• 10-Point Check-Up for Your Relationship, Part 1

    This month, James and I will celebrate our five-month anniversary! Each month, we’ve started the habit of doing a check-up on our relationship. It’s nothing formal, just a moment to pause and ask each other if we’re driving the other crazy yet. I’m glad to report that we haven’t! In all seriousness, though, I appreciate this check-up, because it invites honesty, transparency, and a chance to make misunderstandings right early before something becomes a larger issue. Did you know that I Corinthians 13 provides a check-up list of its own? If you replace the word “love” with your name, you have a basic check list of the behaviors you need…

  • 3 Pitfalls of People Pleasing

    Does anyone else out there struggle with the problem of people pleasing? What are some core values we can keep in mind to help us be honest with others and ourselves? I’m excited to share this post with you, which published today on DailyPS.com, and welcome your comments. Post excerpt As a youth leader for six years, I often challenged teens not to conform to peer pressure but to let God’s Word transform their thoughts and actions (Romans 12:2). Recently, I realized we adults suffer from a subtler form of this problem called people pleasing. Those of us who dislike conflict and change (or is that all of us?) find…

  • Faith That’s Not Fake

    Recently, I attended the Florida Blog Convention in Orlando with my friend and fellow writer Ashley Jones. We figured we might be the only Christian bloggers there but wanted to go and learn what we could. Turns out, there was only one other “faith” blogger in attendance, but everyone we met was friendly and welcoming to us. We befriended one blogger who seemed confused by what we write. Finally, she asked, “What is a fake blogger?” Ashley and I stared at each other. Fake? “Oh, faith-not fake,” we hurried to explain. She smiled. “Yeah, I was kind of wondering what a fake blogger would write about.” Truth be told, however,…