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Ever wonder why people are the way they are? The first assignment I give my students each year is “Help Me Get To Know You”. It’s a short list of questions. Among them, when’s your birthday? [...]

Are you ever frustrated when you can’t solve the whole problem? Anyone who’s grown up on a ranch or farm (like me) knows there’s always animals to feed, pens to clean, and fences to fix. Animals [...]

You’ve seen them while waiting for traffic light to change. Different colored lines, arrows, circles and squares, spray painted on the street. They appear to be completely random. Sometimes [...]

Years ago my great uncle told me a story from his youth in small town Iowa. There was a guy in town who trained his dog to fetch him candy bars from the gas station. The dog’s owner was friends [...]

In the early years of his late night television show, David Letterman went into the studio audience to ask people for stories about their random encounters with famous people. He called the [...]

Brooke lived on a large wooded lot outside Portland, Oregon. Wanting to keep an eye on her teenage son and his friends, she made her place “the place” for them to hang out after school. Knowing [...]

Have you stolen a kiss under the mistletoe this Christmas season?If you miss your chance, come to our house. Because from the looks of the tree in our front yard, it’s Christmas all year. Our big [...]

As a psychology major I recall reading a research study that determined people think about themselves and their own life 97% of the time. Given the exponential “Duh!” factor, it had to be a [...]

During a Phoenix Seminary class in 1994, Dr. Norm Wakefield gave us a bookmark. I’ve had it in my Bible every day since. One side reads: “The terms and conditions of a relationship determine the [...]

Sometimes we just have to laugh. As Frederick Buechner wrote, “Laughing is better than crying and maybe not even all that different…(because) no matter what the immediate occasion is of either [...]