The third-grade student looked up sheepishly at his teacher after grading his own paper. Several red marks stood out on the page, silent accusers of his incompetency -- or so he feared. But the teacher's eyes brightened when she saw his paper. "Oh, you caught yourself!" she said. "Good job! Did you know that mistakes are valuable? You can learn from them and figure out what to do next time." A weight lifted from the boy's shoulders. He had caught himself! He had done a good job! Now he could figure out how to better solve the same problems next time. This is the power of regret. Continue Reading

It was a dark and stormy night -- seriously -- years ago. Wind howled, rain drummed hard, branches scraped the roof, and little Danny woke up crying. My husband was going to have to go to work early. How to get my toddler back to sleep? In a flash of inspiration, I crept down the stairs and plugged in the colored lights on our Christmas tree, freshly decorated after Danny had been put to bed. Then I carried my fussing, squirming boy down to the living room. When he caught sight of that tree, an amazing thing happened: Fear vanished. Wonder took its place. Eyes wide, jaw dropped Continue Reading

Ever get to the end of a day feeling empty, despite all the stuff you’ve checked off your to-do list? Ever wonder if you are  pursuing accomplishment, productiveness, and efficiency at the cost of feeling truly alive?     If you feel more like a machine than a human being, maybe it's time for you to find your way back. We live in an era of unprecedented industrial conveniences and technological advances, yet these do not come without a cost. Our lives are more of a high-speed blur than ever. The tools we invented in order to free ourselves from labor have become our masters. Just try Continue Reading

Does a fish notice the water? I suspect he lives and moves and breathes in it his whole existence, never thinking about what is surrounding him and flowing through him. Do we notice how culture affects us? Maybe not any more than the fish notices water. It’s easy to go back in time to Bible days and clearly see how the world’s influence seeped into the church. You Corinthians, get a grip! It’s not okay to sleep with your step-mom! You Galatians, don’t you get that it’s not about keeping the law? It’s a little harder to see how our own societal norms affect us continually. We live Continue Reading