the phone this particular evening was John’s mother—Sally had gone into labor unexpectedly and was at the hospital. John’s mom sounded frantic. She asked if I would pray and come to the hospital and wait with them for the outcome. Sally’s pregnancy was about twenty-five weeks along—past the point of viability but in a dangerous zone that meant this baby would be in for the battle of its tiny life. I rushed down to hospital, and the baby was born about three hours later. That night I was introduced to the wonders of neonatal medicine, the pediatric intensive care unit, and the world of trouble that can surround a premature birth.
