Saturday’s golf tournament was a reminder of why I hate golf and why I love it…at times.

I hate golf because I can’t golf. You see, golf is a mind game as much as it’s a game of athletic prowess. Sure, you need to have ability when it comes to swinging the club and if you’re out of shape then your game will show it. However, you have to remember that you are trying to hit a ball that weighs a little over 1.5 oz and is a little bigger than 1.5 inches in diameter. I can’t even hit an oversized softball! Add to that the fact that they want you to hit that ball on the “sweet spot” of the club you are holding. So here you are, standing on the tee box and you wind up, and with all your might you swing that club to hit that little ball, and what happens? That little ball only goes 20 yards and not in the direction you wanted it to go. Now I’m looking for my ball with the chipmunks. Yes, golf is frustrating, but I know some of you love the game and you’re actually good at it. So I’ll just stick to my once a year game.

But I also love golf. At least I loved it Saturday because I got to spend it with my boys. We were able to spend seven hours of uninterrupted time together and that is a rarity. None of us golf, so the three of us did equally well. One thing I remember about Saturday is that I haven’t laughed with Ben and Blake like that in a long time. Yes, it’s really kind of funny that three grown men who are in relatively good shape can’t hit a golf ball farther than we can throw the chipmunk that was trying to steal our golf balls. I guess what I’m trying to say is that we made a beautiful memory and nothing can take that away from us.

It’s tough when your kids are grown up, living their own lives, taking trips without you, and spending time with their friends on the weekend. As parents we expect that, in fact we want that. But if you spent too much time away from your kids while they were growing up like I did, you long to spend time with them now. That is the boat I’m in. I’ve asked forgiveness from my kids and we’re on track now, but I don’t get to see them like I used to. So when they come into town I try to carve out as much memory building time as I can.

Children don’t raise themselves; they’re just not good at it. They are not equipped to begin life without us. Children need parents. It’s easy for us to neglect our kids. Sure we feed, clothe and shelter them, but that doesn’t mean we’re raising them. They need constant reminders of the importance of God and our love for them. Making memories is one way we as parents can tell our kids how much we love them.

What memory are you making with your kids?

Grace & Peace,

Happy Mother’s Day (a couple of days early)! I hope you’ve all made your plans to properly and biblically honor your mother on this special day. I would encourage you to think of those attributes in your mom that you can praise – her wisdom, hard work, patience, love, grace, perseverance, tenacity, encouragement, foresight, etc. Every mom has something for which we can say “thank you.” So take the time this weekend to tell her how much she means to you. The Bible clearly says that we as children will “rise up and call her blessed” (Proverbs 31:28). In other words, it’s a given, it’s assumed that we will do this…so let’s do it.

Something else we can do this Mother’s Day that we find in the Bible is to remember the lessons she taught us and do them!

…Forsake not your mother’s teaching. (Proverbs 1:8)

We would do well to reminisce on all the little talks Mom had with us and pull out the “wisdom from above” that God was trying to communicate to us. Moms are consistently teaching through their lives and lips. So many tips have come from those lips on cooking or getting a difficult stain out or how to manage time properly or how to show genuine compassion or how to make personal devotions a priority or how to stand under peer pressure, and many countless other valuable lessons. A foolish person hears these wise words and then walks away without doing them (read James 1:22-25). I will take the text from Proverbs 1:7-9 and share some lessons on Sunday morning – so more on that later.

This Mother’s Day we can give the gift of an obedient and wise life to our moms. Solomon wrote this,

A wise son (and/or daughter) makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother. (Proverbs 10:1).

Wisdom is simply making choices from a biblical perspective, so foolishness would be the opposite. A foolish child is one who makes decisions based on fleshly desires and earthly pressures. Oh, how many of us have done that (yeah, all of us). But we don’t need to stay parked in despair. Through repentance we can find our way back to wise living. So, let me encourage you to make Mom a glad Mom by living wisely.

Grace & Peace,

What a beautiful week this has been! Last week Barb and I were in Florida visiting my parents, sister, brother-in-law, 2 nephews, niece, her new husband, great nephew, the cat and a small flock of ducks! The weather was perfect for our three days; the sun was out each day and the temperature was in the 80’s each day. As we left on Thursday to return home we had shorts and t-shirts on, and the further we drove north the colder it got. We stopped outside of Columbia to get gas and supper and it was 37 degrees! What happened? Well, we missed the cold weather during spring break but are so thankful that this week proved to be sunny and warm.

I am so thankful for these times you allow me to take away from

I want to encourage all of our couples to take time to check up in one another. Without open communication in a marriage that marriage will fail. I’m not saying you’ll end up calling the lawyers, but you’ll end up being disinterested in one another.

So, let me ask you: “What common interests of discussion do you and your spouse have?” What I am trying to say is: what do you guys like talking about?

It is so easy to check out in a marriage, but it is hard to stay plugged in. Checking out takes nothing. That’s right, you need to do absolutely nothing to grow the distance between the one you pursued so urgently years ago. Plugging in on the other hand takes hard work. It seemed so effortless when you first met and you could talk for hours about, well, pretty much each other. As time passes it seems that we’ve talked everything out and have pretty much beaten the proverbial horse dead. But in order for our marriages not only to survive but also to thrive we need to spend time working on this communication, you know, talking.

So while the weather is sunny and the warm breezes blow take an evening and walk the neighborhood with your spouse and talk. See what comes up and return to those days when you could talk for hours about nothing really special but it meant that you were together.

Grace & Peace,