HopeForYourFamily

What a week!

Among many other ups and downs that have been keeping my life rather full of late, this week has provided me with two very powerful reminders to keep life in perspective.  And, I must say, keeping life in perspective is a very good thing.  It tends to keep one calmer, more appreciative, more patient, and more purposeful.  More on that in a moment.  First, the perspective-checks from this week: (more…)

Click here to read my latest thoughts and recommendations from the “Parenting 101″ segment on WAFB. The “Parenting 101″ page is always available near the top of the right-hand column on my site. And, as always, feel free to send me any questions, ideas, or concerns you would like to see me address on Parenting 101. If you find the segment helpful or interesting, please mention the TV spot (4th Tuesday of each month at 6:15 am on WAFB) and my website to other parents you know. I hope you and your family have a great week, and I’ll be back with a fresh post on Friday.

Forgiveness is an issue I must deal with on a frequent basis, because of my work as a marriage and family therapist. However, let’s face it - it is something we all must address at some point in our lives, probably many times throughout our lives. We live in a fallen world. We disappoint, hurt, and betray one another - spouses, family, friends, neighbors, enemies, co-workers, teammates, and any other relational context in which we find ourselves. And if we are to survive the human experience in any kind of healthy way, we must learn to forgive. Following are some of the things I have learned about the difficult and powerful process of forgiveness: (more…)

Liberty: “freedom from arbitrary or despotic control”

Despot: “a person exercising power tyrannically”

Tyranny: “oppressive power”

“The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.” — Samuel Adams

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” — Abraham Lincoln

Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed - else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die.  ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.  ~Thomas Paine

There are two freedoms - the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; the true, where he is free to do what he ought.  ~Charles Kingsley

But regarding anything beyond this, dear friend, go easy.  There’s no end to the publishing of books, and constant study wears you out so you’re no good for anything else.  The last and final word is this: Fear God.  Do what he tells you.  And that’s it.  Eventually God will bring everything that we do out into the open and judge it according to its hidden intent, whether it’s good or evil.  — Ecclesiastes 12:12-14 (The Message)

As you celebrate our national Independence Day today, may you:

Be blessed by, and grateful for, the tremendous freedoms we Americans enjoy at a tremendous price in courage, commitment, and blood…

Commit to standing up against tyranny in the world, regardless of the price of your personal sacrifice, whether across the seas or across the street, because it is the right thing to do and it is our national heritage…

And exercise your freedom with goodness, consideration, and respect, in view of God and your fellow man.

With Hope - Roger