The most famous swordfight I know about is Inigo Montoya and the six-fingered man in “The Princess Bride.”  Remember how in the Baz Luhrmann remake of “Romeo and Juliet” the swords were guns?  I always thought that was a cool twist.  Swords don’t make much sense any more.  Last...

Four years ago, I lost a lot of weight. Our family was vacationing in northern Wisconsin and I brought several books to read; one was on fasting. We love Wisconsin even though it is a twenty-hour, two day drive each way. When we arrive we give ourselves permission to “unplug.” No TV,...

I have lived a lot of my life on a face value level.  I hope that if you know me personally you would see me live out what I profess as belief.  I have always hoped this for other people also and honestly I have an expectation of it.  This has caused me some pain over the years because I...

He’s seventeen.  I’ve known about him for quite some time.  I sit on an HOA board in our neighborhood and have been painfully aware of the trouble he’s gotten himself into over the years.  It’s been no secret to a select few of us that this boy has not had an easy life.  A perfect...

It was sometime during the fourth grade that my ten-year-old nose was coerced into cohabitating with a pair of spectacles. At least that’s the year they began showing up in school pictures, little pink cat eyes that made me look perpetually shell-shocked. I hated wearing them, and finally...

I was born just south of Green Bay, Wisconsin. When someone asks me where I’m from, depending on his or her geographical perspective, I sometimes simply say, “Green Bay.” Because, let’s face it, who hasn’t heard of Green Bay? This place of birth makes me a genetic Green Bay Packer...

I’m a quote person. I relish in them.  Biblical ones. Inspirational ones. Funny ones. Thought provoking ones. Quotes that make me pause, contemplate, cry, laugh, think…I have journals and journals of them. As a freelance writer, I work them into my pieces, I use them on handmade...

I don’t go to the mall much. It’s not that I don’t enjoy shopping for Free People Anthropologie Uggs and massage gift certificates, (yes, dear this is a hint) but maybe like yours, our disposable income is a little harder to come by this year and honestly we’ve accumulated enough stuff...

There are many stories in Scripture that helped form the foundational elements of my faith. These stories were so entwined with the inscape of my convictions, that not only did I need them to speak to a greater Truth; I needed them to be literally, historically and factually accurate. I needed...

I went to a men’s retreat recently. The speakers general framework was that we’ve all lived in Eden and we have all had it shattered at some point in our lives. There was a time in our lives that all seemed right with the world. Times when we thought everything was in harmony...