Forget Sticks and Stones...Names DO Hurt.
He looked down his nose at me and with a voice dripping with disdain said "I guess we know who the LIBERAL is this room." That was my freshman year in college. At the time there was probably no greater assault you could make on someone's character, at least...

Settling for Poor Substitutes
Last week it was revealed that the 2010 book "The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven" was a work of fiction. The young man whose "story" the book purports to tell made a public announcement that the book was a work of fiction. What should have been a minor story...

Starting Over
I was an excellent student in grade school...my only poor subject was handwriting, which anyone who ever receives a hand-written note from me will certainly understand. I regularly made straight "A's" and loved school. That excellence continued in junior hi...

Counting Down the Days
Waiting. We hate it. How many of us walk back and forth at the checkout lanes at Wal-Mart hoping to find a line that is both short and quick. Who of us hasn't looked judgmentally at someone in the 20 items or less line who seems to have more than 20 items. ...

One Small Child
Christmas is big. Big decorations, big menus,  big trees, big sales, big spending,  Christmas is BIG! Americans like big. We have made a lifestyle of "over." Overspending, overeating, over exaggeration. The "American Dream" has become something more than fr...

When Did Evil Become Stronger Than Us?
I have long enjoyed the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien. I first read the Lord of the Rings trilogy when I was twelve and soon after discovered his other works. They have kept me entertained many times throughout the years. You will understand my mixture of exci...

The Bitterest Pill
Disappointment. We are all far more familiar with it than we'd like to be and very few of us would ever argue that good has come to us from our disappointments. We have allowed ourselves to believe that our lives and the worlds we live in should be places o...

Celebrating Love
[16] But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. [17] Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. M...

A Christmas Story
With Christmas just a couple of days away I want to tell you what Christmas means to me. I was 16, in fact it was only a few days after my birthday. My father gave me independence as a birthday present, telling me that he wanted nothing more to do with me. ...

What Do You Believe In?
Abraham kept believing even as the childless years passed. Joseph never lost faith when slavery led to prison. Moses kept walking through a wilderness that was not of his own choosing. David sang even when being chased by a king intent on killing him. Jerem...

Fiddling While Rome Burns?
Today is election day. There is much at stake in today's choices, or at least it seems that way. The control of the Senate is very much on the table and a strengthening of the control of the House of Representatives as well. Lost in all of this, perhaps, is...