If you have had a serious job interview in the last 30 years, you have likely been asked the dreaded question: “What is your greatest weakness?” It is the easiest question to botch. To keep antsy seniors focused after spring break, I shifted our economics lessons to life skills—including finding jobs that pay a living…
We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps. (Proverbs 16:9) Every day I write, I’m sharing what’s on my mind that day. Some days the topic is not just something I want to explain; some days I’m trying to get a better grip on myself. On those days, I let my guard…
Catching up on this website this morning felt like cleaning out a forgotten closet. After more than two weeks away, I was back to copying my daily Facebook posts over there, a simple multi-step routine I now run mostly on autopilot. As I worked, my mind wandered back over all the other websites I’ve built…
I looked at the table this year. The fancy fake china that we buy every year was out. The turkey was carved. And right there, sitting in a woven basket like they owned the place, were the rolls. You know the ones. The cheap, brown-and-serve rolls that come in a plastic bag for a dollar…
The Bible tells us that this is the day the Lord has made, and we will rejoice and be glad in it. But to be honest, after a packed, noisy house on Thanksgiving and the bleary-eyed exhaustion of early morning Black Friday shopping, I am just flat tired. Active rejoicing sounds like it would require…
The Bible tells us that this is the day the Lord has made, and we will rejoice and be glad in it. But to be honest, after a packed, noisy house on Thanksgiving and the bleary-eyed exhaustion of early morning Black Friday shopping, I am just flat tired. Active rejoicing sounds like it would require…
Today is Thanksgiving Day. This annual celebration became a national holiday during Abraham Lincoln’s administration in 1863, when he proclaimed it amid the Civil War, urging citizens to recognize God’s blessings despite the nation being torn apart and calling them to pray for the healing of “the wounds of the nation.” Though more than 160…
Nearly thirty-five years ago, I walked into Thanksgiving carrying a heaviness that seemed impossible to shake. I found myself sitting in my pastor’s office, words tumbling out, until I finally spoke the truth I’d tried to dodge: “I just don’t think I have much to be thankful for.” My old car was at the center…
The turn signal clicks a steady metronome. My eyes flick: mirror, shoulder, mirror, shoulder. The lane next to me is a chasm of emptiness, but I can already hear the voice from driver’s ed, warning me about blind spots. Only after my fifth check do I let the car breathe into the open lane. That’s…
A long time ago, in the old neighborhood I grew up in, the ice cream man’s bell rang out. On those seemingly endless hundred-degree summer days, the truck would crawl along, and kids poured out with coins in hand, eager for a cold treat. Even with my family’s Depression-era caution, every so often my mother…
In the 1980s, Jacintoport Road situated along the Houston Ship Channel felt like a road history had forgotten—overgrown, deserted, and bordered by silent WWII concrete bunkers, their edges disappearing into wild brush. As I drove past those old ordnance “igloos” toward an isolated chemical plant, it seemed less like a routine sales call and more…
When I was about 17, I met a man I thought was the very picture of success. He was involved in a few business ventures, though I never really knew what they were. What stood out to me was his attitude—he believed building wealth was possible through discipline. To my young ears, it sounded as…