Worn Out

Today’s been a long day.  My son had a meltdown.  The air conditioner quit running.  The “splat splat splat” sound I’m hearing is from water leaking in thru our roof on this rainy day.  “Count it all joy…”  Not today.  My “joy scale” has been tipped in the wrong direction.   The psalmist who penned […]

Joy Regardless Of Circumstances

“Without exception…all try their hardest to reach the same goal, that is, joy.”  St. Augustine It is easy to think “If I could just get a new car, a bigger house, a better job, or more money, then I’ll be happy.” We tend to view happiness as a commodity attainable by wealth. However, as the […]

Finding Joy In Difficult Circumstances

Kenneth Dodge tells about an 8-year-old boy named Frank. Frank had a date with his father to go fishing one Saturday. They were going to fish the whole day. On Friday night he had everything laid out. He was ready to go. But on Saturday morning he awoke to discover that it was raining cats […]

On Being The Perfect Parent

The Perfect Story: There was a perfect man who met a perfect woman. After a perfect courtship, they had a perfect wedding. Then they had perfect children and were the perfect parents.  Their life together was, of course, perfect. The End. Perfect.  That’s how I always pictured how my life story was going to go.  […]

Take The Next Step (Family Photo)

A boy receives a train set as a gift from his father, but after a few standard runs, decides it’s more interesting to crash the trains, and does so repeatedly.  A little girl thinks nothing of standing on tables and singing at the top of her lungs in public. Some children with special needs are a […]

What Does God Measure?

You get what you measure. If you want smart children, measure their exposure to information and ideas and their performance on tests or progress on an IEP.  If you want athletes, evaluate how committed they are to physical training and how well they perform in sporting events.  If you want relational children, determine how connected they […]

How We Define Our Children

Maybe some of you are like me.  Raised in a Christian home where I often felt defined by what I didn’t do.  Don’t lie, don’t swear, don’t steal, don’t cheat, and don’t hang around other boys who do was how I defined myself for the most part. To no surprise, I find that in my […]

Faith At Home And Intellectual Disability

What if you’re the parent of a child with moderate to severe cognitive challenges?  Is trying to be more active in your child’s faith development necessary?  I believe it is, but I’d have to admit that when I attempt to teach my son (whose IQ is 44) the “lesson to be learned” from a particular bible story, its challenging […]

Faithful In A Little

Mark Hatfield tells of touring Calcutta with Mother Teresa and visiting the so-called “House of Dying,” where sick children are cared for in their last days, and the dispensary, where the poor line up by the hundreds to receive medical attention. Watching Mother Teresa minister to these people, feeding and nursing those left by others […]

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