Category: Kindness

3/25/2025 1 Comment

A Fabulous Debt

Our dogs can be obnoxious. Whenever our next-door neighbor’s kids or dogs play in their backyard, Sig and Uzi run along the wooden fence barking with some dog-only-knows obsession. When birds fly overhead or geese land on the pond, they race the length of the yard yapping, trying to create a “no-fly zone.” Phil and Julie never complain. Graciously, they say the noise does not bother them and they like dogs so don’t worry about it.

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2/25/2025 0 Comments

Crafting Circles Not Cliques

Todd Foreman

My West Point classmate Todd Foreman is the most generous person I know in helping those around him, whether they be friends, coworkers, family, or those who are underprivileged, disabled, neglected, or hurting. Todd has a soft spot in his heart that is bigger than the state of Texas, where he resides. Sometimes, to his detriment, he puts the needs of others before his own needs in keeping with the Apostle Paul’s admonition, “Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3,4). Todd is a make-the-circle-bigger kind of leader.

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2/11/2025 0 Comments

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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9/11/2024 1 Comment

Debating

Meditation
Jude 9--Yet Michael the archangel, when he was disputing with the Devil in a debate about Moses’ body, did not dare bring an abusive condemnation against him but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

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3/1/2024 4 Comments

Fallen Grapes

Meditation
Leviticus 19:10—You must not strip your vineyard bare or gather its fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreign resident; I am Yahweh your God.

Have you ever considered how God loves the poor, foreigners, and those lacking or hurting? He instructs the farmer not to harvest the land fully but to leave some of the gleanings for those without and hungry. It’s a beautiful picture of our fantastic, caring Father. Do you know any farmers who purposefully make part of their crop available for whoever might need it?

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10/20/2023 0 Comments

When It Isn't Easy to Please

Have you ever run across someone who gets under your skin? In other words, whether it is their tone, comments, or behavior, something about them is irritating, and that irascibility is continuous and annoying. I met such a person playing pickleball. In this case, an older man seems to feel that he needs to tutor everyone else on the court even though his skills are inferior. He makes snarky comments, and I don’t like it. It gets to the point where when he signs up to play, others stay away because they don’t enjoy playing with him. Unfortunately, he does not seem to take hints or suggestions. He is fixed in his mannerisms and perhaps does not care what others think. So, I have to admit I was not thrilled when I read Romans 15:1,2 this morning.

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8/2/2023 0 Comments

Thinking of You

When there is a death in the family, it is so encouraging to see people rally around and step up to provide support and comfort through meals, cards, flowers, phone calls, and just being present to listen, console, and encourage. The sting of death is not erased; the pain is real and sometimes overwhelming, but a caring community can and does make a difference.

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6/19/2023 0 Comments

Using Discernment

Ann faced a challenging situation in her new supervisory role with a nonprofit company that recently hired her. One of the employees, Calista, who worked on a different team, was giving her a tough time. Calista had applied for the job Ann now held and resented that she was not chosen. She used Ann’s inexperience to belittle her on calls (shared by others in the organization) and was rude when speaking to her. Ann realized she needed Calista’s help, but she first had to figure out a way to win her over, and that did not seem easy. So she asked for prayer from her close friends and asked God for His assistance.

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12/23/2022 0 Comments

Practice Hospitality This Holiday Season

Hospitality unites people. It helps us find room to help others in need and is the antidote to hostility and division. This holiday season, especially in these times of intense division, we should all practice this virtue and apply its power to strengthen relationships at home, work, with our fellow citizens, and even strangers. In the Christmas story (Luke 2:1-20), Mary was in labor while her husband, Joseph, sought shelter. The innkeeper had no available rooms, but seeing Mary’s desperate situation, offered the holy family shelter in a stable where the animals resided.

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7/22/2022 0 Comments

Revisiting Grace

There is a thoughtful piece on grace circulating on Facebook that I have amplified and maximized with apologies to the unknown author.

Grace constitutes unearned or unmerited favor. She is seen throughout the Bible. Grace means promotion, not based on qualifications. When she speaks, protocols are suspended. So, King Ahasuerus extends the scepter to his Queen Esther. With Grace at work, laws are set aside for a higher purpose. A hungry David understood this when he ate consecrated bread (1 Samuel 21:6). Jesus commended his insight because “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). A Samaritan woman with five different husbands was blessed by a thirsty grace-giving Savior. An adulteress experienced no stones from a sin-convicted crowd. When Grace acts, pedigrees and ethnic background are irrelevant, so Joseph, the Hebrew prisoner, became Egypt’s second most powerful leader. When Grace operates, educational qualifications are thrown out. Fishermen become disciples, to the dismay of the religious elite. Grace instills hope in the hopeless, joy in the forlorn, and peace in the agitated. She has your back while she holds your heart. She transforms lament into a dancing melody. She is the warmth that accompanies light, and she is God’s gift to you forever.

