I wish you could meet my friend Mark. He has about 10 years on me, but I want to be him when I grow up. Mark’s great for many reasons, but I think the thing that sticks out the most is that everyone else comes...
When my son Chapman was a baby, I would bring him on to stage as a speaking prop. Don’t judge! As I sat on a stool, I would sit him in my lap and sing one verse of “Build Me Up Buttercup” while moving his...
There are times when life gets challenging professionally and personally. Maybe you aren’t loving or have lost your job. Maybe you have health issues that are impacting all parts of your life. Maybe you’ve lost a parent, and it still hurts. When life gets tough,...
Some Christmas gifts can offer immediate joy, communicate love, and even create lasting memories. But can we pause for a five-minute, nationwide Christmas gifts sanity check? We string lights all over a tree and cover it with knick-knacks. Under said tree we place decoratively disguised...
When my oldest daughter was in 10th grade, she said something that floored me. She said she was going to her friend’s house. What? Just the night before, she spent 20 minutes in painstaking detail sharing how this same friend had been unkind to her....
If you are wondering how to save money in marriage, my wife has you covered. Family legend has it that she was already fiscally responsible at age 5. For her birthday, her grandmother gave her $20 in dollar bills. Nancie’s mom surprised her by using...
Criticism in marriage is never a good thing, and it's my biggest regret as I reflect on my first few years of marriage. Early on, I had heard repeatedly that communication is the key to a successful marriage. So, I needed to communicate the things...
After having his cat for a few months, my son announced that unlike other cats, his cat likes to lie on cold things. So, without my approval, my brain clicked into confirmation bias. I suddenly noticed that everything the cat was lying on was cold,...
Knowing how to make your wife feel loved and appreciated can feel like a massive and complicated task. However, I’ve worked with married couples for a long time, and I believe more than ever that marriage is made up of the tiny things. It’s not...
Knowing the things to say to kids can be challenging. But most of us dads have a couple of essential one-liners in our toolbox: I love you, and I'm proud of you. And while those two are vital, adding a few other one-liners to the...