I’ve always loved Star Wars. I grew up with it. I watched the movies all the time. I had some of the figurines and a speeder bike that exploded. I regularly checked to see if I had the Force. (I still don’t.) I memorized many of the lines.

Yoda especially said memorable things. “Control, control. You must learn control!” He may look like a muppet, but he’s full of things that sound wise.

When we bought our home, the yard needed a fair amount of work. It was not quite what we envisioned. But with a demanding work schedule for my wife and I, plus a bit of a limited skill set, we embarked on hiring a landscape company to come in and transform our yard into the beautiful yard we desired. However, even after much research and reference checks, and having them come back numerous times, the final product was still lacking. With a change in my work, the time became available for me to tinker in the yard. The goal was to, at least, get the grass green and hopefully turn it into a lawn. Slowly it has begun to take shape. It is green and it does have a bit of a lushness to it. But amongst the green, there pop up those yellow flowers...

When Jane and I were expecting our first child, we began looking at how we’d like to pass the faith on to our children. We started by considering things that helped us as we grew up.

One thing I remember is my dad reading from a children’s bible or bible story every night after supper. As a child, I thought it was terrible. My friends got to go out and play a whole 5 minutes before I did! Oh, the injustice. But by the time I was a teenager, I had a pretty decent knowledge of the major stories throughout the bible. It was a great foundation for my relationship with my loving God.

I remember reading from a children’s bible every night after supper growing up. By the time I was a teenager, I had a pretty decent understanding of the major stories in the bible (whether I wanted to or not). It gave me a great foundation for my faith life.

Jane and I have tried several times to do the same thing with our children. But we failed spectacularly (usually around day number 2 or 3).