By Nathan Musgrave Recently I have been reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings to my 11 year old daughter.  Middle Earth has swallowed her whole.  I read aloud, and as we follow Frodo and Sam through the perils and triumphs, the peaks and valleys of that imaginary land, my daughter paces, she snarls, she groans, she bangs her fist on furniture, she shouts and rails at orcs and trolls and evil wizards who have the audacity to threaten her...

Read More

“But, Dad, I thought you were the boss?”   My son asked me this question as we were driving away from church. He was genuinely confused. I’m the senior pastor, the one who stands up front and teaches others on Sunday. To a seven-year-old boy, that makes his dad “the boss.”   So when Aidan overheard me say to one of our elders, “I’ll go along with whatever the elders decide. I’m happy to follow your decision,” he...

Read More

My daughters wanted to watch Soul Surfer. A couple days ago, while we were at their grandparents, Jamie and I gave the “go ahead” and they ran over to the television to put the DVD into the player. My son stayed by my side and looked down at the kitchen tile. “Aren’t you going to watch the movie with your sisters, Bud?” Here’s what Aidan said to me: “A friend told me that there were a lot of girls wearing bikinis in that movie, and...

Read More