Have you made your New Year’s resolutions? Are they realistic? What are you undertaking that will enrich your life?

I heard about a woman who walked into her bathroom and found her husband weighing himself on the bathroom scales, sucking in his stomach. The woman thought to herself, “He thinks that he will weigh less by sucking in his stomach.”

So the woman rather sarcastically said, “That’s not going to help.”

The husband replied, “Sure it will. It’s the only way I can see the numbers.” Read More»

Christmas is about God’s incredible gift. There’s a baby in the headlines. Prince William and his wife Catherine are expecting their first child. The Royal Palace’s Dec. 3 announcement led network newscasts that evening.

Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty magazine, said, “We’re riding on a royal high at the moment at the end of the diamond jubilee year. People enjoyed the royal romance last year and now there’s this. It’s just a good news story . . .” Read More»

I love hearing and singing the music of the Christmas season. Topping my “favorites” are “Oh Holy Night,” “Joy to the World,” “Oh Come All Ye Faithful,” “Silent Night,” and most of the traditional carols.

On the secular side, just about anything from the Carpenters, and most pieces sung by Bing Crosby, Johnny Mathis and Frank Sinatra contribute to the warmth of the Christmas season. It’s hard to beat Bing singing “White Christmas” and Nat King Cole singing about chestnuts roasting on the open fire. Read More»

A recent “Tiger” comic strip showed one little boy asking another, “What are you going to be thankful for this Thanksgiving?”

In the next panel, the boy answered, “I’m grateful I only have to think of things to be grateful for once a year.”

That’s some gratitude, isn’t it? A truly thankful person recognizes that every day is a gift and a daily opportunity to count our blessings and give thanks to God as we acknowledge Him as our source of blessings.
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The new Volkswagen commercial is great. In an attempt to lighten the mood during this intense presidential campaign, Volkswagen launched its “Why VW?” ad campaign with a spot featuring robust laughter. The spot is appropriately entitled “Smiles.”

The 30-second commercial shows people laughing uncontrollably, starting with babies and concluding with senior adults. They don’t show what prompted the laughter, and they don’t mention Volkswagen until the end, when they direct viewers to a website. They close with this slogan: “It’s not the miles, but how you live them.” Brilliant! Read More»

In the 1800s, an acrobat named Blondin became famous for walking across Niagara Falls on a tightrope numerous times. One day, a crowd gathered to watch him push a wheelbarrow carrying a sack of cement across the tightrope. With that extra weight, the slightest miscalculation could tip the wheelbarrow and send him plummeting into the falls.

Thousands watched breathlessly as he carefully placed one foot in front of the other and slowly made his way across the rope. When he reached the other side, the crowd broke into cheers. Read More»

Recently, I related the near-fiasco I “created” just before my son’s wedding ceremony got underway. I was in charge of preparing for communion, so thirty minutes before the start time, I set up the juice and bread on little tables behind each section of chairs. Two glasses of grape juice and two baskets of bread were placed on each table. Read More»

When a couple and I talk about their wedding ceremony, I always remind them that no matter how hard we try to plan every detail, something will happen that will create a memory unique to their wedding. Just as rehearsals rarely start on time, weddings normally don’t go 100 percent as planned.

Like the time I officiated a wedding in a country church in North Georgia. The maid of honor dropped the groom’s ring and it started rolling across the hardwood floor, picking up speed as it approached the furnace grate. Someone caught it just in time. Read More»

In Matthew 16, Jesus established His church. Surrounded by temples to pagan gods, Jesus gave His disciples a pop test about His identity.

“Who do you say that I am?”

Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

Matthew 16:17-18 records, “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven . . . on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.’” Read More»

Back-to-school means the release of the annual “Mindset List.” Each August, Benoit College in Wisconsin releases this list that has provided a summary of how 18-year-olds view the world. Think about what was normal when you were 18, and the statements on the list are representative of what’s normal to them.

Authors Tom McBride and Ron Nief wrote that “the list is compiled to identify both the common ground that teachers and students share, and the mine fields of misunderstanding that seem to grow wider with every forgotten Cold War reference or John Denver lyric.” Read More»