"I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning." I am not one who enjoys waiting. If I have a doctor's appointment or an appointment to fix my car, I take a book with me because simply sitting there, for me, is a torture worse than listening to someone dragging their finger nails on a chalkboard... or maybe the music playing while waiting on hold on the phone (it is a toss-up).If you doubt my discomfort with waiting, just ask my family. Whether it is in the car waiting for my daughter to come from the house after the "fifteen minute warning" for leaving, waiting in tr

"You're supposed to be a loving God. You're supposed to love us. And what have you done to us? Why did you do this to us?" As a parent and a grandfather, I get what this mother was crying out to God when separated from her daughter in the midst of the Katrina Hurricane. You know those moments when your child or grandchild is there one minute in the crowded retail store, and in the next minute you can't find them. Those are agonizing moments. The words from above are from an article by Allen G. Breed entitled "Katrina survivors face tragedy, triumph," in the Asbury Park Press, September 1, 2005. In the article, Breed describes how an 83 year old mother, Camille Fletcher, and two of her childr

In an article from the Harvard Business Review entitled, "Measuring the return on character," (April 2015, 20-21), they addressed the issue of unethical executives whose careers and companies went "down in flames" due to their "hubris and greed." The article wanted to see if the opposite of this type of character would show different results in success. They asked the question, "Do highly principled leaders and their organizations perform especially well?" According to research done by KRW International based in Minneapolis that deals with consulting leaders and CEOs, the answer is YES! KRW found that CEOs whose employees gave them high marks for character (avg. return on investments was 9.3

I am sorry if you could not make our "Friends & Family Funday Sunday." It was a delight, and in the midst of it we discovered hidden treasures if we looked for them. Here is just a sampling: Good food made by good chefs and bakers Good fun in conversations around the table Good games to get us talking to one another Good prizes if your table won a round of our version of "Password" Good stories of how we met spouses, memorable moments of our childhood, etc. Hidden treasures in our jars of clay! Thank you to our Congregational Care Ministry for making this day possible. What if we took a little bit more time in our lives, as individuals and as a community of faith, to get to know one another