temparbor

To my childhood self

If you were to write a letter to your childhood self, what would it say? Here’s mine… Dear Little Dave: You is smart, you is kind, and you is important. Okay, that’s from a movie that’s popular now, but it’s true. You’ll need to carry this with you for a lifetime. So what’s up, littleContinue reading “To my childhood self”

The feeling of being valuable

The feeling of being valuable — “I am a valuable person” — is essential to mental health and is a cornerstone of self-discipline. It is a direct product of parental love. Such a conviction must be gained in childhood; it is extremely difficult to acquire it during adulthood. Conversely, when children have learned through theContinue reading “The feeling of being valuable”

Forgiveness vs. reconciliation

Forgiveness happens inside of you. You can forgive someone all by yourself, with no involvement at all required from the person you are forgiving. We all must forgive because it is through forgiveness that we let go of anger, pain, resentment, and other negative feelings towards another person which are eating us alive. So weContinue reading “Forgiveness vs. reconciliation”

Three ways to enhance your marriage without going to counseling

Keeping a marriage healthy isn’t that difficult. Counselors get paid a lot of money to help you do this, but there are many things couples can do for free or very low cost that will make a big difference. Here are my top three. 1. Buy John Gottman’s book, The Seven Principles for Making YourContinue reading “Three ways to enhance your marriage without going to counseling”

The myth of the Bible-based church

[featured-image link=”null” link_single=”inherit” single_newwindow=”false”]123rf.com[/featured-image] I have an announcement to make that will be self-evident to some people and will scare (or anger) the living hell out of others. There is no such thing as a Bible-based church. Go to 1000 different such churches and you will hear about 1000 different interpretations of the Bible. Okay,Continue reading “The myth of the Bible-based church”

Letting God in

Last week a guy got upset about my sermon and said he’s never coming back to my church again because the message was too liberal (I made “liberal” fun of things both liberal and conservative in that message.) This morning I found out that a new couple had attended my church, and one of themContinue reading “Letting God in”

The prayer of action

The Best Thing You Can Do For Your Pastor If you don’t care to read the article above, it says the most important thing you can do for your pastor is to pray for him (or her). While this sounds spiritual (at least in the tradition I grew up in), it’s nonsense. Why do peopleContinue reading “The prayer of action”

7 tips for beginning bloggers

I don’t pretend to be a big-time blogger, in fact I am far from it. But I have been at it long enough, have enough total posts written, and am getting a big enough readership that I fairly often get questions about getting started with blogging. As with many other questions, I suggest Googling thisContinue reading “7 tips for beginning bloggers”

Non-toxic religion

My daughter Brittany wrote this on one of her friends’ Facebook status this evening after he announced that he had decided that he is an atheist. This is what religion looks like when it is non-toxic, and I could not have said this better myself: Everyone that knows me at all knows I am a devoutContinue reading “Non-toxic religion”

V is for VERY

[My middle daughter, Kyra, and I are continuing our commitment to blog all the way through the alphabet.] Absolutely, positively, totally EVERYTHING is so completely over-emphasized these days, it’s just completely unbelievable — in fact it’s the most unbelievable thing EVER!!!!!!!!! It’s a total and complete drag and if it doesn’t change I’m gonna die!!!Continue reading “V is for VERY”