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6/15/2021 0 Comments

Suubi House

West Point classmate Bill Bowman shared his story with the Long Eternal Line team who gather each Tuesday night for prayer. Bill suffered a bad car accident that crushed his back and should have left him permanently paralyzed. While in the hospital Bill shared how Jesus held him and comforted him. Bill apologized for not walking the right path and the Lord shared with him that his story was not over yet. Miraculously, Bill and his wife were able to have a baby girl they named Sarah. Bill nicknamed her Suubi—a name that stuck.

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2/14/2021 0 Comments

Competition

Competition is one of my signature strengths. I don’t like losing or being wrong. By God’s grace I am mellowing with age. So, I can somewhat identify with John when he and his buddies were bothered that someone they didn’t know was taking on demons in the power of Jesus’ name yet wasn’t part of their signature team. I’m sure he felt that that it was completely inappropriate for one who was not spending time at the feet of the Master to minister as a supposed follower. But John and his fellow disciples were misguided in their thinking.

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8/23/2020 1 Comment

Marking People With Grace

Ron and Joyce York

At the age of 88, my dad is walking the final chapters of his life on earth still on fire to share the gospel with any and every person he can. Mark Cahill wrote the book One Thing You Can’t Do In Heaven and that one thing is evangelism. Dad is making sure he maximizes now what he won’t be able to do once he is home.
I’m working on writing a biography of his life and was challenged by an entry in his journal on October 10, 1983 while he was serving as the country leader for the Navigators in the Philippines.

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7/31/2020 0 Comments

I & II Samuel

If you want to read great books on leadership, read 1st and 2nd Samuel. Early tradition suggests that 1 and 2 Samuel were originally one book in scripture so I will do my best to examine the combined 55 chapters and share key leadership lessons. No author is named for these books but scholars largely credit the prophets Samuel, Nathan and Gad. Based on 1 Sa. 27:6, the writing may not have been completed until about 930 B.C.[1]

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11/10/2019 0 Comments

Uncommon Kindness

Alex is a high school student in Vancouver, Washington. One day he was driving on a job when he was rear-ended by another driver. Alex took a photo of the man’s driver’s license so he could report it to his insurance company. He noticed that the man held a commercial license. In conversing with him he found out that he was married and a father and that this was his second accident in less than a month. The man was upset that he had been so careless.

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6/18/2019 0 Comments

You Will Be Happy

Jadon is almost seven and fairness is extremely important to him. We have been working on manners at the table with a reward system. If there are no infractions he and his five-year-old sister, Leili, get six MMs each after dinner. But, if he has an infraction and Leili has none, in his mind it becomes unfair. He would rather get zero MMs and have her also receive none then for her to have six to his five.

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4/19/2019 1 Comment

Confession Liturgy

Sarah Tegtmeier (Dan York's daughter) with her family L-R Jadon, Luca, Leili, Mark, Simeon

Meditation
Psalm 85:15--But You, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in faithful love and truth

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12/1/2018 0 Comments

Apology Accepted

Mary was in the process of leaving physical therapy in her car in a parking lot. She looked to her right and saw nothing but didn’t look to her left. As she began to pull out the oncoming driver laid on the horn letting Mary know her displeasure. Mary quickly realized her mistake and put up her arms to acknowledge her error and rolling down her window told the other driver, “I’m sorry.”

Later as Mary was pulling into a fast-food restaurant she noticed the woman she had almost cut off was in line in front of her. When it came time for Mary to drive up to the window and pay for her food the attendant said the woman in front had paid for her meal!

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9/3/2018 0 Comments

Considerate

Two exhausted, firemen came into a diner around 6 a.m. after working tirelessly for 12 hours to put out a fire. Liz Woodward took their order and just happened to overhear the two firefighters discussing their tiresome battle. Later, when Tim and Paul went to pay for their breakfast, their bill contained this message:
Your breakfast is on me today—thank you for all that you do; for serving others and for running into the places everyone else runs away from. No matter your role, you are courageous, brave, and strong. Thank you for being bold and badass everyday. Fueled by fire and driven by courage. What an example you are. Get some rest.—Liz

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9/25/2016 2 Comments

Six Benefits of Helping the Poor

I want to share with you a moment burned into my mind as a poignant testimony to generosity. My daughter, Sarah and I, experienced this moment in the city of Cerro de Pasco, Peru, in 2002. In the course of ministering to a small church in this town located at the top of the Andean mountains, we met street children who were collecting trash or anything of value they could find on the streets, in order to garner a handful of coins.

Although home to one of the deepest silver mines in the world, Cerro de Pasco’s 70,000 inhabitants are mostly poor. One would think that any money a child could scrape would be zealously guarded and used for food or clothing. But these joyful children tithed from what they had in order to give to missionaries. It was a demonstration of the poorest giving to the poor to honor and expand God’s work. Someday I hope to learn how God blessed them!

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