Category: Thursday Thoughts

When I was young, I prided myself on my ability to influence people to come to agree with my perspective.  My original DISC profile I took when I was 31 years old labeled me as a “Persuader.”  I felt that so accurately described my style of leadership.  I had been able to convince people to…

I am amazed at how much I am learning about being an emotionally healthy person at this stage in my life. Many people feel they have arrived by the time they get to my age, but it seems that the older I get, the more I need to learn, or maybe it is that I am…

“Never doubt decisions in the dark that were made in the light” is a phrase my kids heard from me while they grew up. I really thought I made it up until shortly before they left for college, they googled it and found out that an acquaintance of mine was credited with originating that phrase.…

These last few weeks have been challenging for Mary Kay and me because we have two immediate family members facing imminent death. I have thought a lot about death since my mom died when she was younger than I. But I am not sure we are ever fully prepared to lose those close to us until it…

After I wrote my blog last week, I wondered if family relationships can count as some of the seasonal relationships that I wrote about.  In that blog, I described how some relationships are for a season and not for your entire life. It is, therefore, appropriate for seasonal relationships to die a natural death as…

Last week, I wrote about three principles I am learning about relationships that are in flux today because of social media. I suggested that social media, by nature of its homogenizing relationships, can cause us to fail to appreciate the diversity of relationships. As social beings, we were created with a need for healthy relationships. We are told…

This last week, Mary Kay and I got to spend some time with a mentor and friend of mine, John and Judy Boedeker. As we reflected on our lives and ministry together, I realized how many friends I have been privileged to have in my life. As I thought about my friends, it became obvious they…

I am not a detailed planner by nature, as most of you have figured out by now. One of the frustrations for Mary Kay is that I just figure out what I need to do “in the moment.” This is because she is a detailed planner and desires to have contingencies thought through long before…

I recently read a book entitled I once was lost by two IVP guys: Don Everts and Doug Schuapp. I was challenged to think about how to reach people with the Good News around me who have been exposed to all that has happened in the last twenty to forty years. Their work primarily centered on…