Sandcastles are just plain fun to build. You can plan and build them however you want. If a section of it doesn’t turn out as you wanted, it’s super easy to scoop up the sand, pack it back down, and try again. You can build and rebuild as much as you want. And each is…

Jesus tells a parable in Matthew 25 about three servants, a master, and some talents. The master goes on a business trip and leaves each servant some talents — one he leaves five talents, another two talents, and still another one talent. There can be much discussion about what precisely a talent is in this context. It…

My backyard I love being in my backyard, whether it is sitting on my deck sipping coffee in the morning, or smelling the grill or smoker going as dinner draws closer, or just goofing off with the girls. It doesn’t matter what I’m doing. I just like being in my backyard. It’s a place where…

I love my smoker I bought my first wood smoker nine years ago. Starting off slowly, I worked my way up from smoking pork roasts to smoking fish, nuts, and cheeses. It’s made me a foodie. I wouldn’t call myself anything more than an amateur, but I’ve developed a love for creating an amazing meal out…

I’ve had a saying I wrote in a journal close to twelve years ago that has stuck with me. It’s something God’s used to keep me in the present. It goes something like this… “You spend too much time in yesterday. You overestimate tomorrow. But you vastly underestimate the power of today.” It’s so true,…

Last week I shared the story of Nicky and her adventure with Spidzilla. I was asked to share what I was afraid of after last week’s post. And I’m not too proud to talk about it, but just proud enough that I resisted writing about it. It’s sort of hard to undo once written. But…

It’s Huge and ugly and scary! We had just finished our small group Sunday night at BNC, and I heard these words over my daughter’s call to my wife. Now that would be normal had this been my wife’s phone and my daughter had called her. But no, this was my wife’s voice. And she’d called…

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. For all the married guys out there, that was a shock to the system. They just realized that they’ve forgotten and now need to scramble to figure something out. (By the way, it’s this Sunday, so ya better hurry!) And while Valentine’s Day is traditional celebrated between couples, could…

If I may hate something and not sin, it would be plumbing. And garbage disposals. Plumbing has no redeeming qualities for me. None. I’m not convinced that Jesus can’t even redeem plumbing. There are heaps of other unpleasant activities to subject myself to, then touch those evil pipes under my kitchen sink. I loathe plumbing.…

A Full Day It had been a busy day full of cleaning, sorting, rearranging, building, and repairing, as we cleaned out one really messy walk-in closet in our home. When I say messy, what I really mean to say is that it was overflowing with stuff. Stuff from last year…stuff from 10 years ago. So it…