morality

     (…continued)  The principles for a good and ethical life are not complicated.  There are just a few basics.  Think about it.  Think about what the world would be like if everyone simply told the truth all the time, did not take what did not belong to them, treated each other with respect, and

Painting above by William Henry Margetson  (1861-1940)      (…continued)  Jesus was also a teacher of morality and goodness.  Jonathan Swift himself was, of course, a servant of that Jesus, so in Gulliver’s Travels he was merely passing on what he learned about life from Jesus; and doing so by telling a story.  Jesus also

Isaiah 5:20 says, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.”  In today’s entertainment and social media bad behavior is often celebrated, rewarded, and even encouraged; whereas purity, goodness, and virtue are often sneered at.  The result of this calling ‘evil good and good evil’ is illustrated in the image above from Mad

     In Matthew 5:48 Jesus says, “Be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”  How are you doing with that?  In the piece that follows, Philip Yancey describes the efforts toward perfection made by some religious groups in American history.  Believing they could do away with sin and create Utopian communities of

     (…continiued)  Grandma Nell’s choice to die with forgiveness rather than bitterness directly changed the lives of her doctor and her daughter.  It also had an indirect effect on the lives of all that doctor’s future patients, all the many people her daughter served, and on her grandchildren who she would never meet, but who

     Ruth and Bernice were unmarried sisters and members of a church I used to serve.  They were in their 80’s when I knew them and had lived together almost their entire lives.  The only time they did not live in the same house was in World War II, when Ruth was in Europe

     Third, mealtime is a place to learn self-control and moderation.  This, like gratitude and not complaining, is never fully learned in childhood, and is usually a lifelong struggle.  The child’s first lessons in self-control come even before mealtime.  “No,” they are often told, “you cannot have a bag of potato chips right now; it is

     Several years ago, a little known author named Robert Fulghum made a hit with an article he wrote called, Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.  It was a nice piece of writing– simple, down to earth, and filled with wisdom.  It contained several basic Kindergarten rules like play fair, don’t

     (…continued)  On the next level, there are the kind of reasons to be good that Tom Bodet is talking about.  When you are with the same people on a regular basis and for a long time, you begin to care also about what they think about you, and about how your behavior is