Ready or Not Here I Come

(Ready or not, leave a comment down below if you have ever played hide and seek with God) Remember, as a child, playing hide-and-seek? Running and hiding as fast as you can from whoever was “it.” Then, preparing to be discovered with anticipation? It’s an exciting game, but playing hide and seek as an adult is not nearly as satisfying.   As an adult, hide and seek sounds like this “I can no longer do that because of my pain.” “I used to do that, but because of ________, I just can’t do it anymore.” “I guess I’m going to […]

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Forgiveness Is Required

Last month we addressed the impact of trust or lack thereof on our relationships, and that trust is a gateway to love. As is often the case when praying and pondering about writing this article, I usually have to experience what I’m writing. Candidly, sometimes I tell God I don’t want to write about “that subject” because I know he’ll expose me to the cracks and crevices and sometimes caverns of my brokenness and require me to experience or revisit some element of the subject. So, this month we’ll move from trust to forgiveness. And yes, both topics I’ve experienced […]

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Trust Builds Love

For months we’ve had rioting in the streets, elections at the highest level in our nation inundated with accusations of fraud, churches fractured over leadership decisions, a news media that’s increasingly biased by personal opinion, a pandemic that’s gripped the world, and a tragic suicide bombing on Christmas morning.  Fear and lack of trust are rampant. How did we get to this point? Satan. Satan always aims at trust when he wants to divide because trust affects love. The more intimately we trust someone, the more capacity we have to love them. The less we trust them, the harder it […]

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Back to the Present

Back in Time Family, the stuff we’re made of. Where do we come from? Where do you feel most at home? “The Hillbilly Elegy” is the top 10 movie on Netflix.  It’s a story of a Yale law student that receives an urgent phone call that pulls him back to his Ohio hometown, where he reflects on three generations of family history and his future. The movie opens with a cast of characters such as Glenn Close, Amy McAdams, and the first words are “it’s the year of our Lord.” We all have a story.   The family system Dr. […]

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Does Loving Myself Have Any Bearing On Loving Others?

“Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law? “Jesus declared, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments’” (Matthew 22:36-40). Think about that; if we wholly love God and love our neighbor as ourselves, we are unlikely to murder, steal, covet, lie, disrespect our parents, take the Lord’s name in vain, have idols, defile the Sabbath or commit adultery! We […]

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Pause or Pursue

It’s Fall! A glorious season full of family, celebrations and romance! Hannah Felding, a romance novelist, recently sent out a survey polling the readers’ choice for the most romantic season of the year. Fall came in at 43 percent, followed by Spring at 31 percent. Of all the brides surveyed, a whopping 28 percent got engaged on a holiday or other special occasion. So while others are thinking about pumpkins and turkey, I’m encouraging those that are hoping this will be a season of romance to pursue clarity in your dating relationship so you’ll have discernment regarding whether to hit […]

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What’s Your EQ?

We all know that IQ measures intelligence, but are you aware of EQ? EQ is our emotional intelligence. In the best-selling book, Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman documented the research indicating that IQ intelligence only accounts for about 20 percent of a person’s success in life. So what accounts for the other 80%? Researchers believe a big piece of the puzzle is Emotional Intelligence – the capacity to ACQUIRE and APPLY emotional information.   People with strong emotional intelligence are more effective and successful in their career, make healthier choices, have more influence, make better decisions, make better grades, and they have […]

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The Tale of Two Families

I was recently blessed to share the mission and history of Live the Life South Florida with a group of people outside of Florida. A wise man approached me afterward and said, “Good job, but remember, you tell them, and then you tell them again.” I laughed and thought, how very true. Studies suggest that repeated statements are perceived as more truthful than statements made less frequently. In simple terms: Frequency breeds familiarity, and familiarity breeds trust. Not only do consumers remember an account that gets repeated, but they are also more likely to believe it, and think it is […]

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Life’s Ledgers: What’s your Balance?

Our core expectations for close relationships are affected by all of our previous close relationships, whether with parents, siblings, former spouses, lovers or friends. At certain periods in our life significant people, or even life itself through specific events that affected us, ran up a series of debits or credits in terms of what you needed. Time passes, we walk through life’s revolving door, marry and hand our bill balance over to our spouse. Our spouse gets a credit or a debit for what others did or did not do. If my account has many positive experiences from the past […]

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Can There Be A Good Fight?

Can there by a good fight? Good Fight, Bad Fight, Dirty Fight: Dirty fighting is whenever you use EITHER active; HEAVY HANDED control tactics or PASSIVE- AGGRESSIVE tactics to resolve an issue. It’s a form of manipulation.

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