“STOP MAKING EXCUSES for things YOU Control; it wasn't a mistake after the first time, it was a DECISION!” Reading this on a social media site immediately caught my attention. A mistake versus a decision. My first reaction was … ‘Ouch! Any bad actions that I take are not permissible after the first time.’ But then I thought … ‘Wait a minute, why is the first time permissible?’

Maybe it’s not. There’s such a fine line between the two. A mistake is “an action or judgment that is misguided or wrong.” A mistake is printing your term paper on yellow paper instead of white paper. A mistake is grabbing the directions to the interview but leaving your resume on the printer. A mistake is heading West on the Interstate when you’re supposed to be headed East. A mistake could even be thinking an adult is a child or a male is a female. A mistake might even be proceeding through the yellow light instead of throwing your brakes on.

A mistake is NOT the emotional or physical affair you engaged in. …

Disconnected yet reconnected. This is how I feel right now. My cell phone has been out of commission for over three weeks. It hasn’t been easy to live without my phone but it has been an eye-opening experience. Here are five things that this new age technology have reminded me of:

1.Good versus Best. Being released of the clutter of life that comes from constant phone calls, responding to emails throughout the day, continuous social media posting and reviewing, etc has allowed me to focus on some of the more important things in life. I’m getting back to the basics. Note that the things listed above are not bad. In fact, in many respects, I think they’re good. However, being released from the clutter helps to re-direct us towards the best that life has to offer.    
2.Respect. Boundaries DO exist.  “Me” time. Spiritual time. Meditation. Family time. Work obligations. Scheduled activities. Vacation. There's a time and place for everything. Although cell phones are convenient because …

I was listening to an empowerment call and I heard a story about a young girl who questioned the maximization of our freedom. This nine year old girl was telling her father that she was beginning to be bound up by technology instead of living in her freedom to live out her dreams. In other words, she was allowing her phone with all of its apps and gadgets to take her away from writing her book. Yes, she had the freedom to make a choice. However, she realized that freedom to make a choice doesn’t negate the responsibility to make the best choice.
Dictionary.com defines freedom in a number of ways. Freedom is “the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint.” It is an “’exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.” Freedom is “the power to determine action without restraint.” It is an “exemption from the presence of anything specified (usually followed by from).” Freedom can also be viewed as “the absence of or release from …

The record player still gets stuck on the same ‘ol song. “Put your clothes away where they belong. Don’t just throw them on your bed.” It’s the same conversation every time they wash clothes. Yes! The girls each wash their own clothes and they are responsible for putting them away.
Just before 8:00am, I tiptoed down the hall to the twins’ bedroom. I didn’t want to wake up the other girls so I didn’t do my normal morning song and dance. When I got down to the room, I saw that my daughter was already up and dressed for her gymnastics class. As I quietly stood in her bedroom doorway, I watched my ten year old daughter placing her flat bed sheet over a pile of clothes on a corner of her bed. I started to say something but I decided against it. I just stood there for a few more seconds, smiled, then walked away.
How often do you think God does that with us? How many times do you think God has watched you do something you knew was wrong? How many times do you think God has allowed you to do …