My youth group was hundreds of miles from home on a mission trip in New Orleans. We were piled in the van on the way back to the motel when someone yelled out, "I get the pay phone first!"

"Why?" another kid asked. "Who do you need to call?"

"It's Father's Day, dork!" came the reply.

Father's Day. I hadn't thought about that in years. As everyone scrambled for coins and planned out a calling schedule, ...

When our daughter, Kathy, was participating in a parenting class at her church, she explained to her 6-year-old daughter, Kayla, that she was taking a course to help make her a better mommy. The next Sunday, after church, Kayla became upset and had a tantrum because she was not getting her way. Both parents tried to calm her. But with tears streaming down her face and in a loud voice, Kayla announced ...

How Americans manage stress:

• Listen to music: 52 percent
• Exercise or walk: 47 percent
• Read: 44 percent
• Spend time with friends or family: 41 percent
• Watch TV or movies two or more hours a day: 41 percent
• Nap: 38 percent
• Play video games or surf the Internet: 37 percent
• Pray: 37 percent
• Eat: 34 percent
• Hobby: 30 percent
• Church or religious services: 21 percent
• Drink alcohol: 18 percent
• Shop: 18 percent
• Smoke: 16 percent

The film Snow Dogs tells the story of a dentist named Ted Brooks who discovers he has inherited a rustic cabin and a dogsled team in Alaska.

His efforts to master the new sport meet with bumps, bruises, and bears. One particular outing proves especially challenging. When the dogs suddenly go into high gear, Brooks is thrown into the deep Alaskan snow. He struggles to his feet, grumbling and dusting ...

The movie Fiddler on the Roof follows the life of a poor Jewish dairy farmer named Tevye. With his wife and five daughters, Tevye lives in a small Jewish village in the Ukraine during the days of the Bolshevik revolution. His faith in God helps him sort through the cultural changes challenging the traditions that have provided his life with a sense of balance.

In one scene, Tevye pulls both the horse ...

In Today's Christian Woman, Ramona Cramer Tucker writes:

My friend Michelle admits to being caught in a nasty situation. While at a restaurant over lunch, Michelle and her coworker, Sharon, stopped in the restroom to fix their makeup before returning to their jobs. Their small talk turned to the subject of who drove them crazy. Immediately Michelle launched into a two-minute diatribe about Beth, a ...

A heavy wagon was being dragged along a country lane by a team of oxen. The axles groaned and creaked terribly, when the oxen turning around thus addressed the wheels, "Hey there, why do you make so much noise? We bear all the labor, and we--not you--ought to cry out!" Those complain first in our churches who have the least to do. The gift of grumbling is largely dispensed among those who have ...

John Henry Jowett, a British preacher of an earlier generation, said this about gratitude: "Gratitude is a vaccine, an antitoxin, and an antiseptic." What did he mean? He meant that gratitude, like a vaccine, can prevent the invasion of a disgruntled, discouraged spirit. Like an antitoxin, gratitude can prevent the affects of the poisons of cynicism, criticalness, and grumbling. Like an antiseptic, ...

Jimmy and Joey, normal boys

Like fishing in the brook.

Of course they dug in garden soil

For worms to bait their hook.

I'd wryly glance into their can

Then quickly look away

To give each one a hasty hug

And send them on their way.

One day young Jim came grumbling home

"To get more bait," he sighed.

"You didn't have enough?" I asked.

"Joe ate it!" he replied.

My stomach churned

My color turned

Grey purple, green, ...

In Character Forged from Conflict, Gary Preston writes:

Back when the telegraph was the fastest means of long-distance communication, there was a story, perhaps apocryphal, about a young man who applied for a job as a Morse code operator. Answering an ad in the newspaper, he went to the address that was listed. When he arrived, he entered a large, noisy office. In the background a telegraph clacked ...