While this topic may not seem to fit into our typical pre-engagement audience, it may be an issue which could affect your relationship if you choose to get married. Working from home changes the dynamic of home life and can (read: will) affect your relationship with your future spouse. It may improve your relationship, or it may not; but, either way, it is a good idea to consider the following points before you make the decision to trade your work clothes for PJs and a laptop! Your work is never done and you never “come home” from work. This may be more of a female problem than a male … [Read more...]

“Tell your sister you’re sorry!” “Make sure you apologize when you bump into someone.” “If you don’t finish your vegetables, you’ll be sorry!” For as long as we can remember, we've been apologizing. Some of us apologize for everything. I tend to apologize when someone bumps into me– as if I’m expressing my regret at being in his or her way. Others are very slow to offer an apology, weighing out the facts, analyzing the situation, and only throwing out an admission of guilt if it is deserved. Something as ingrained in our character as saying, “I’m sorry,” should come naturally to … [Read more...]

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’  As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” (James 4:13-17, ESV) We can get a lot out of the passage above. If you don’t do what you know is right, … [Read more...]

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” ­(James 1:2-4, ESV) “Count it all joy.” Wow. These words are such a source of encouragement to me. We go through many ups and downs in our time on Earth. Some days we don’t know how we will make it through – emotionally, physically, spiritually, or mentally. Life is messy. But, count it all joy! For those who love and belong to the Lord, those trials … [Read more...]