Love Your Enemy
Today’s film clip is taken from the movie To End All Wars. Based on a book by the same title, this movie chronicles the suffering and spiritual transformation of a British soldier named Ernest Gordon. Captured by the Japanese just months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Gordon was put to work on the infamous […]
Confession Killers
If you want to make a confession utterly worthless, use one of these three phrases. “I’m sorry if I’ve done something to upset you.” When you use these words, what people hear is, “I don’t know that I’ve done anything wrong, but since you’re obviously upset, here’s a token apology to get you off my […]
The Compassionate Boxer
Cinderella Man is one of my favorite movies, largely because it stars Russell Crowe, one of my favorite actors. The story is based on the life of James J. Braddock. Once a successful heavyweight boxer, Braddock was reduced to poverty by a broken hand and the Great Depression. After losing their home, he and his […]
RW in the Movies
This Thursday I’m launching a new companion blog that will use short clips from popular movies to teach relational wisdom. As a prelude to the first post, I’d like to describe the classic formula for great stories and explain how we can learn life-changing relational skills from two-minute movie clips. Whether we’re watching Gone with […]
The SOG Plan
Do you know an impulsive teenager? A frustrated wife? A detached husband? A resentful employee? A contentious church member? A relationally clumsy pastor? If so, read on. Six years ago I developed a relational tool called “the SOG plan” as an alternative to selling my teenage daughter. When Megan hit fifteen, her emotions went into […]
Silencing Gossip
How can you stop gossip and other critical talk in its tracks? Always be ready to ask three simple questions. If someone begins to share confidential or unfavorable information or opinions about another person, and you are not part of the problem or its solution, simply interrupt and ask: “May I quote you when I […]
Clarity Plus Charity
Last week I posted a story on my blog entitled “Time to Let Go.” In that post I included this statement: “Sometimes [letting go] will call for … accepting a divorce to preserve some measure of cooperative parenting rather than dragging a legal battle out for months.” The next day I received two very different […]
Time to Let Go
When I was in college, I tried to impress a young lady by taking her canoeing on a rapidly flowing stream. I chose a bad stretch of water, and within fifteen minutes we hit rapids that threw us against a large rock in the middle of the stream. In an instant, the canoe turned sideways […]
Join Me on an EGG Hunt
Chocolate is nice, but there’s another kind of Easter egg that is infinitely better. It’s called an “Evidence of God’s Grace,” or more simply, an “EGG.” EGGs are everywhere, and yet most people, even Christians, are astonishingly blind to them. Do you realize that it is God’s grace that keeps your heart beating all through […]
Vroom
My two-year-old grandson has major idolatry issues … and you may have a similar problem. When he wakes from a nap, his first word is, “Vroom!” When he finishes a meal, he asks, “Vroom?” If we say, “Not now,” he whimpers and softly repeats “Vroom” over and over, hoping to wear us down. (He’s doing […]