On Christmas Day this year, I was struck by how important remembering is. Christmas is a time when families and individuals repeat long used traditions. It is a time when we remember the times we were young, or when our children were young. We remember good Christmases and bad ones. There may be pain and sadness as well has joy and laughter in those memories. Remembering is such an important part of the holiday.

While I was taking a walk today and thinking about this, the thought came to my mind that small deviations from what we should do today have a large effect on what we want to be in the future. That effect will only grow larger in the next generation.

We need to see our homes more as the training grounds, the place to learn of Christ. Churches are there to support those efforts. The home is where it becomes real.

A few years ago, my wife gave me some coaching and told me all she wanted to hear from me (or sometimes from her friends) when things are not going well is the words, "that sucks."

Ed Yager loved many things in life, but anyone who knew him knew his real passions were his faith, his wife, his family, and music.

I never knew my grandfather on my father’s side. He passed away 11 months before I was born. I don’t remember my father, or anyone for that matter, talking about him unless it was a more formal conversation about family history. I don’t ever remember my grandmother talking about him at all. I really do not know anything about him. I’ve been trying to learn more recently.

The circle of our care should be wider than it is. When the lawyer in Luke 10 asks Jesus who is our neighbor the Lord answered with the parable of the Good Samaritan. People that we pass on the streets are our neighbors. Anyone who's life intersects in anyway with ours is our neighbor.

When I was very young, I dreamed of becoming a photographer. It was TV that did it. I was in 1st grade - maybe 2nd. I don’t remember the show, but the main character went in a darkroom to print photos. I think it was a police show. I was hooked from that point on.