LifeSavers

Something is awry—we feel disconnected. We connect with a career, find meaning in family, yet long for something more. We feel the frustration I felt on Christmas morning, 1964. I assembled a nine-year-old’s dream gift: a genuine Santa Fe Railroad miniature train set, complete with battery-powered engine and flashing crossing lights. I placed the locomotive on the tracks and watched in sheer glee as three pounds of pure steel wound its way across my bedroom floor. Around and around and around and . . . around . . . and around . . . After some time I picked it up and turned it the other direction. It went around and around and around . . . “Mom, what else did you get me for Christmas?” Similarly, our lives chug in long ovals, one lap after another. First job. Promotion. Wedding day. Nursery beds. Kids. Grandkids. Around and around . . . Is there anything else? Our dissatisfaction mates with disappointment and gives birth to some unruly children: drunkenness, power plays, eighty-hour wor...

Click here for an amazing demonstration of life altering courage and perspective . You can also see it in 10 minute summary form here on the Oprah show .

"What's wrong with me?” Do you ever ask yourself that question? Recently I noticed how many times I do. When I can’t find my keys, when I fight with my husband, when I let someone down, when I’m late for work, when someone hurts me, when I forget to do something important. The list goes on. It dawned on me that every time I think, "What's wrong with me?" I actually tell myself that something is wrong with me. Then I try to figure out my illusive fault so I can change it. But what I need to change is the way I talk to myself. Why? Because every time I say, "What's wrong with me?" I tell myself that something is wrong with me. That is not what God wants me to say to myself – a woman He created. It’s not what He wants you to say to yourself, either. But there is someone who loves it when we do. He often whispers, what's wrong with you? He’s the enemy of our soul and he’s trying to convince us that we're incompetent, inadequate and all alone in ...

Adults are always asking little kids what they want to be when they grow up because they're looking for ideas. Paula Poundstone There's nothing that can help you understand your beliefs more than trying to explain them to an inquisitive child. Frank A. Clark The easiest way to teach children the value of money is to borrow some from them. Anonymous He who teaches children learns more than they do. German Proverb Children are the anchors that hold a mother to life. Sophocles Humor helps us to think out of the box. The average child laughs about 400 times per day, the average adult laughs only 15 times per day. What happened to the other 385 laughs? Anonymous Children are not casual guests in our home. They have been loaned to us temporarily for the purpose of loving them and instilling a foundation of values on which their future lives will be built. Dr. James C. Dobson Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. J...

For many people, life is—well, life is a jungle. Not a jungle of trees and beasts…Our jungles are comprised of the thicker thickets of failing health, broken hearts, and empty wallets…We don’t hear the screeching of birds or the roaring of lions, but we do hear the complaints of neighbors and the demands of bosses… Whether you are a lamb lost on a craggy ledge or a city slicker alone in a deep jungle, everything changes when your rescuer appears. Your loneliness diminishes, because you have fellowship. Your despair decreases, because you have vision. Your confusion begins to lift, because you have direction. You haven’t left the jungle. The trees still eclipse the sky, and the thorns still cut the skin…It hasn’t changed, but you have. You have changed because you have hope. And you have hope because you have met someone who can lead you out.

Two words summarize Christ’s opinion of worry: irrelevant and irreverent. “Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Of course not” (Matt. 6:27 NLT). Worry is irrelevant. It altars nothing. When was the last time you solved a problem by worrying about it? Imagine someone saying, “I got behind in my bills, so I resolved to worry my way out of debt. And, you know, it worked! A few sleepless nights, a day of puking and hand wringing. I yelled at my kids and took some pills, and—glory to worry—money appeared on my desk.” It doesn’t happen! Worry changes nothing. You don’t add one day to your life or one bit of life to your day by worrying. Your anxiety earns you heartburn, nothing more… Ninety-two percent of our worries are needless! Not only is worry irrelevant doing nothing; worry is irreverent, distrusting God.

"To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded! " ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

17. There is no "I" in "teamwork." But there is in "management kiss-up." 16. If you do a good job and work hard, you may get a job with a better company someday. 15. The light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off due to budget cuts. 14. Doing a job RIGHT the first time gets the job done. Doing the job WRONG 14 times gives you job security. 13. If you think we're a bad company, you should see the competition. 12. Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings--they did it by killing all those who oppose them. 11. We put the "k" in "kwality." 10. 2 days without a human rights violation. 9. Your job is STILL better than asking, "You want fries with that?" 8. We build great products when we feel like it and don't have any reason to call in sick. 7. If at first you don't succeed, try management. 6. Teamwork means never having to take all the blame yourself. 5. The beatings will continue until morale impro...

Ephesians 5:23,25 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church....Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her. Our culture has spent more than two decades redefining the roles of husband and wife. At one extreme is the Oklahoma newspaper headline that said: "State House Repeals Law Appointing Husbands as Head of Household." At the other extreme is the man who thinks being the head of the house means his wife must obey his every whim without question. But the Scriptures clearly give us the model for being not only a man, but also a husband and father. I call that model the "servant-leader." According to this model, the husband and father is to lead, to love and to serve. Webster's dictionary defines a leader as "someone who commands authority or influence, who shows the way, who guides or conducts, who directs and governs." God designed this position of responsibility, ...

"May the road rise to meet you, May the wind be always on your back, May the sun shine warm upon your face, May the rain fall off upon your field, and until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of his hand"

"I am convinced that attitude is the key to success or failure in almost any of life's endeavors. Your attitude-your perspective, your outlook, how you feel about yourself, how you feel about other people-determines you priorities, your actions, your values. Your attitude determines how you interact with other people and how you interact with yourself."

Humans are born “bent away” from the Lord. Our natural inclination is to please and serve self, which is the opposite of a Godhonoring lifestyle. When we become believers, our Father begins to bend our will and ways back towards Him. But we must cooperate with Him and yield to the process; otherwise, we are of little use to the kingdom. The Lord wants to eradicate every thought pattern and activity promoting dependency on anything other than Him. This means that relying on oneself to attain security, salvation, or physical and emotional comfort are outside His will. Actions that advance a person at the expense of others are also ungodly. In areas where we resist bending toward the Lord, He may break us by allowing pain into our life. As a result, we are driven to Him in surrender. To break a person may sound harsh, but God does this work in love. He sees beyond the hurt to the outcome—we will be more mature and faithful servants for having walked through trial...

Yesterday was a wonderful day for our family and our LIFE group. Praise God for Kelry's decision to become a Christian by putting on Christ in baptism. Laurel and I want to thank each of you from the bottom of our hearts for what you mean to us and our girls. You accept us for who we are and are there for us in times of need. Kelry asked yesterday that you all be there as a part of her new birth, and I think that speaks volumes for the good influence you all are having on her life. God has truly blessed us all with a wonderful church family and brothers and sisters we can laugh with, cry with, and share the love of Jesus with. Thank you!