Many years ago in 2003, when Becky and I returned to Living Word and our relationships with dear friends picked back up, one of those friendships was with Gordon Carpenter. Gordon had always been interested in spirituality and spiritual formation. He had a long history of journaling and using devotional guides as a supplement for […]
Here is a little story that came my way recently. It was in a newsletter by Dr. Mardy Grothe. On November 22, 2001, Mary Kay Ash died at age 83 in Dallas, Texas. The creator of one of the world’s most famous brands, she once said that her management principles were based mainly on “The […]
Next week we will celebrate Thanksgiving, a holiday dedicated to being thankful and expressing gratitude for what we have been given. Scientists have actually found that gratitude improves physical health. According to Harvard Health Publishing, “In positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, […]
In Ephesians 5, Paul calls us to submit to one another as Christ submitted to the cross. As we submit to Jesus and one another, and model this in our families, we begin to get a sense of God’s kingdom coming in our lives. Our lives aren’t about power plays and levels of authority, we are called to share, […]
Ryan McCleary, a counselor from The Counseling Center at Living Word, specializes in working with teens. Today he shares tips for creating a positive home environment for your teen. Parenting presents great challenges—especially with a teenager! As parents, our experiences, attitudes, and judgments are completely different from those of our teenagers. If you have been struggling […]
Hi everyone, I wanted to give you an update on how I am doing and what Living Word is doing about COVID-19 spreading in our community. I also want to give a preview of Cardboard Testimony Sunday, a “Yay, God!” shoutout, a Thanksgiving meal update, and a word from God to help us in the […]
I’m dating myself, but in the early years of television entertainment, variety shows would have performers who would balance spinning plates on vertical sticks. The challenge was to see how many plates you could keep in the air before they started to fall. As they began to slow down and start to wobble, the performer would have to run […]
When my husband and I got married, we each had a 10-year-old and a 13-year old. We were a regular “Brady Bunch”—only not so much. Real life is never like a sappy TV series. We knew that raising four children under the same roof was going to be quite an undertaking, so we read everything we could […]
About 2 weeks before we started our Real Family series, I asked my Facebook friends: “What is one of the best pieces of advice you were given, you saw modeled, or you picked up somewhere along the way that is now a BEST PRACTICE that makes a difference in your family? What makes your family […]
Several years after my first husband died, I was given the gift of remarriage and became a mom for the first time. Our family consisted of my husband, Greg, a stepson (15 years old), stepdaughter (12 years old), their 6-year-old dog, and me, plus many sets of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. The joy of […]