“No More Darkness” was a poem I wrote after my nephew committed suicide. It was meant to inspire a sense of hope and strength in those of us left behind that darkness would not triumph. Below are resources to help you or someone you care about who are struggling with depression, mental illness, and/or thoughts […]
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It has been four years since I have written any real posts on my blog – four full years since my nephew’s suicide and other large life changes! My last post, Darkness – Cannot Snuff Out That Light, was a poem inspired for my nephew, and even more so for those people mourning such a
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[featured-image single_newwindow=”false”] Darkness came and struck it’s blow; “I’ve come to steal and kill, and bring you low.” Darkness was waiting for it’s time and prey; “Now let my destruction spread upon you today.” Now Darkness watches prideful, beaming with delight; “Let’s see how many crumble and no longer fight.” Darkness
Blessing Your Family, Sprints & Marathons Welcome to Day 31 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Sprints & Marathons. You have set out on a lifelong “run” to Bless Your Family, and you will be running for and hopefully alongside with your spouse and children. In a sense
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Blessing Your Family, Intimacy & Sex Welcome to Day 30 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Intimacy & Sex. The image for today doesn’t just fit because there’s a couple on a bed, but the sign on the wall says, “Your Heart – I Will Choose”. In the
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Blessing Your Family, Present & Participating Welcome to Day 29 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Present & Participating. This topic was one of the more difficult images I could find that might communicate in an image our subject for the day. In today’s image I see a
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Blessing Your Family, Completing Welcome to Day 28 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Completing. This is a lifelong commitment and vision. When you promise to Bless Your Family you are making a promise that your love is a Completing kind of love – a lifelong commitment
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Blessing Your Family, Blending Welcome to Day 27 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Blending. The majority of families and marriages today are blended families, a mix of “Yours, Mine, and Ours” or “Blended” – and no, it’s not always a made for the movies storyline.
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Blessing Your Family, Personalities & Languages Welcome to Day 26 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Personalities & Languages. This isn’t whether you have a personality or what language/s you speak, but rather what unique personality styles and what different love languages exist in the individuals of your
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Blessing Your Family, Drama & Gossip Free Zone Welcome to Day 25 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Drama & Gossip Free Zone. For myself, I have a “No Drama” rule. I also value honesty, confidentiality, and loyalty so I prefer not speaking about others in forms of gossip.
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Blessing Your Family, Peaceful & Clean Welcome to Day 24 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Peaceful & Clean. This is a topic that literally is creating an environment to Bless Your Family! Most of our other topics create an environment to bless your family by
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Blessing Your Family, Good Food Welcome to Day 23 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Good Food. This is another treat you can credit my son! Right next to Fun Memories for him is Good Food, and not just because he is a growing teenager. He is bigger than
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Blessing Your Family, Fun Memories Welcome to Day 22 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Fun Memories. (another credit to my teenage son) Creating Fun Memories is a priority when you set out to Bless Your Family. It is often times part of the glue that helps bind
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Blessing Your Family, Edifying Welcome to Day 21 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Edifying – to build up. When you enter into this topic today I want you to consider the theme image below of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. As you look at it soaring
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Blessing Your Family, Consistency Welcome to Day 20 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Consistency. This was advice that came to me in my early twenties from a friend, recently married, and eager to start a family. He shared with me that consistent schedule or routine and habits helped things
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Blessing Your Family, Margin Welcome to Day 19 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Margin. This has been a popular topic in the past several years, and if you’re not already familiar with it then you may not have much of it yourself, and it’s possible you may
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Blessing Your Family, Boundaries Welcome to Day 18 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Boundaries. This is a great topic in our sequence going from Generosity, Partner and Parent, Responsibility, Finances, through Prayer, Boundaries, Margin and Consistency. There really may become logic to these 31 Days to Bless
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Blessing Your Family, Prayer Welcome to Day 17 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Prayer. In my opinion there is no more powerful resource available to Bless Our Families than through faith and inviting God into our marriage and parenting relationships, into our homes and into our extended
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Blessing Your Family, Finances Welcome to Day 16 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Finances. As I mentioned on Day 3 – Communication, the top three reasons for divorce are: Communication (Day 3) Finances (today, Day 16) Sex (Day 30) I suppose evenly spacing these out across our 31
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Blessing Your Family, Modeling Responsibility Welcome to Day 15 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Modeling Responsibility, for your children and the society you impact, even bless, every day! This is another topic that did not make my original list. It comes to us from my teenage son’s
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Blessing Your Family, Partner & Parent Welcome to Day 14 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Partner & Parent. In almost all cases I am assuming you have a partner, a spouse, a soul mate. And in many of those cases there are children involved, whether your own
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Blessing Your Family, Generosity Welcome to Day 13 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Generosity, our follow up to Gratefulness in the “Sweetness Cycle” in our journey to Bless Your Family. Yesterday I shared that my wife and I have been grateful for each other, and that we
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Blessing Your Family, Gratefulness Welcome to Day 12 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Gratefulness or Gratitude, and tomorrow we will address its mate, Generosity. When my wife and I first met and were dating we were so grateful for each other that we couldn’t stop
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“It’s not the will to win, but the will to prepare to win that makes the difference.” #BearBryant Be a difference maker – a champion of positive change; and make it a purpose-filled and on-target day! @Eric_D_Jackson
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Blessing Your Family, Integrity Welcome to Day 8 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Integrity. This is a great 1 – 2 – 3 step as we have gone from Trust and Safety, to Faithfulness, culminating in Integrity (Wikipedia). The main point here for us today is to
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Blessing Your Family, Admiration Welcome to Day 11 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Admiration, the third post in my “TAR” acronym to keep a sweet environment for your marriage and family to thrive. Our first posts were Tenderness and Respect so we could properly frame the kind
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Blessing Your Family, Respect Welcome to Day 10 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Respect, following yesterday’s post on Tenderness. I am switching the order of “TAR” in my acronym here only to prioritize Respect before Admiration. For now, please allow me to say that Respect carries more
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Blessing Your Family, Tenderness Welcome to Day 9 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Tenderness. We head into another 1 – 2 – 3 topic in our 31 Days to Bless Your Family series. Here is a short acronym for our next three days together, TAR: Tenderness, Admiration,
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Blessing Your Family, Faithfulness Welcome to Day 7 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Faithfulness. Being faithful and keeping your promise is one of the greatest ways to Bless Your Family. It is also one of the character traits and actual practices that mirror God’s own faithfulness in keeping
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Blessing Your Family, Trust and Safety Welcome to Day 6 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Trust and Safety. It is a topic added to our list for these 31 days after speaking with my son. He mentioned each of these separately as he unpacked his
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Blessing Your Family, Surrender to Oneness Welcome to Day 5 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”! Today’s theme is Surrender to Oneness. Or, as I like to say sometimes, “Life’s secret sauce is surrender“. In fact, I would like to submit to you that there is no greatness in life or
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