I’m usually a lot better prepared for Christmas. Not this year. This year, the week to trump all weeks caught us off-guard. We missed a beat or two in preparation for the only few weeks capable of slowing down the Western world. The weeks that remind the Scrooges and time-poor alike that life is more than hyper-consumerism and a dreary, soul-sucking 8-5 existence. A rushed Christmas is not really Christmas at ...

Advent is a season of anticipation. The birth of any child, not least the Messiah, gives us cause for hope. Earlier this week, we heard the testimony of Chris and Natalie Stefanick, a couple who had journeyed through dark seasons in their marriage. Having survived sexual abuse as a child, Natalie found she needed many years of therapy and healing. She recounted one of her darkest times, when she doubted that ...

Joe is a mate of mine. “Mate” hardly describes our connection, yet the sporadic contact belies a relationship that holds strong meaning for me. Joe is pretty much anonymous to most, but that is of his own making. He is humble at a time when indulgence and opulence seemed to be currency. For a long time, he struggled as an artisan. Other carpentry shops that ran slave labour gazumped the hand-crafted ...

Paraphrasing the great G.K. Chesterton, novelist Neil Gaiman wrote, “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” His words summarise the essence of an obscure essay from Chesterton called The Red Angel, written in defence of the ordinary hero, who is set against extraordinary odds. ‘Fairy tales don’t give the child his first idea of ...

No matter how easy it may seem to fall in love, staying in love requires attention and effort. We all start out in marriage bright in hope and full of brimming love. Yet rarely do those wonderful, euphoric experiences of early love persist unabated; for many of us, disillusionment creeps its way into our consciousness as our natural selfishness and thoughtlessness crowd out our earlier bliss-generated generosity. With crushing realisation, we ...

There’s a curious thing that happens when a divorce touches a community. Where once parents, friends and siblings believed in the power of love and the permanency of marriage, confidence gives way to cynicism and uncertainty. Instead of believing that children do best when living in the same home with both their parents, we find ourselves saying: “The most important thing is that they know they are loved by both their ...

We all have dreams: to start a business… volunteer in a third-world country… write a book… Dreams are important. And then God answered: Write this. Write what you see. Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run. – Habakkuk 2:2 (The Message) I’ve recently learnt a valuable lesson — to not get too attached to my dreams. Let me tell you my story… ...

In the age of instant news, judgment falls hastily. In marriage also, we are often quick to judge each other. Like most couples, over thirty-plus years of marriage, we’ve had quite a few misunderstandings. Sadly, many of these escalated to painful arguments where hurtful things were said, and our unity was damaged. The reason? We were too quick to judge. In almost every instance, one or both of us made a ...

If I wasn’t there when she said it, I wouldn’t have believed it. When my boss asked his 7-year-old daughter what she’d like for her birthday, she said she didn’t want any gifts. Could everyone make a donation to the Leukaemia Foundation instead? Excuse me? After a lengthy conversation, she convinced her parents to have a ‘gift-free’ birthday party and instead, set up an online donation form with the Leukaemia Foundation. ...

LIFEMARK is one of the best movies I have ever seen. Furthermore, it is definitely the Kendrick brothers’ greatest movie yet! That’s why I am writing to you to encourage you to see LIFEMARK at the movies this week before it disappears from the big screen. Thankfully, LIFEMARK has only dropped down from 74 screens last week to 54 screens. Sadly, in some of those cinemas, it is only showing once ...

Queen Elizabeth II is a wonderful role model for strong and steady leadership. Her life bears lessons for all parents, who must lead their families. If you are like me, you will have been staggered by how many people loved the Queen. I have always admired the Queen’s leadership, humility, faith, courage, and commitment. I thought I was one of very few, but it turns out I am one of billions. ...

In a culture that glorifies youth and sanctions the euthanising of the sick and elderly, it’s easy to lose sight of the gift of seniors. Here are three ways that senior couples make marriage better for all of us. Earlier this year, Pope Francis released a series of homilies on the elderly. Each one explores a theme based on a significant figure in the scriptures, including Naomi, Joachim and Anne, Simeon ...

“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” is a saying by the famous Greek philosopher Aristotle in 330BC. The fact that he came up with it must mean he attended a Men’s Leadership Summit. I am still buzzing two weeks later and still trying to figure out why the Summit was so good. The speakers were brilliant, the mountain bush setting was beautiful, the attendees were remarkable, the ...

Hostile Territory, the latest offering from actor, director, and writer Brian Presley, has all the right dads-for-kids ingredients. Set in Missouri in the mid-1860s, the 2022 film is an award-worthy western with a crisp contemporary edge. The well-thought-out script follows battle-hardened Union army Captain Jack Calgrove, who, at war’s end, finds his kids gone and his wife dead. As he was presumed KIA, Calgrove’s children were dispatched by the US Army ...

This Father’s Day, may fathers everywhere receive a big bundle of love from their children. May healing and reconciliation take place where required, and may fathers step up to their calling as loving dads and role models for their offspring. The team at Dads4Kids wishes all Dads, all over Australia, a happy Father’s Day. It is always a busy time for us with the release of our new Father’s Day TV ...

You can’t love what you don’t know. This saying has profoundly influenced our marriage and our faith. About once a decade, we book tickets to the opera in the expectation of a romantic date night brimming with artistic delight. We have to confess though, we usually come home vaguely disappointed. Not being particularly musical, we don’t understand the technical expertise. Nor do we know the traditions and history (or often the ...

Change is difficult. It can also be complicated. Despite our best intentions, sustained change often eludes us. We’ve had many spouses tell us that their husband or wife promised to change, and things were good for a while, but then there was a relapse. Their good intentions were not enough to sustain their energy for change. So what can we do when we really need a change to stick? What needs ...

“For an increasing number of long-term marriages, it’s no longer a case of ‘until death do us part,’ it’s a matter of until the children depart from the family nest,” writes Rachel Browne in a Sydney Morning Herald article, “Parents wait until children go, then do the same thing.” Suddenly finding your busy life full of activities attached to children, and a home in a constant state of noise, and endless ...

It was 12:00am on Sunday, the 1st of September — Father’s Day, to be precise. There I was, frantically gathering clothes and bits ‘n’ pieces according to my wife’s somewhat disjointed instruction.  She was roaming about the house with a hot wheat sack across her rather overgrown abdomen. I couldn’t believe it. Had the moment finally arrived? After nine — closer to ten long months, was I finally going to be ...

As someone who has been through the very difficult travails of divorce and undertaken various versions of shared care over the past 15 years, I understand all too well the confusion, stress and sadness these difficult travails bring with them. I have, however, learned a few things along the way that I hope might be of benefit to those fellow travellers who are about to, or are, experiencing similar life experiences. ...