Too often we listen to self-condemning lies because we don’t understand how God sees us. We put ourselves under pressure to be perfect. But God never designed us to bear such pressure. We can understand how God really sees us by looking at how we, as good parents, interact with our children. Let’s look at […]
It’s Not “Just the Way You Are” Do you have a behavior you just can’t stop? Maybe an addiction? Maybe just a bad habit that you keep finding yourself doing? Maybe you’ve given up and told yourself, “That’s just the way I am.” Hogwash. It doesn’t have to be the way we are. That’s a […]
Let’s start with a fun story today. Bob had a business meeting in Boston, and decided to drive instead of fly from his home in Washington, DC. His wife, Barb, called him to see how the road trip was going. Barb: How’s the road trip going, Honey? Where are you? Bob: I’m in Raleigh, North […]
Does that title seem strange? That’s because so often we really don’t know who our real enemy is. Let’s discover that first. Not Other People We often confuse people who hurt us with the enemy. But they are not our real enemy, even if they think they are. When people hurt us, they are acting […]
None of us want them, but we all have them. Extreme positions, points-of-view, opinions, even behaviors that harm us and everyone around us. Often we grew up with them, so they are all we know. We think they’re normal, and so we don’t even question them. But they aren’t healthy. The problem is, since we […]
Janet and I were recently at a writer’s conference in Franklin, TN, put on by our mentor Jeff Goins. In his final keynote, Jeff talked about how to move forward in your writing. But the 3 steps he gave apply to much more than just writing. They are fundamental to any change we want in […]
America is in the middle of a cold civil war. It’s not a hot civil war like the 1860s, where we were physically shooting at each other, thank God. But just like the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, it’s equally real. And this cold civil war is fueled, on both […]
We all want to be successful. Nothing wrong with that. Nobody wants adversity. We all pray for blessing. But sometimes God answers “yes” by blessing us with adversity. He loves us too much to give us the success we crave the way we crave it. Look at Asa, King of Judah, in 2 Chronicles 14-16. […]
This week we celebrate the birth of our country, grateful for the amazing rights and freedoms in America that people don’t enjoy elsewhere in the world. It gets me thinking about the rights we have as Christians, as citizens in the Kingdom of God. Here are 15 I thought of. I’m sure you can think […]
We have complete control over our biggest problem. Getting this one thing right changes everything. Our mindset—the assumptions, judgments, and expectations we have about the world, about God, about ourselves—filters how we perceive and process information. Our mindset is such a powerful force over our lives, determining what we do and what we don’t do. […]