分类: Attributes

1/22/2026 0 Comments

I Have Observed

I remember, as an eighteen-year-old, living with my aunt and uncle in Coeur ‘d Alene, Idaho, who graciously took me into their home while I awaited my move to New York to attend West Point. Norm let me drive his Ford Ranchero and paid me to move pipes and water his crops. Whenever I got in a bind, he would flash his trademark Norwegian grin, which could be translated as “You are such an idiot.” I felt like a little kid in his presence. Given my mechanical stupidity, I’m sure he wondered how I would ever make it in an engineering school. Had it not been for God’s help and classmates like Kevin Stewart, who spent hours tutoring me, I would never have survived the Academy, and I wonder what would have become of my life. Wondering can be a healthy exercise in appreciating God’s sovereignty. This surely must have been the case for one of the world’s greatest leaders.

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1/9/2026 2 Comments

Diligence: The Key to Prospering

Every person I know who is successful—morally, spiritually, physically, financially, socially, or intellectually—is diligent. I can think of no exceptions. Without diligence, life falls apart. Consider a person who is morally inconsistent, who follows the rules or ethical mores only when it is convenient. That person’s reputation and standing will eventually fail because of a breach of integrity.

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9/10/2025 0 Comments

Tender

Meditation
2 Kings 22:18-20--Say this to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Lord: This is what the Lord God of Israel says: As for the words that you heard, because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I Myself have heard you—this is the Lord’s declaration—therefore, I will indeed gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster that I am bringing on this place.’”

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8/26/2025 0 Comments

Intentional

God is holy and intentional; He does nothing unintentionally. Paul wrote in Romans 2:4, “Or do you despise the riches of His kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?” Can you imagine what life would be like if God discarded His holy and kind nature and became unintentional, capricious, unpredictable, a decision-maker whose will was based on whim? We would have no hope of redemption, an eternal relationship based on love, because His word would be open at any time to change, dependent upon the state of His nature.

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7/30/2025 1 Comment

Restraint

Jeff [1] works in a start-up company that meets in a new office complex in Seattle. He is a bright, creative young man who would have a fantastic future except for one glaring character flaw—his inability to keep his words and emotions in check. When Jeff joined four other young entrepreneurs to launch Still Waters, a meta platform that focuses on AI research, his team was excited about his experience and skills utilizing AI. But after six months of working together, the team found several frustrating traits about him.

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7/18/2025 1 Comment

Leadership: Weak Versus Strong

The Biblical book of 2 Samuel, chapters 15-19, provides a clear contrast between a weak leader (Absalom) and a strong leader (David). Recently, I shared what I learned from this study with a group of leaders who meet weekly to encourage one another in their faith. As it is self-explanatory, I have included it below for your reference with minimal comments. Notice that both weak and strong leaders sin and make mistakes.

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2/11/2025 1 Comment

A Booster

Larry and Valencia Turrentine

Larry leads a group of military academy graduates in our weekly Tuesday night prayer ZOOM® calls with a brief devotional and prayer. His words often encourage us. When I asked Larry what we could pray for him for the year, his answer was thoughtful and four-fold. He asked for prayer for those he was financially counseling and coaching who were in debt. He requested a benevolent, discerning heart for those needing love and financial assistance. Larry sought wisdom in leading online classes to facilitate spiritual growth. He solicited energy to not grow weary in visiting those who were bedridden and suffering from dementia.

Larry often sends me encouraging texts. He is a caring friend I go to for advice, a good listener, and a gentleman who, above all, seeks to honor God. I thank God for bringing him into my life and the lives of countless others. Larry is a booster.

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12/30/2024 0 Comments

Omniscient

Our brains manage emotions, thoughts, memories (sensory, short and long-term), touch, vision, breathing patterns, and all the procedures that control our bodies.[1] Scientists calculate the human brain storage capacity by gauging the connections between brain cells and decoding that number into bytes and computer memory units. “A single byte comprises 8 bits, and the human brain can store more than one quadrillion bytes of data – a petabyte.”[2] Our brain’s memory capacity is equal to 2.5 petabytes of memory capacity. A “petabyte” translates into 1024 terabytes or a million gigabytes. An average adult brain can accumulate the equivalent of 2.5 million gigabytes of memory.

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12/10/2024 0 Comments

Omnipotent

There are two unsolvable problems all humans face: sin and death. The reality of sin is the inability of any person to refrain from doing something wrong or evil, whether it be lying, stealing, cheating, etc. The reality of death is we all age and eventually die. The beauty of Christianity is that it solves both of those problems.

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11/12/2024 0 Comments

Omnipresent

When I was a junior officer attending Infantry Officers Basic Course (IOBC), we sponsored foreign military officers. Some of those officers were married Muslims who were quite happy to be in America and to engage in all kinds of immoral activity. When asked why they were getting intoxicated and frequenting strip clubs when they had wives back home and strict rules against consuming alcohol, their answers were quite revealing. “Allah cannot see us. He is not present here.” They firmly believed that only in their own country were they visible and accountable for their behavior. Their Allah was a god with limitations.

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