Blessings In The Battles

Recently I have become a "FedEx Father!"  Being a "FedEx Father" doesn't have anything to do with using FedEx exclusively to ship packages, in fact most of the time I ship things USPS because I'm "thrifty" aka "cheap."  Being a "FedEx Father" is all about the FedEx logo.  The FedEx logo has won over 40 design awards and was ranked as one of the eight best logos in the last 35 years in the 35th Anniversary American Icon issue of  Rolling Stone  magazine.  My kids point out the logo on a FedEx truck every time they see one. They have done this without fail ever since I showed them a little secret about the logo you may, or may not know about. What’s the secret you ask? Take a look for yourself, don't cheat and scroll down to see the answer until you have looked! Did you see the "secret" arrow between the  E  and the  x pointing to the RIGHT!   After you see the arrow, it will be the fi...

We live in a society where we are so conditioned to do whatever we want, no matter what other people think, that sometimes we fail to seek the advice of those closest to us.  There are many times in life when we need the insight and approval of those around us before making a rash decision.  In regards to treating women right, one of the biggest times we need the approval of some very important people in our lives is before we decide to get married.  We should not rashly meet a prospective mate, set a date, write up a guest list for the big day and go get married without getting approval first. The most important person to approve of your marriage is you!  I know this sounds ridiculous, who would get marred if they didn't approve of the marriage themselves? It happens more than you think.  I did not approve of my first marriage, but I got married anyway. Her family, my family and all of our friends approved of the marriage so I though...

Most little girls dream of their wedding day from a young age.   They begin to think about and plan that special day.   They think about marrying their Prince Charming in an elegant wedding venue full of guests in a beautiful white gown, walking on rose petals down the aisle to bliss way before they find the "man of their dreams." According to researchers the average age a girl starts planning and dreaming of their wedding is 13 but some start as early as age 6.   And, 6 out of 10 single women have already planned their entire wedding day. (1) In Chapter 3 of Song of Solomon, Solomon's bride to be is laying in her bed dreaming of her wedding day and night.   ("One night as I lay in bed, I yearned deeply for my lover." Song of Solomon 3:1 NLT) She roamed "the city searching for (her dream man) in all the streets and squares." (Song of Solomon 3:2 NLT)   Does this remind you of the modern dating scene?   Women, and men are spending eve...

In the late 1990's there were a series of books titled:   “Don’t sweat the small stuff.”   They had, “Don’t sweat the small stuff at work”   “Don’t sweat the small stuff with your family” “Don’t sweat the small stuff for women” and several others.   With over 25 million copies in print, the Don’t Sweat philosophy has touched multiple generations of parents & grandparents, teenagers & kids.   Many of you may have a copy of one of these books on your bookshelf or nightstand right now. The problem with that philosophy is that the little things that we leave unresolved will continue to fester and can eventually ruin our relationships.   Solomon writes in Song of Solomon 2:15  "Quick!   Catch all the little foxes before they ruin the vineyard of your love..."-NLT If it is the little things that can easily ruin our relationships, why don't we catch them?  Why do we let them continue to run around in our relationships and ruin our ...

One of my favorite things to do with Alana is "people watching."  One of the great things about people watching is that you can do it almost anywhere.  We will sit in the restaurant or the park and and we will pick a couple or a family and ask, "What's their story?'  As we continue to watch them interact with others we will formulate "their story" in our own minds.  By the time we leave the restaurant or the park we know all about these people without ever talking to them, at least we think we know them from what we see on the outside.   As I " people watch" Solomon and his finance interact I see two things in their relationship that convince me they are truly in love.  They desperately want to spend time together and they speak lovingly to one another.  Our eyes only allow us to look on the outside so we will never know for sure, but I believe there are two outward observations that are good ...

Who Am I? The purpose of my blog is to acquire practical relationship advice from one of the wisest men to ever live, King Solomon.   This relationship advice is recorded in the book of Song of Solomon contained in the Bible.   There are so many rich and practical relational truths found in this book that when looking back at the blog, I found myself skipping right over the very first sentence in the entire book, "The Song of Songs which is Solomon's."  (Song of Solomon 1:1)    At first glance this appears to be an insignificant statement of fact but in reality it is a very significant question we must all answer BEFORE we get into a relationship with someone else.   I never stopped to answer the question, "Who was Solomon?" History tells us that Solomon was a wise man with wisdom that excelled the wisdom of most people of his day, he was the King of Israel, he was a very wealthy business man, and he was also a father, and husband. (I Kings 4...

Mr. Right or Mr. Right Now? Picture this scene in your mind.   There is a bride who is head over heals in love with her groom--she has found Mr. Right!   It is only days or maybe hours before the "big day."   The bride is sitting around with her girlfriends and one of them says, "I wish I were in love like you."   And the brides response is, "No you don't--not unless it is the right time and with the right person." What wisdom from a young bride.   Wisdom I wish I had when I was in my teens or   early twenties.   There is a historical scene much like this one recorded in the book of Song of Solomon (Chapter 2:7).   What the bride actually said was this, " Promise me, O women of Jerusalem, by the swift gazelles and the deer of the wild not to awaken love until the time is right." For those of us who are "city folk" this may not be a very familiar analogy but I have seen enough episodes of Duck Dynasty to picture ...

One piece of advice almost every married couple has heard at one point in their marriage is that they should go on a "date night" on a regular basis.    But, do couples who schedule “date nights” into their busy lives really decrease the chances of divorce and increase happiness in their marriage?  According to a report released by the   National Marriage Project   at the University of Virginia they do! The study shows that husbands and wives who engaged in couple time or date night with their mates at least once a week were approximately 3.5 times more likely to report being “very happy” in their marriages, compared to those who enjoyed less quality time with their spouse.  So, if date night has been proven to increase our marital happiness why don't we do it more often? More than 30% of single women told Glamour magazine they haven’t been on a “real” date in more than a year, and 88% of women in relationships don’t have regular date...