Three months before graduating from law school, I decided I did not want to be a lawyer. Two years of interning for a plaintiff’s attorney had shown me that the adversarial system brought out my worst characteristics: pride, aggressiveness, and a compulsive desire to win arguments. I feared that if I spent my life…(Read More)
How can you stop gossip and other critical talk in its tracks? Always be ready to ask three simple questions. If someone begins to share confidential or unfavorable information or opinions about another person, and you are not part of the problem or its solution, simply interrupt and ask: Â “May I quote you when I…(Read More)
Last week I posted a story on my blog entitled “Time to Let Go.†In that post I included this statement: “Sometimes [letting go] will call for … accepting a divorce to preserve some measure of cooperative parenting rather than dragging a legal battle out for months.†The next day I received two very different…(Read More)
Chocolate is nice, but there’s another kind of Easter egg that is infinitely better. It’s called an “Evidence of God’s Grace,†or more simply, an “EGG.†EGGs are everywhere, and yet most people, even Christians, are astonishingly blind to them. Do you realize that it is God’s grace that keeps your…(Read More)
My two-year-old grandson has major idolatry issues … and you may have a similar problem. When he wakes from a nap, his first word is, “Vroom!†When he finishes a meal, he asks, “Vroom?†If we say, “Not now,†he whimpers and softly repeats “Vroom†over and over, hoping to wear us down. (He…(Read More)
Indulging in bitterness is one of the most stupid things we ever do. How stupid is it? Well, think about it this way. Imagine that someone stabbed you in the arm with a knife, leaving it there. After he flees, you stare in horror at the knife, then in agony take the handle in your…(Read More)
As the Civil War was coming to an end, it seemed inevitable that the North would prevail. President Lincoln had many discussions with administration “hardliners,†who hotly opposed his intention to be merciful and generous to the South. During one particularly heated conversation, one of those men rebuked Lincoln, saying that the North must “destroy…(Read More)
Megan had switched on a force field that put the Starship Enterprise to shame. It had been another one of our difficult home-schooling days…(Read More)
My mother-in-law lived with our family for twenty years. For six of those years, my mother also lived with us. Corlette and I called them “the Two Treasures.†In all the years they lived in our home, I never heard one word of criticism, grumbling, or complaining from either of them. Really. They…(Read More)