Blessed Are the Peacemakers
How to Make Peace in Your Family Relationships
I will never forget my father's last Christmas. He was dying of lung cancer, and the family had gathered to surround and support him. My mind kept returning to the good times he and I had enjoyed together in the previous months—times when he had been so lavish with his words of love and appreciation, so eager to know more about my life, hopes, and dreams. I realized then, as I was losing him, that Dad had become my best friend. Continue »
The Gift of Peace
The Perfect Choice for Everyone on Your Christmas List
This is the season when a familiar question begins echoing in homes throughout the land: "What do you want for Christmas?" We've all heard answers ranging from reasonable (a CD, a toy truck, a sweater) to poignant (a job, good health, friends) to outrageous (a sports car, a five-thousand-dollar pinball machine from The Sharper Image catalogue). Continue »
Mission to Haiti
An Advent Family Adventure
A Florida family sent two Christmas letters to relatives and friends a few years ago. They weren't the typical annual reports of milestones. Continue »
What’s the Good Word?
Your speech can help or hurt.
Most of us do a lot of talking, much of it about other people. Some of our people talk is just practical: "Are you still working on those invoices? Joe's been waiting for them all morning!" Some of it is pretty personal: "Hey, I heard Joe's wife walked out on him. Couldn't take his drinking anymore." Continue »
Love Your Enemies
"Does that include my stepmother?"
My stomach sank and my face went numb as I opened the gift addressed to me. It contained the small Christmas stocking I had hand-stitched for my stepmother two years before. I couldn't believe it: Once again, she had wrapped and returned something that I had made especially for her. This was no oversight, I suspected, but a deliberately hurtful gesture. It felt like a slap in the face. Continue »
Raising Good Readers
Its all about quality, not quantity.
I grew up reading almost everything I could get my hands on. Thrilled that I showed so much interest, no one prohibited or directed my passion. Unfortunately, my ability to read words and understand plots did not mean that I was mature enough to assess the morality or "truth content" of the works I was encountering. At fourteen, who is equipped to weigh the ideas of the German philosopher Nietzsche? And even some of the "great books" I read too early left me confused. Continue »
Use Your Head: Four Key Questions
Being "wise as serpents" regarding the media involves developing the habit of critical thinking. As educator Vincent Ruggiero explains, "This does not mean approaching every idea as false until proven true. It means being neither skeptical nor approving until all reasonable questions about the idea have been answered."
Here are some questions you can fruitfully apply as you watch and read. Try using them for your own reflection and as a teaching tool with your kids. Continue »
Learn to Discern
Finding Your Way through the Media Jungle
My wife and I like books and movies, and as our children have grown up, we've enjoyed introducing them to our favorites. We've raised them on regular doses of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and other contemporary authors, as well as lives of the saints, Bible stories, and classics of children's literature. We've shared our enthusiasm for various movies (being a runner, I'm a great fan of Chariots of Fire). Continue »