I am not a creative parent. I may be a decent parent. I think I can be a real pain as a parent, but I am lacking in the creativity department. I do recognize that creativity is a good thing, when it comes to the parental role. I appreciated an interesting parental story that Donald Miller shares in his most recent release. It seems a father was engrossed in ESPN or the like when his daughter came in to show…
I love autobiographies. I find them inspiring. I am willing read the entire gamut in this area of literature. I have not always been a big fan of Teddy Kennedy, but his autobiography is in my reading queue. I just completed an autobiography of sorts. Donald Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz, recently released a new work. The title is: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. It is autobiographical for sure, but he writes with the purpose of inspiring…
I concluded that he just did not like me. I worked for a police supervisor a number of years ago who is a fine man. For some odd reason I had a very difficult time connecting with him. He seemed distant. I found it difficult to communicate with him. And yet those who had known him for a long time obviously had great respect for his character and leadership. Long time friends seemed to have positive connections with him. My…
It is going to happen. I promise… You are going to get behind someone in traffic today who is moving at a snail’s pace. And you will be tempted. I know you will. You will be tempted to sit on your horn, or say something under your breath that would not make your mother proud. If that doesn’t happen, then it could be that you are going to be behind a person in line at Wal-Mart who is not familiar…
I got a call from Misty Walters at the Behavioral Transition Center yesterday. The BTC, as it is called, is a separate campus for middle school and high school aged offenders, who have gotten in serious trouble at school. Some districts refer to such facilities as the alternative school. I still get a little nervous when the BTC number appears on my cell phone. I wonder: Did I not finish my time back in 1979? Are they going to make…
Turn those cell phones and electronic devices off. I heard that on every flight during my recent trip. Flying on a commercial carrier is one of the rare times when people actually cut themselves off from the electronic chains that so control our lives. I found it amusing to watch fellow passengers turning their phones back on just as soon as the wheels of the plane made contact with the ground.Can you call that an addiction? Or is the image…
…Whoever wants to become great among you must become your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all…(Mark 10:43-44) My brother in-law, Robert Ross, is no doubt a direct descendant of Daniel Boone. Robert grew up in the Upper Peninsula in Michigan. I don’t know what they do for fun up there. I am not sure I want to know. I just know that Robert could be perfectly content to spend his days fishing, hunting, camping,…
Tomorrow I am teaching an 8 hour continuing education class at Tarrant County College’s Criminal Justice Training Center. Police officers in Texas are required to complete a certain amount of approved coursework every year in order to keep their certification current. Tomorrow’s subject matter includes: death notifications, line of duty deaths, stress in law enforcement, and suicide.Will the students go home feeling totally depressed after a day of such subject matter? Hopefully tomorrow’s time in the classroom will be productive…
I readily admit that I am inclined to have a short fuse at times. I have worked really hard over the years at developing the virtue of patience. Consistently being the non anxious presence is quite the challenge. I had the opportunity to work on that virtue not once, but twice yesterday. We drove into Woodward, OK about 1:30 Friday morning after a six hour drive. I officiated at a funeral in Granbury Thursday afternoon before we took off. Another…
If you wait until you can afford to have kids, you most likely will wait a long time. If you postpone going to college until everything is just right, you will never get a degree. And if you delay serving other people until your own life circumstances are just right, you may forfeit the privilege of giving of yourself to others. Last night shortly after midnight we drove through Clinton, OK. Clinton is a mid-sized Oklahoma town just north of…