Posts with the tag “pastor-wil-staley”

Simone Biles had been a decorated gymnast for nearly her whole life, leading up to the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. I still remember hearing the shocking news that she was pulling out of the team and all-a...  Read More

The Disney classic Toy Story is a great movie about friendship. In the movie, Woody and Buzz find themselves on an epic adventure next door at Sid's house. At one point both characters find themselves...  Read More

Road trips are hit or miss for me. Much of it has to do with the other individuals who are in the car. But the place(s) that we are going to, the type of music we're going to listen to, and MOST IMPOR...  Read More

I heard that parking passes for last week's Taylor Swift concert were going for as much as $800 online! While I certainly don't identify as a “Swiftie”, Forbes declares that more than half of the US a...  Read More

Are any J. Beebs fans in the house? I'm not one myself. In fact, I'm not a huge fan of any secular artists really but there are some lyrics that have good messages every now and then. A particular hit...  Read More

Recently, I was playing in a team scavenger hunt game with my wife Alexis. In each round, the host would call for an object that every team was required to produce. The team that was able to present t...  Read More

When was the last time you upgraded your phone? The truth is most folks wait a couple of years and allow a few models to go by before upgrading to the “new and improved" version. Of course, nowadays I...  Read More

Several weeks ago, I asked my students what they’d do for a million dollars. I quickly learned that the question should have been, “What wouldn’t you do for a million dollars?” I asked questions like:...  Read More

One of my favorite sports movies is “Remember the Titans” starring Denzel Washington and Will Patton. The 2000 film is based on the true events of T.C. Williams High School’s 1971 (*spoiler alert) cha...  Read More

When it comes to group projects, are you the type of person who likes to be in charge and figure out what everyone else must do or would you rather sit back and wait for a role to be assigned to you? ...  Read More

Anyone who knows me, knows I’m a tough, no-nonsense kind of dad. I’m a bit old school when it comes to my parenting style. However, I often ask my sons to do things instead of command that they do the...  Read More

Have you ever had a near-death experience? It burdens me as I write this to see that there's been another school shooting that took place at a private Christian school Nashville, Tennessee. I can only...  Read More

Do you know the United States Marine Corps’ 5th General Order of a Sentry? Do you know the acronym for the USMC’s 14 leadership traits? How about their battles of World War I, Code of Conduct, Core Va...  Read More

Have you ever struggled to figure something out? I fancy myself a person who enjoys solving problems. So, when my younger cousin asked me recently to help her with her college statistics homework I sa...  Read More

Has there ever been a time that you ate a ton of food that ended up making you sick? Growing up one of my favorite TV shows was "Hey Arnold". During one of the episodes Arnold enters into an eating co...  Read More

Have you ever felt really dirty? I've never felt dirtier in all my life than when I went through the Crucible. Recruits during boot camp must endure a 54-hour training event known as the Crucible in o...  Read More

By now I'm sure we've all heard the New Year's resolution stats right? Most people don't keep up with their resolutions past February. I personally have been hit-and-miss with mine. One of the strateg...  Read More

Have you ever felt abandoned? I remember that's how I felt after high school. My high school years were some of the best times of my life. I had a lot of really close friends, or so I thought. I enjoy...  Read More

Are you the type of person who must finish what you start? I'm not. In fact, I'm really bad at finishing certain things. I've been known to start books and never finish them. Start projects and never ...  Read More

Every generation has its version of slang. In the 1920s for example, "The bees knees" was an extraordinary person or thing, "Putting on the Ritz" meant to do something with style, and "iron ones shoel...  Read More

How do you respond when under attack? Everyone who knows me knows I'm a big movie guy. One of my favorites is the classic Karate Kid. One of the most iconic scenes in the movie is when Mr. Miyagi show...  Read More

Have you ever played Two Truths and a Lie? It's a fun get-to-know-you, icebreaker game that I often play in situations when I'm around new people. Let's try it. Here are my three: a) I have been in a ...  Read More

I'm not sure about you but I have a love, kinda love relationship with my family. Some of my family memebers are loud and bolsterous. Some of them are stubborn and REALLY challenging. Some of them are...  Read More

You may be familiar with the author Stephen Covey and his book, "7 Habits of Highly Effective People." In the book, one of Covey's encouraged habits is, to begin with the end in mind. The idea is that...  Read More

How do you feel about opposition? I'm not sure if you heard this story before but in elementary school one of my favorite days of the year was field day. It was a day in which we would compete in a va...  Read More

Have you ever had the opportunity to go on a mission trip? Maybe you've worked on houses (building, painting, or landscaping). Maybe you've been involved in Vacation Bible School in a small town, inne...  Read More

Have you ever felt powerless? Some people feel this way if they owe an insurmountable debt or experience a difficult addiction they can't seem to get free from. This type of feeling can leave individu...  Read More

I love coaching. I started coaching back in 2010. It started as a selfish way to get more volunteer hours on my resume for a promotion board I was going on while I was in the Marine Corps...and yes I ...  Read More

"Captain America: The First Avenger" is a classic for me. I mean who wouldn't love an underdog story of a scrawny kid who gets superpowers and fights for our country? There's a scene early on in the m...  Read More

Does the name Duce McKenzie mean anything to you because it shouldn't. You see that was a nickname given to me by one of my good friends in high school. The name is actually a combination of two names...  Read More

Have you ever seen some of those crazed fans in the crowd at a sporting event? Some of them are in costumes, some have their faces painted, and some even appear to be from another planet. No matter wh...  Read More

Who is your favorite "unlikely" hero? Me being a youth guy, a few that come to mind are Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Peter Parker, and Emmet from the Lego Movie. Of course, there are several biblical ...  Read More

I don't know if you ever changed your major in college but I have had quite a bit of experience in that area. For me, it was after I'd been medically separated from the Marine Corps (which I found my ...  Read More

Each day this week we are releasing a video devotional from one of our pastors related to the Passion Week designed to help you meditate on the events of Jesus' final week.We invite you to go through ...  Read More

Have you ever purchased something online and when it arrived it was not quite what you thought it would be? I remember for Alexis and I's five-year wedding anniversary I wanted to do something special...  Read More

If you've never seen the movie "Finding Dory", I imagine you don't have young children, but the movie is the sequel to Disney's hit film "Finding Nemo". In the original movie, Marlon is a widowed fath...  Read More

A recent set of statistics from a survey said that 7% of participants stuck to all their resolutions in 2019, while 19% kept some but not all resolutions, 8% of participants fail to keep any resolutio...  Read More

Did you know, according to a 2015 Pew Research Forum study, atheists only account for 3.1% of the U.S. population. So, the other 96.9% may not believe in the God of the Bible, but they still affirm be...  Read More

If you were going to put together a winning team playing, what kinds of people would you select? Perhaps you’d look for the biggest, strongest, fastest people giving you a physical advantage. Maybe yo...  Read More

1954 William Golding wrote a book about some well-educated English schoolboys who crashed into the paradise of a deserted island with no adult survivors. Many of you know this literary timeless classi...  Read More