What’s the point?  Have you ever invested time and energy into an ambiguous or seemingly futile endeavor?  You work, study, struggle, and sweat…all for not.  Maybe its a college major with no employable skills taught.  A job assigned by a superior with no apparent value…or one that doesn’t best use your skills or time.  Sometimes some church programs and ministries can fall into this category.  They start with lots of gusto and end up be a no-go.  No matter the situation, we find our selves pondering, “What’s the point?” At times I have found myself thinking this about prayer.  I know prayer is an essential discipline, responsibility, and gift we possess.  It connects us with the Almighty God.  But after years and tears asking and[…]

“Moderation in all things.”  A lot of us live by this motto.  Extremism gets a lot of play on the nightly news, and rarely is it good news.  The problem with politics:  extreme partisanship.  The problem in the Middle East:  Extremists.  The reason we don’t talk about religion or politics at the dinner table:  opinions in the extreme.  Moderation makes sense.  It allows for tolerance.  Moderations reduces judgmental accusations.  Moderation simply makes sense.  The problem with moderation is that Jesus never preached it. As we continue our sermon series on Stumbling Blocks, we tackle what are often considered the extremes.  Billy Graham is quoted as saying, “The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and[…]

There is an old saying that goes something like, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.”  We all know the principle behind this saying.  I can give my children every lesson and benefit this life offers…but I can’t make them use it well.  A teacher can provide every piece of knowledge, but this same teacher can’t make a child learn.  Ultimately, the horse must choose to drink, the student must choose to learn, and my children my choose to be responsible.  We can set someone up for success…but they must choose. Oh my is this frustrating!  Don’t you wish you could make your children choose wisely?!?  Don’t you wish you could force your students to learn?!? As we continue[…]

Today was a HUGE day in the Morris family!  Zelia started her first day of official “big girl” preschool.  Okay, this news might not make the cover of the Franklin Press.  But it was big day of excitement, fear, and expectation for our world.  We signed Zelia up months ago, knowing it was time to challenge her maturity.  It was heartbreaking for her to leave the security of the daycare person she had come to love and trust.  However, she was eager and anxious to be a big girl and go to a “big girl” school! I’d like to believe that this transition was harder on mom and dad than it was on Zelia.  I still remember vividly the joy as I watched my precious[…]

It fascinates me how different my children are.  Oh, they have their similarities.  They both are intensely high energy, sweet, and out-going.  Maybe I’m a little bias, but I also think they are just so cute!  For all their similarities, their differences are striking.  The one fundamental difference I recently noticed is how they respond to correction.  Both my children are intense and vocal in their desire. Yet my son, if sternly corrected, immediately stops.  He responds quickly to correction.  Now my daughter…the spirited child that she is…chooses not to stop but to challenge your reasoning for asking her to stop.  Have you ever argued with a 4 year old?  Its a pointless, exhausting endeavor!  Yet she picks a fight with every disobedient step she[…]