Doctrinal Essays

I've noticed a pattern in any kind of frustration that I've ever experienced. It's an amazing discovery because when patterns are found in problems it is easier to find solutions for them - and I believe I have a solution to frustration or anxiety of any kind. It comes from an understanding of our hearts, minds, and will power. My eight year old came home one day from school with a book about idioms. He died laughing as he read the text and looked at the artists’ literal interpretation of the idioms contained in the book. You might imagine the literal cartoons that would go along with figurative expressions like ‘I laughed my heart out’, or ‘keep your eye on the ball’. Everyone in the family thought the book was very entertaining, and we still find that the images come back to our minds when we hear certain idioms. But I have since come to recognize the frequent use of idioms in American vernacular and now appreciate them for more than their entertainment value. Idioms ...

As I look back along life's path through a casual lens I observe the occasional change in my own attitudes and behaviors. Some changes have been for the better, and some for the worse. Some have lead me closer to God, others have lead away from him. But as I examine those pivotal moments of change through a magnifying glass, I observe that they were always brought about by my own choice and were always accompanied by a subtle shifting of my heart. As I magnify my lens one more time and began to analyze this shifting of my heart, what I found there has changed the way I think, live, and behave.  The observation and explanation for change is based on the words  resist  and  yield.  These dichotomous words (or their synonyms) appear frequently in the scriptures and have a unique and powerful relationship. They function much like a magnet, where negative will never attract negative, nor positive to positive, but positive and negati...