The 3 Word Journal

During the celebration of the 150th year of Texas’ independence from Mexico, I took my family to visit the San Jacinto Battlefield where this freedom was won. As we walked through the museum built on the site, my eye caught an old, worn looking flag. The caption under the flag read, “This is the flag [...]

I had a very embarrassing moment while serving as a member of a Boy Scout Committee. One of our responsibilities was to meet with boys who were going up for rank advancement. After meeting certain requirements the boys were called in and asked several questions to see if they were ready to advance to the [...]

Our family loves basketball. We try to be generally informed and follow the games at all levels. During a tight playoff series involving my favorite professional team, I was disappointed to be involved in taking care of a household chore during a critical point in the game. Seeing that Nichelle, our eight- year-old daughter, was [...]

 When I was in the ninth grade, I wanted badly to be a basketball team. I didn’t make the school team but our church had a team that all were welcome on. Almost every day after school, I walked down to an outdoor basketball goal that was placed at the end of a cement slab [...]

I met Matt at a youth program for high school students in Michigan. He introduced himself after one of my presentations. I was immediately impressed with him. He was a nice looking boy but I was a little disappointed, when he took off the hat he was wearing to expose his shaved head. My first [...]

 While in college I took a youth leadership class from a very popular professor named Rulon Skinner. One day he brought in a beautiful cake and set it on the desk in front of the class. I think that most of us were hoping we’d get a piece of that the cake. That day we [...]

I always thought it would be great to have a home with a little land with it. That is until we bought a home with almost three acres of yard. It turned out to be a huge headache and I spent much of my free time moving that yard. One day my father-in-law felt sorry [...]

I was asked as scout committee member to accompany a group of scouts on a river rafting trip in the Texas hill country. We were to camp on a Friday night and then spend all day Saturday on the river. Upon arrival, three other adult leaders and I started setting up the tent we had [...]

One holiday I was looking forward to a restful day off since I had had several stressful days coming into it. My wife had gotten up very early to go walking with a friend. When she got home, I was still in bed. She said there was tree limbs and debris throughout the neighborhood caused [...]

 Brandi was very excited. She was a popular cheerleader at her high school and she had been invited by her best friend to go to a large amusement park in Houston, Texas. This outing would be a going-away party for her friend, whose family was moving soon. She ran into the house to tell her [...]