Sometimes I overestimate both the importance of what I have to say and the hunger of my audience. This especially happens with my daughter, Tess. When Tess asks me a simple questions like, “Why is the sky blue?”, I’ll give her a needlessly long and complicated answer. So when she asks me a more complicated question like, “Where do babies come from?”, I’m ready to give her a treatise on the meaning of life.READ MORE
For me, what makes Thanksgiving so important is the coming together of people in relationship, whether it’s as a family, community or nation. This is what Youth Frontiers does every day with students and educators on our retreats. READ MORE
On a trip not too long ago to Target, Tess and I were in the checkout line when she saw a Disney Cinderella doll. She took it off the shelf and put it in our cart. I took the doll out and put it back. “But, Daddy,” Tess said, “I need that.”READ MORE
In the fall of 2008, I visited with a friend of mine whose son, Steven*, had just been cut from his high school basketball team. Steven was a competitive kid who attended a competitive school in an affluent, first-tier suburb of Minneapolis – and he loved basketball. Not only was Steven disappointed, but his pride was wounded. He wasn’t part of a school culture where failure was taken lightly. Furthermore, as a junior, Steven had a lot of high school ahead of him and legitimately wondered what to do with all the time he had set aside for basketball glory. READ MORE
I once met a school bus driver named Donna who hated driving the school bus. She was new to the job and had only accepted it out of financial necessity. Because she was new, Donna was given one of the worst routes in the system. When she first started, the kids ignored her efforts to keep them in their seats. They fought with each other. They showed little respect to her. READ MORE
A friend of mine told me a story about the time she and her husband went to France with their 11-year-old daughter. The daughter had been taking French lessons and the parents were very proud of her accomplishments. They were so proud of her, in fact, that they had their daughter act as an informal translator on the trip. For the most part the daughter did great, but one day the family was running late for a train. In the bustle and confusion at the station, the daughter got overwhelmed and couldn’t figure out how to use the automatic ticket kiosk. She broke down crying and the parents realized that they had put too much responsibility on her shoulders. A well-intentioned idea had an unfortunate impact.READ MORE