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Friday Links Roundup: Too Early Edition
I went to a mall today. That, in and of itself, is news. I just don’t like malls. I like a handful of stores, but I don’t like the whole mall culture. As we were there, I heard something strange over the loudspeakers. It was Christmas music!!! Santa’s workshop was set up for pictures! Folks, let me say this as kindly as I can: it’s too early!!! Can we please wait until Thanksgiving is over to start this stuff? We’d still have a month. That’s 1/12 of the year, and that’s plenty of time to center on one holiday. After all, Thanksgiving is better anyway!!! Whew. I feel better, but…
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Guest Post: "The Church and Vision"
[Today marks the final installment in our “The Church and…” series. Chris Gallagher is our guest writer today. Chris lives near Charleston, South Carolina, where he preaches and also does motivational speaking. He is married to Carrie and they have three children. Chris is a graduate of Freed-Hardeman. You can check out his blog, Preacher’s Pen, here. We are grateful to Chris for taking the time to write our final installment to our series.] November is a challenging time for every congregation of the Lord’s church; because November begins the process of budget planning. A quick look at any church budget will give an in-depth look to the vision of…
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Why Veteran's Day Matters to Our Family
[It’s Wednesday, but there’s no list today. I think this post will touch your heart on this great holiday, though.] I’m thankful for Veteran’s Day. I’ve never had to serve in our nation’s armed forces, but our family has many who have served, helped, and trained throughout the years. I’m grateful that we have that legacy in our family. While I don’t like war, I’m grateful for those who are willing to stand for freedom and who are willing to go away from family for lengthy periods of time to help others. One of the legacies in my family is how my mother’s parents met. Grandpa was wounded in Europe in…
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Being Apathetic: It's Pathetic!
I’ll be the first to admit, I have my lazy moments. There are days when I don’t want to do anything but watch a ball game or just relax. This post isn’t about running 100 miles per hour 24 hours each day. Each person needs time to relax his mind and his body. This post is about apathy, the desire to avoid work. I hate it when I waste a good opportunity. There are so many things I want to accomplish in a day, a month, a year, and (of course) in my lifetime that I hate it when I don’t get something done. It’s more than just being “driven,”…
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10 Reasons We Love College Basketball
It’s not hard to figure out that I love sports, but there simply is no greater sport than college basketball. College football is fun, but until they actually decide the title on the field, it will never be as great as college basketball. With the first games scheduled to tip off at 6PM Central today, I thought I’d share a fun post of 10 reasons to love this sport! Enjoy. This will take a while, but it’s worth your time for a little fun! 10. Comebacks. Purists can say what they want, but the 3-point line did a great thing for basketball, including allowing huge comebacks in games. Teams down 10…
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Friday Links Roundup: Two Cool Numbers Edition
I love numbers. Yes, I liked the TV show (Numb3rs) when it first started, but I’m just talking about numbers in general. I’m a sports stat freak, and I like math quite a bit. So, this week’s roundup deals with two numbers that were significant in the last few days. First, the number 27. As a Yankees’ fan, that’s now an “old” number, because the Yankees won their 27th World Series title Wednesday night. When they were 13-14 to start the year, I was actually worried. Then A-Rod came back, and the rest is a 103-win season history! I’ve been a fan of the Yankees since the early 90s, when…
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Guest Post: "The Church and Joy"
[Today’s guest post is from Trey Morgan, who preaches in Childress, Texas. Trey’s blog, found here, is one of my daily reads, and includes brief but thought-provoking posts several times each week. Trey is married to Lea and they have four boys. We are grateful that Trey took the time to write this next-to-last post in our series “The Church and…”.] I love hanging out with happy people. People who are full of joy and life are my kind of people and I find myself drawn to them. I’ve also noticed that in the same way that I love being around joyous people, I find myself naturally avoiding people who…
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7 Things You Can Say to Harm a Child
Leah and I have been thinking lately about the words and the tone we use around our children. We know we need to do better about how we say certain things. We want to be firm with them, but we also don’t want to destroy their child-like spirit. Sadly, some parents never think about that, and just say anything to their children. What can we say that will harm a child? 1. “You’ll never be able to…”. That might be true in some cases, but a small child doesn’t need to hear it. Let a child experiment and try new things. If a child fails, he or she can learn…
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Still No TV?
Back in April, we told you how we had completely turned off our DirecTV. We didn’t downgrade our package, or switch to just local channels. We have no television package whatsoever. At the time, we had a plan of things we would do in order to “fill” our time as a family. I thought you might like a little progress report, now that we’ve gone about 7 months without any TV. First, let me address the question everyone seems to ask. “Do you miss it?” While that’s impossible to answer in one word, I would say we really haven’t missed TV. Yes, I don’t like missing ball games, but we…
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Friday Links Roundup: Half Pint and "Tex" Message Edition
Last night, I earned some serious brownie points with Leah. Of course, we don’t have cable anymore, but I have still been following the Yankees very closely throughout the postseason on the computer. Though they were playing (and winning!) the second game of the World Series last night, I took Leah out for a night on the town. We went out to a nice restaurant, then went to watch the musical Little House on the Prairie. Leah has always loved the books and TV show, so she was so excited, and she really enjoyed the show. While that was going on, I was able to keep up with the game…
