I’m curious. What type of relationship did you or do you have with your earthly father? I have asked this question dozens of times to different groups of men and women with surprising results.

She was referring to a comment I have made many times as a father. I have stated that the pinnacle of success for me would be to one day receive one of those sappy, mushy plaques that talks about what a great dad I am…from children that really mean the words. I guess in this modern age of social media, today I received my first plaque.

How would you like to be known as “barren Elizabeth”? It was considered almost a curse in Bible days to not have children. It was assumed there was something in a person’s life in which God was not pleased. Zechariah and Elizabeth were good, Godly people, yet they had no children and they were past the normal age of childbirth.

Here’s another truth about men they may not (probably won’t) tell you:

My father-in-law was one of the strongest men I know. Into his late 70’s he could outwork most men in their 20’s. He learned to work hard the old fashioned way. He had to in order to survive. He is truly a rags-to-riches story, rising from the poverty of a single mother’s home to the prominence of International President of Civitan International and the Dean of Business at Austin Peay State University.

Someone in our community group reminded me recently of a parenting phenomenon that I experienced firsthand. Perhaps you did also. My friend is living through her first “terrible threes”. She has a three year old trying her patience. As with so many others (most it seems), it’s not the “terrible twos” that is a problem…it’s the “terrible threes”.

It doesn’t get any better than this. Standing on the streets of Chicago saying goodbye to Nate was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Reading this kind of Twitter reminds me why he’s at Moody.

As I work on other things this Labor Day, I thought I would share one of our new family pictures. Thanks to Piper Bell in our church for taking these before Nate left for Moody.

I am super excited. One of the many amazing families at Grace Community Church with a heart for adoption will be featured in a new reality television show in a couple weeks. The Garcia family have hearts bigger than most of us can imagine. Check out Renee’s blog HERE and get the full scoop.

It has been a couple weeks since I dropped our youngest son Nate off at college. He is attending Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Our oldest son is a senior at Austin Peay State University and is living at home to save money this last year. Nate is our first to change cities of residence and he is 8 hours from home. In the process of him leaving I have learned a few things: