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Should Christians Swear?
My father was a kind man, but he struggled with anger. There was a battle inside him between his vision for how things should be and how they actually were. That’s what bothered him. It wasn’t the angering thing itself but that it represented a failure on his part to make the situation right, to control the world around him. He never swore at us kids, but my dad was a champion at using swear words when he worked. In fact, when our dad was working on cars or the tractor, my older sister and I would get each other so we could eavesdrop on him while he worked. It…
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5 Ways to Pray
There’s no way to make an ice cream sundae wrong. Do you like bananas? Throw some in. Do you like chocolate syrup? Pour it on. Do you like sprinkles, cherries, whipped cream, walnuts or pickles? Go ahead and…wait, pickles? Ok, put those on there too. We’re only imagining, right? The point is that we all have different tastes. We all have a different history with ice cream and we know what we like. And unless you’re lactose intolerant, making an ice cream sundae should excite you. The last couple weeks we’ve been talking about how to pray. You can check those out here and here. Both weeks stressed the main…
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How to pray pt 2
As a writer I am constantly tempted to use more words than necessary, especially when I’m excited about a topic. Even in conversation with someone I drift into passionate unnecessary descriptions. My words are like water breaking through a dam; once they find a crack they’re gushing out. You know what I don’t get though? Why doesn’t this same verbosity apply to my prayer life? Ask me about politics, the bible, American football, professional wrestling or the best way to prepare squirrel, and you’ll probably get an earful. (Go ahead. I dare you to ask me about squirrel and noodle casserole.) But when I’m sitting in the presence of God,…
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How to Pray pt 1
When my wife and I go on a date, I try lots of different ways to keep the conversation going. We just celebrated our 14th anniversary this past week (woot woot!), and after so long, it’s hard to find a topic we haven’t discussed. We’ve had conversations about mundane topics like paint color and origami. We’ve had conversations about politics, relationships, work, parenting, life, and death. When you’ve been with the same person for so long, finding a new topic takes work. When we’re out to dinner alone, rather than succumb to the temptation to immerse ourselves in our phones I look for lulls and then I spring into action.…
