Posts from May 2023
The Gift of Laughter and Joy
Laughter and joyful happiness have many great benefits; they are integral to life. Besides the physical and emotional benefits, happiness can help us build resilience and boost our mood by allowing us to stay positive in challenging situations. When we laugh, it can help us see the lighter side of life by encouraging us to approach life positively. Living a joyful life even helps us think more creatively. While laughter and joy are two of the most treasured expressions of…
Navigating Through Challenges
A small sign in my office says, “This Ain’t My First Rodeo.” After thirty years of pastoral ministry, there is little I hadn’t seen or heard. Or so I thought. No one was prepared for a worldwide pandemic. This solidifies the following truth: Challenges will always be with us. But it’s essential to learn how to work through them in a healthy manner. And while we can’t always control what comes our way, we can manage how we respond. The…
Simplicity is a Precious Gem
Christianity is a simple faith that does not require complex rules or deep theological knowledge. At its core, Christianity is about loving God, loving our neighbor, and loving ourselves. Jesus’ teachings are truly easy to understand and can be applied to our lives today. There is nothing extraordinary required of us as Christians. We don’t need to be experts in the Bible or have our lives in perfect order to have a relationship with God. Following Jesus is a journey…
Bringing Balance Into Our Lives
When we think about bringing a sense of balance into our lives, we tend to imagine a life divided into various categories. It’s trying to think of life as a pie. One slice would be your career, and another would be your family life. Then another component would be your social life, and yet another section would be your recreation life. You also have a section covering your secret life, those compulsions, addictions, and those things that nobody else knows…
Never Stop Learning
When I was a kid, growing up in the church, we didn’t have all these audio/visual tools. We didn’t have screens in the sanctuary to follow the songs’ words or show videos and pictures. And our world has developed to become very high-tech during our lifetime. Thinking back to the 1960s when I was in children’s church, I remember Miss Edenfield was my teacher. She would teach using these little biblical characters that she would pin to a bulletin board.…