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I learned today that the average 30-second commercial during the Superbowl costs 4.1 millions dollars. Last year, the Superbowl had 111.3 million viewers, making it one of the most-watched programs on television. It is estimated that 8 millions pounds of guacamole and 14,500 tons of chips will be consumed this coming Sunday. That puts Superbowl Sunday in second place for the most food purchased and eaten in one day...after Thanksgiving. More than likely, you already have plans to purchase some Velveeta and head on over to a friend's house this Sunday for some hearty snacking, fellowship, and football. This just goes to show you just how crazy people will go over the Superbowl. We see it everywhere. People go crazy over their favorite sports teams. They paint their chests, fill out brackets, and jump all over each other when their team scores. People go crazy over their favorite actors and actresses. They hang posters on their walls, watch all the award ceremonies, and know...

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Hebrews 11:1) I used to think that being sure of something and hoping for something were exact opposites. After all, we hope for good weather on the weekend because we aren't sure if our plans will be rained out or not. You only say "I really hope there's chocolate ice cream" when you aren't sure if its actually in the freezer. No one says, "I hope I made an A on that test" when they are already absolutely certain that they scored one. We hope for things like a second chance, a miracle, or a different and unexpected outcome because those things aren't always certain in this life, and so we hope. I used to think that being sure of something and hoping for something were exact opposites, but the Canaanite woman taught me something different. The story of the Canaanite woman in Mathew 15:21-28 used to be confusing to me, but now it has become one of my person...

I think I finally figured it out. Four weeks after my snowboarding accident , I know why I fell. As promised, I am returning to the incident and writing about it once again because there was a secret hidden beneath it all that has risen to the surface. Our lucky instructor, Russ, taught my sister and I two very important things about snowboarding from the very beginning. First, he taught us how to fall. "Don't catch yourself with your hands," he said. "If you fall forward, bring your arms to your chest and catch yourself with your elbows. If you fall backwards, fall on your butt. That way you won't break anything." I guess I learned that lesson the hard way. The next fundamental he taught us was this: Always look where you are going. "You will go the direction that you are facing." Look left, and you will automatically drift left. Look right, and you go right. Look at your feet, and your face will land in the snow. This is true, and it's ...

At 5:30 am, we loaded up the car and hit the road for Passion 2014  in Atlanta. Even though the sun was not up and I was running on 4 hours of sleep after working the past 4 out of 5 nights, nothing could quench my excitement. Four years ago, I went to Passion for the first time, thinking it would be a one-time thing for me. Now, I was headed back for my fourth year in a row, filled with a familiar anticipation yet knowing that I would once again be blown away by what God had in store. Passion takes preparation. Heart preparation. You can go blindly, like I did the first time I went, not realizing how much I needed to prepare my heart before going. But when you allow God to prepare and soften your heart before going, you will be much more ready to experience God and worship Him in a new way. As I prepared this year through prayer, Psalm 103 kept coming to mind. "Bless the Lord, oh my soul. All my innermost being, praise His holy name." So often, our prayers center aroun...

At the ages of 7 to 12 months, some people might say that these babies are too young to understand much, but I am beginning to wonder how true that is. If researchers and scientists are beginning to link things such as individual habits and behaviors, personality, and even chronic illness in adults back to the early developmental stages of people when they were infants, then I wonder if they are onto something. Maybe they understand more than we realize, and maybe we should start as early as possible in teaching them what really matters.  That's what I have found to be true at Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) International, where I am serving as a new children's leader for a class of 7-12 month old infants. Even though they cannot walk or even talk, we spend time telling them Bibles stories, singing them hymns, and teaching them spiritual truths on their level.  This week, we passed around small Bibles to each baby and let them touch them and hold them as we told the...

It is now two weeks into the new year, which means that if you have kept your new year's resolution this far, you are doing really well. According to statistics, only 75% of new years resolutions survive the first week, and that number drops more and more every week after that. Resolutions answer to our human need for growth, improvement, and change for the better. We strive for more exercise, more weight loss, more healthy choices. Better habits, better hobbies, better relationships. All this is because deep, deep down all we want is more hope, more peace, more satisfaction, more love. I recently attended a meeting at my work that reviewed our employee satisfaction survey for the year. Based on the results, we created a plan to improve our unit over the next year. Overall, the general consensus was that we need better employee morale, which will come from replacing gossip and negative talk with more encouragement and positivism. On the way home from the meeting, I gave mysel...

"You never stop smiling, do you?" The lift attendant said to our family as we scooted forward to get on the ski lift. One of the great things about skiing at Wolf Creek is that it is a small mountain. That means low crowds and short lift lines. That also means you can make buddies with the lift attendants because you see them over and over and over again. We had remembered this lift attendant man in particular from the year before and were extra friendly to him, not really knowing if he remembered us. However, we must have been somewhat memorable because one day he said to us, "You never stop smiling, do you?" Before we had time to answer, the lift scooped us up and took us away. But my mom was ready when we got down to the bottom of the mountain and saw him the next time. She said something like, "You didn't ask why we are so happy." Naturally, he responded, "Well, why?" As the lift picked us up again, she barely had time to tu...

A thick and fluffy blanket of snow sparkled like glitter in the morning sunlight, perfectly and completely untouched as it spread across acres of fields that we drove by. In the distance, the mountains also sparkled with deep snow drifts in their crooks and valleys. My window fogged up when I breathed on it because I was staring out the car window so closely and intently, as if the anticipation of being in the snow, in the mountains, caused me to unknowingly lean forward. Every year around this time, I get the ski fever. My family only gets to go to Colorado to snow ski once a year, and its like I get hungry for it just like your stomach starts growling for lunch around 12:00 in the afternoon. This year added even more excitement than normal because after skiing for 14 years, I was finally going to learn how to snowboard. My sister and I geared up, rented our boards, and waddled over to the bunny hill to greet our instructor. He probably had no idea what he was getting into by vo...