Dear Greylynn, I’ve had this letter on my mind for a while now. I’m not sure where to even start, so I’ll just begin by saying that you’ve had us on quite the journey so far. Your mom spent the first few months being terribly sick and then a couple months ago you tried to join us too early. Then you surprised us all by staying put. God...
Several months ago I had an important meeting on my schedule and I spent several days preparing for it. I was a little nervous, but I was also excited. I tend to over-prepare, but unfortunately for this meeting, I way over-prepared. I stayed up past 2 AM the night before and woke up the next morning feeling terrible. I thought I would be fine, but...
I guess you could call this a “guest post,” but it’s not really a guest. It’s my wife. And I could not be more proud of the words she’s put together on this topic. She was planning to just post this on social media, but when I read it and it affected me the way it did, I wanted to be able to share it, too! I knew it...
When I became a dad a little over two years ago I knew I had a lot to learn about becoming a parent. What I didn’t expect is just how much my son would teach me about life in general. I’m sure I have many more lessons to learn in the years ahead, but in the mean time I thought I would share this selection of 20: 1. Saturday mornings...
I’ll never forget the first time my wife told me she wanted to give an offering at church. It’s been several years ago, but I can still remember the gut turning nausea it induced. At the time we were tithing faithfully, both actively involved in volunteer roles, and offering our help whenever possible. In other words, I thought we were doing...
“Tyler… Tyler… TYLER.” No, that line you just read wasn’t me practicing the spelling of my name. That was a direct quote from my wife as she tried to get my attention recently as I was looking down at my phone. I’m not sure if it was email, social media, or a text message from a friend — it doesn’t really matter...
As a kid, my name and the word “shy” was inseparable. Classmates, friends, family — everyone classified me that way. In all truthfulness, I guess I was. I always got nervous speaking in class, I rarely initiated new friendships, and I never went out of my way to talk to someone I didn’t know. I was never proud of being called shy, and I...
As I write this, CNN is playing on my TV in the background and political pundits are offering their projections and estimations for the 2016 election. I’m not sure who the winner will be but I don’t have to be sure about the winner in order to be sure that there will be millions of disappointed people as the winner is announced. That’s the...
Whether we like it or not, we all have to deal with difficult, negative people on occasions. You may work with one, you may be friends with one, you may even be married to one. But the question is, how do you deal with one? It’s not easy, and more often than not, my default reaction is avoidance. But, as my wife recently showed me, there’s a...
Hearing your name is one of the most comforting things in life. It starts as a child, when your mom or your dad calls your name to come inside for dinner. When your best friend shouts your name in the school halls. When your child calls you, “Mom-ma” or “Da-da” for the first time. A name means a lot, especially when...
