Family Life

What’s Best For Marriage – Compatibility or Commitment?

It’s my observation as one now married more than thirty years that two things are required for a successful marriage: commitment and compatibility. But I fear that out of fear we have given compatibility far more weight than it can carry as a predictor of marital health. And if the other person doesn’t match up [...]

By |2017-07-10T09:57:24-07:00July 10th, 2017|Family Life, Life Skills, Men and Women|Comments Off on What’s Best For Marriage – Compatibility or Commitment?

Lewis & Clark’s Five Tips For A Happy Marriage

As a pastor who’s now logged 33 years with the wife-of-my-life, I’ve been asked often what makes for an enduring marriage. And when that question comes up, invariably I bring up – naturally – Lewis and Clark. For real. On May 21, 1804, at 3:30 in the afternoon, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, along with [...]

By |2017-05-20T18:37:08-07:00March 22nd, 2017|Family Life, Life Skills, Men and Women|Comments Off on Lewis & Clark’s Five Tips For A Happy Marriage

In Tribute To The Finest Vet I Have Ever Known – My Grandpa Graper

A child really knows so little about his own father, still less about his own grandfather. But I guess therein lies some of the magic that a grandfather possesses. God has granted to grandfathers the privilege of being Peter Pan, Santa Claus and Indiana Jones all rolled into one. A grandfather’s hands never reach out [...]

By |2017-05-20T18:37:10-07:00November 11th, 2016|Family Life|Comments Off on In Tribute To The Finest Vet I Have Ever Known – My Grandpa Graper

Good Grief – Reflections On Saying Goodbye

For those of you with kids off to college, or just moving away, or for anyone saying goodbyes of one form or another, the following is a journal entry I wrote the day after we put Hannah on a plane for New Zealand when she moved there for a year back in 2011. I've shared [...]

By |2017-05-20T18:37:10-07:00September 8th, 2016|Family Life, Life Skills|Comments Off on Good Grief – Reflections On Saying Goodbye