Who Will Teach Them to Listen Well?
We’ve taught the next generation to be advocates for important causes, but who will teach them to listen well? The last several days’ news of young people around the country advocating for different gun laws makes me proud, and maybe a little sad. Social media has taught them persuasive argument, a critical skill […]
Where is My Hope? Let Me Be Clear
Can’t we be good citizens without placing all our hope in political solutions? If you are my friend, won’t you let me be clear about where my hope really is? From time to time, we all get sucked into conversations of which we would rather not be a part. Maybe it is about […]
Helping Me Discern
What could be more encouraging than to help someone hear and understand God’s calling on their life, i.e., to help someone clearly discern and do exactly what they were created to do? As a mediator, I spend a great deal of my time sitting and listening to warring parties expressing their pain in, […]
Confession and the Importance of Being Right
Nothing says, “I value this relationship” quite like confession and surrender. We are living in a culture of advocacy and tribal contention. If watching the news or listening to talk radio or reading through your social media feeds makes you angry or frustrated, that is probably the reason. We are literally inundated with […]
Forgiveness as the Measure of Real Love
Nothing says “love” quite like forgiveness. I don’t think many of us in this culture are really struggling with whether love is a good thing. I think most of us know we should love others, even those with whom we disagree. But what we are struggling with is what, exactly, love looks like […]
Listening is a Matter of the Heart
More times than not, our inability to converse in a healthy way has more to do with the condition of our heart than with the quickness of our mind. Genuine listening is a tremendous gift. I am worn out and worn down by the ugly, shrill voices filling social media channels today. Maybe […]
Life Changing Encouragement
We all need cheerleaders in our lives both to help us see what is already good and to help us see what is possible. We each know pretty easily who the encouragers are in our life, and we can recall with ease the people who pat us on the back and say “well […]
Relationships: the Cells of Life
It is a simple rule: no matter the challenge, fixing the relationships is always part of the solution. My family has had our share of cancer over the years. Maybe yours has as well. It is an insidious disease, because it’s pathology happens at the cellular level…the very foundation for human life. It’s […]