So I'm on this gleeful rampage of cleaning out my files, and I run across an article I'd clipped ten years ago. It's  entitled "Shame May Not Be So Bad After All."     In this still-timely article, Dr. Joyce Brothers articulates the difference between good shame and bad shame. Here's an example of bad shame:   My Kindergarten teacher regularly called me "Slowpoke." She didn't realize until I was in first grade that I had only recently learned English and needed time to mentally translate her instructions from English to German.   Bad shame humiliates and makes Continue Reading

You’ve heard the over-arching social rule of the day ad nauseum: Don’t judge. Here’s the irony – today’s religious “tolerance” paves the way for judgmentalism of the worst kind.     That’s because we have judged the truth itself -- and found it wanting.   In doing so, we have judged Jesus and found him wanting.   Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but through me.” – John 14:6   He said, “Before Abraham was, I Am,” thus claiming equality to God and infuriating the religious leaders of his day.   Jesus Continue Reading

Is a fish aware of the water it breathes, moves and lives in? Are we aware of the cultural attitudes we are saturated with daily, and how they affect us? Perhaps no more so than the fish.   Most of us don't go through our day analyzing what is behind the messages we receive through the media and society in general. We're too immersed in the soup to make sense of it.   The fact that we don't notice them doesn't make cultural influences any less real -- or less dangerous.   One of the most insidious attitudes of our day is a mindset that is the very opposite of faith. Continue Reading

Nobody wants to be a wimp. You like the idea of being the hero who saves the day, right? Me, too.     Courage is an important virtue. Without it, we fail  to stand up for ourselves and others. We let evil rule while we run for cover.   Remember  the beginning of "It's a Wonderful Life," starring Jimmy Stewart? Clarence, the angel assigned to help George Bailey,  wants to know what George is struggling with.   "Is he sick?" he queries.   "Worse," comes the reply. "He's discouraged."   Or the moment in "Toy Story" when Buzz Light Year realizes he is Continue Reading