Cherish is a seven letter word and full of meaning. My first thought of the word is the way the NRL Grand Final winning team held onto the winners’ trophy, a trophy highly treasured by one and all. Perhaps the real meaning of the word cherish happened at the same event when Brian To’o put love into action. News.com.au puts us in the picture. Moments after the final siren, To’o found ...

The best marriage advice I have ever received came from an 80-year-old, Scottish widow. Sitting beside her a few weeks before my wedding she told me, “The only marriage advice I’ll give you is this: cherish.” The word didn’t come with any commentary, and I would spend the next 23 years unpacking its meaning and value. My wife and I married young. We even recited vows that included the words, “to ...

Although we all pursue it in different ways, friendship is a natural part of human life. It is critical that parents pray for their children to gain quality lifelong friends. When it comes to friendships I tend to be a drifter. I don’t actually have a best friend. My best friend is Jacob. I do have close relationships with friends that if there was ever a family emergency or a Birthday ...

When extreme perfectionism becomes embroiled in a family context, it invariably leads to deep discontent. This is part 1 in a series on perfectionism and how to find peace in the midst of it. When you get right down to it, most perfectionists are searching for peace. Basically, we want to be able to look around at the world we’ve created and proclaim, like our Creator, “Everything is very good” and so ...

Did you know that you can mess up most things about being a dad to your daughter and yet still raise a successful young woman? You just need to answer one question for her. In this post, Guy explains what that is and how you can answer it. Being a dad can be complicated.  Anyone who is a dad knows this well. I remember well the months and even years leading ...

Orlando Battista said, “The best inheritance a parent can give his children is a few minutes of his time each day.” Orlando Battista is right. Our children don’t want things, they want us.  The team at our friends at the Fathering Centre in Kansas City USA had this to say in an article titled, “Kids Say THIS Is the Best Way to Be a Better Dad”. “As is often the case, ...

Other than headlining Hollywood blockbusters, Denzel Washington is also a sharp, and gifted public speaker. Staying true to the latter, Washington delivered a 30min address during this year’s Better Man event in Orlando, Florida.   The John Wayne Formula In a sit-down interview with the Reverend A. R Bernard, Washington talked about the meaning of manhood in today’s world, and how faith takes centre stage in his life. Addressing the Better Man ...

Have you ever dreamed a dream, had all the steps fall into place and suddenly you’re living your dream and it’s nothing like how you imagined it? Welcome to Parenthood We dream of the baby, but have no idea how that little person will change the rest of our lives. We then have that baby who turns our dream of becoming a mum into a frumpy, financially stretched, sleep-deprived banshee who just ...

Do you have the right skills to resolve the conflicts in your life? In this podcast episode, Brian Noble shares a simple but powerful 4-step process to resolving conflicts. Resolving Conflict Podcast What do you do when you find yourself in conflict with someone, either personally or within or part of an organisation? How do you resolve conflict properly so that it doesn’t come up again? And can I resolve conflict ...

According to an old military saying, “There are no atheists in foxholes.” It is the same for a father with a sick child.   To explain I thought I would share this amazing story of a Russian father Valery Seryakov who had his own foxhole experience at the height of Communist rule.   Valery writes in his own words:  “I joined the Communist Party according to my convictions, not for appearances’ sake or ...

Gardening can be great fun, but it can also be a time to build into the life of your family. The family that gardens together — developing and cultivating God’s creation — grows together. Me and Gardening Horticulture isn’t a strength of mine. Given the choice, I’d side with Bear Grylls over Sir David Attenborough; watch technology, and war history documentaries, over a Monty Don walk through French provincial gardens.  (Nothing ...

In October a few years ago, the Australian bishops called the entire Catholic community to pray for marriage and family. The initiative was joined by around thirty other Christian churches making it the largest ever prayer campaign in the nation. It raises the question: does prayer really make a difference? Cynics might say that a prayer campaign is just a badly disguised way of making a value statement. It’s certainly true ...

Have you ever shared how ridiculous a particular situation is with a friend to find that they think it’s crazy too but their predicament is actually worse than yours and you really have nothing to complain about? That happened to me on the weekend. Lately, I’ve been having little reminders sent in the way of a status from an inspiring blogger to words from a good friend that have slowly reminded ...

Life is getting more complex, and decision-making under uncertainty is getting harder. As real men, how do we approach important decisions without being paralysed by worry over the outcome? That is the topic of this week’s podcast. My teens like the privileges that come with getting older. But one thing they don’t tend to like is the increased stress they feel with having to make ever more important decisions. They have ...

I contemplated whether to share a snippet of my “real life” today, but then I thought, that is exactly how other Moms can relate. Acting as if I have it all together is the last thing I want to portray. For those dear Moms in my Bible Study, they have heard me say numerous times: “I do not have it all together, but thankfully I serve a God who does!” These ...

More than just a movie, The Longest Day captures for us many life lessons that we would do well to take note of still today. In this post, Guy shares 7 as he watches the D-Day film with his family. Life Lessons from D-Day As I write this, I am sitting with my father-in-law, 3 of my kids and my Irish Setter watching the war classic, ‘The Longest Day’.  It is, ...

How much tech time is too much tech time for a Dad? The general rule of thumb through which I measure this is by the degree of immersion. Some technology is a flat-out grind. It’s designed to draw in, keep and convert its prey.    Tech is Designed this Way To be fair, all this is done to incite repeat customs. There’s nothing inherently unethical about this since designers operate on ...

We recently analysed the feedback from 400 participants in our online marriage preparation course. The results to the question, “On which of the following areas would you like more formation/education”, surprised us; the most requested item among eleven options was, ‘Improving Communication’. Communication and Relationships Why the surprise? Everybody knows that communication is foundational to happy relationships. The surprise is that most people we talk to believe that they are already ...

The life of a mum is difficult, but, despite the chaos and hardship, the unglamorous mum is beautiful through it all. Although at times our kids drive us crazy, it is the little, precious moments that make it totally worth it in the end! The Unglamorous Mum Last Friday afternoon, I caught sight of myself in a mirror at Rockmans as I was heading to the change room to try on ...

How is it that despite looking like we have the things we need, we are unhappy, frustrated, even angry? As the world looks to behavioural change programs to deal with tragedies like domestic violence, Guy argues that perhaps, for men who are at risk of ‘snapping’, an answer is more deeply hidden but oh so easy to get. Meet Jim I want to introduce you to Jim. Jim is the unhappiest ...