Category: Parenting

  • Finding Dad

    To My Blog Post Readers, Seven years ago on this day — December 5th — my wife, Patrice, lost her father. But the real story is how she found him just a year before.  She has given me permission to share that story. Finding Dad Some stories warm the soul.  This is one of them.…

  • What Every Son Longs to Hear

    Watching 7-year-old boys play soccer is like watching a herd of cats chasing a ball of yarn. They are but a crowd of mini-humanity moving randomly across a grass field. It’s funny and frustrating all at the same time. Then around ten years of age, these young athletes-in-the-making begin to understand the game.  They learn to…

  • I Love Pink Balls and I Cannot Lie

    I Love Pink Balls and I Cannot Lie

    Allow me to be more specific.  I love pink GOLF balls.  Especially the pink florescent golf balls given to me by my granddaughter. For you non-golfers out there, golf balls come in a variety of colors with white being the dominant color by far.  Unless you are playing in the snow, then you have bigger…

  • Raising Parents

    Recently, a colleague sought prayer for discerning the role he and his wife should play regarding their aging parents. The request sparked a number of memories and suggestions as to what they could be doing now. Though my parents have been gone for over a decade, the memories of their last years still linger. Fond…

  • Conversations With A Four-Year-Old

    Life is full of tears, fears, and cheers.  Hopefully, it is also punctuated with moments of sheer laughter.  This post has but one purpose — to put a smile on your face and inspire you to take notes when in conversation with any four-year-olds who inhabit your universe. One of life’s fundamental realities is that…

  • Theology Lessons from a Three-Year-Old

    Theology Lessons from a Three-Year-Old

    If meat and potatoes are comfort food, then spending time with my grandchildren is soul food —  in more ways than one.  You finally understand why  the word “grandchildren” includes the letters g-r-a-n-d.  Watching them sleep redefines the word precious.  And listening to their observations of the universe makes you want to fall on your…

  • Praying for Dead Birds

    My youngest grandson, Luke, has been spending some time with his Nonni and Poppy this Spring. He is three and a half years old, going on thirty. He is at that stage where seemingly every question begins with “why,” his favorite exclamation is “Mine,” and every sentence includes the word “exactly” — as in “Poppy,…

  • What A Caddie Taught Me About Encouragement

    What A Caddie Taught Me About Encouragement

    This past week I was invited to play a round of golf at East Lake Golf Club in Decatur, Georgia.  East Lake is no ordinary club.  It’s the site of the Tour Championship, the culminating event of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedEx Cup. More importantly, it was also the home course for golfing…

  • We All Need A Ninja Zone

    I rarely visit any of my grandchildren when this Poppy does not come away with some new life lessons.  A few years ago, one of my grandfather therapy sessions (i.e., babysitting) with three of my grandsons provided a prime example of the insights available to anyone who has eyes to see and ears to hear.…

  • My Imaginary Friend Did It

    My Imaginary Friend Did It

    My three-year-old grandson ran down the hallway, dashed into our master bedroom, and took refuge in his favorite hiding place – a spot behind my LazyBoy rocking chair.  Having just knocked something over in our living room, he knew the noise would bring Poppy to see what havoc his rambunctiousness had wrought. Young Luke sought…