My Inner Author

Webster's Dictionary defines father as "a man who has begotten a child."   Amazing how completely and utterly devoid of nearly 99% of the true meaning of the word, the dictionary leaves off.   Indeed, if in our society this is all fathers actually did, we really wouldn't have much of a society or civilization at all.   We all know typically mothers are glue which holds families together, and fathers are more known for playing other roles: handyman, hunter/gatherer, disciplinarian, ATM, or sadly in some cases, absentee parent. How we men learn the role of a father comes not from a book, a class, a college major, a TV show, or through osmosis.   Rather it tends to come from our personal experience with our own fathers.   Our mental recordings, filtered through our own eyes over the years is typically how the framework is provided.      This is where a particular bible verse, which has always resonated deep within my soul when I have ...

For the past year, I have tried to keep my blogs and Facebook posts very light on political discussions and debates.  The world is contentious and divisive enough of late.  There is little room left for discussion anymore it seems.  It went to new heights this week when Joy Behar of The View stated she wished Mitt Romney's house would burn down since he questioned the expansion of public sector employment.  Really? So, your "enlightened view" Ms. Behar is to wish potential death and destruction upon a politician and his family so he might not criticize your viewpoint?  Wow, aren't you the poster child for tolerance and acceptance.  It is little wonder our country is facing a time of crisis and continues to splinter further.  Hate and vitriol are becoming acceptable in the mainstream media.  A civilized people can find a way to communicate and debate topics without having to resort to hate speech and wishing harm on others. But des...

To often in our social networked world of today, we see the same sorts of superficial communication, narcissistic posts, or 'cause of the day' tweets.  I have railed in the past about the declining amount of quality communication in our society anymore. We live in a world of sound bytes, tag lines and 140 character or less commentary.  So, today instead of bemoaning these trends, I have decided to just throw some random lists, questions and notes out there and invite some dialogue. Nothing too profound, nothing altogether inspiring, but at least an effort to get some ideas or perspectives which might be interesting. Who knows, it may only be me who bothers to read any further, but why not try something, just to be different?  I seriously debated some religious or political topic to really get the juices going, but I wanted to keep things lighter for a change.  So alas, I shall throw my proverbial (virtual) hat into the ring with the following random to...

Well, as I posted on Valentine's Day, our bank notified us of a suspected fraudulent charge attempt and wanted to know if we had indeed tried to purchase anything at "O. David Dickson" for $1. We had not obviously. So, they closed the account immediately, started a fraud investigation and will be sending us new cards. To add insult to injury for the lowlife thief, he called the bank the next day to complain about them blocking the charge. While he was on the phone complaining in his obvious overseas accent, the bank called our house. Donna told them I do have a southern drawl, but certainly no "accent" to mention. So, they had a chance to trace the scumbag. Anyhow, I thought I might post a few pointers and provide a forum for others to share their ideas and feedback on protecting your identity and keeping your information safe. So, here are some of my ideas/practices: 1) Use different credit cards for specific types of purchase. What do I mean? Have...

Thanksgiving. Sadly the Thanksgiving holiday is now known more for being the busiest travel weekend of the year, and for Black Friday (soon to be Thursday night sadly) sales to start the Christmas holiday buying season. There is one element of the Thanksgiving of old that (thankfully) still lives on: a time for reflection of all the people (and things) we are thankful for in the past year. Indeed, in today's society, far too little is appreciated and far too few are thankful for what they have. So tonight, rather than a status blurb on Facebook, I wanted to write down a few of the "less obvious" people I am thankful for. Unlike an Oscar winner, I am not going to even attempt to list every family member and friend I can possibly name. I am quite grateful for all of them. I hope and pray they all know this, I do try and make sure they all understand how appreciated they are. I am also quite thankful for a loving God, the brave men and women who serve our country, fi...

The sports news of late has been peppered with stories of football players fighting on the field, even coaches jawing at each other and looking as though Frazier-Ali were coming to a football stadium near you. As a long-time sports fan, football fanatic and youth football coach, it concerns me to see the number of incidents are continuing to grow and not nearly enough is being done to curtail the problem. This past month we have seen college football coaches barking at each other, NFL coaches acting like drunken frat guys seeing who's is bigger, and lots of college and high school players getting into all out scrums on the field. It sickens me to see what this behavior is showing our young people today. Where is this coming from and what can be done about it? Admittedly, the one of the main causes of this problem has been a long time coming. To those of us who have seen a generation or so of young kids growing up in sports, the problem is quite simply poor or non-existent p...

Several years ago I wrote a series of blogs about a great book I had read called "I'm Fine With God, It's Christians I Can't Stand' by Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz. As a topic, they really hit the nail on the head about a growing problem in American churches today. Now, a few years later, I have found another book which is stirring my mind and soul further, and speaking out about things which have continued to occupy my thoughts and help me to understand why I find myself on the road I am walking today: "Mere Churchianity" by Michael Spencer. According to the author "Mere Churchianity" is written for people who have come to the end of the road with church but who can't entirely walk away from Jesus. He further states, "Are the people who run away, walk away, drift away or lost their way really abandoning Jesus and the Good News? Or are they walking away from a church that has become disconnected from Jesus and all he stands for? ...