The Road Less Traveled

Yesterday my church started collecting money and canned food for our "SOUPer Bowl Sunday." The donations go to our local food pantry, which is very small but still manages to serve thousands of people every year. Personally, I like to donate to my local food pantry because I can be sure that my money is going to a good cause. After all, food is one of our most basic survival needs. Good nutrition is essential, especially for children because they are still developing. And sadly, 21% of children in the U.S. are living in poverty—nearly double the rate of poverty for adults. Also, about 1 in 8 American households are food insecure, which means that they lack reliable access to a sufficient amount of nutritious food. This shows that poverty and malnutrition are not just problems that happen "somewhere else." They may, quite literally, be going on in your own neighborhood. So, which items are best for donating to your local food pantry? And which ones should you av

Personality is like a painting. A painting is made up of many different colors, but usually one or two will be the most noticeable. The same is true with people; a few of someone's personality traits will be more dominant than the rest. Also, just like all paintings are unique, so are all people. No two people have identical personalities—but there are some clear patterns and similarities that people tend to share. That's why I like the True Colors personality framework. Created by Don Lowry in 1978, it is one of the more modern ideas about personality. Lowry built on ideas from people like Isabel Myers and Katharine Briggs, who came up with the 16 personalities test. Lowry agreed with their ideas, but he didn't like how the personality tests were formatted. He noticed that long, boring written tests did not go over well with certain personalities. He wanted to make personality testing more accessible to everyone. So, Lowry created his own system. He found a way to

My best friend's birthday was this week, so I'm bringing dessert to church tomorrow in her honor. Both of us really like chocolate chip cookies, so I decided to try a recipe for chocolate chip cookie bars. Now it's definitely one of my favorite recipes. What's really great about this recipe is that it's super easy to make. It only requires 4 ingredients and doesn't need any chilling, rolling, etc. Ingredients: • 1 box (15.25 oz.) Betty Crocker Super Moist yellow cake mix • 1/2 cup vegetable oil • 2 eggs • 1 bag (12 oz.) Nestlé Simply Delicious semisweet chocolate chips Directions: 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 2. Using a mixer, combine cake mix, vegetable oil, and eggs on low speed. (Or mix ingredients by hand.) 3. Add chocolate chips to batter. Mix well. 4. Spread batter evenly into the bottom of a greased 9" x 13" baking pan. 5. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown around the edges. 6. Allow bars to cool

**Note: This is NOT a criticism of transgender people. I do not hate you, “disagree with your lifestyle,” or any such nonsense. Although I disagree with the idea of transgenderism (and the harm it has caused), I do not blame transgender people for this in any way. In fact, I believe that many transgender people are victims of a society that punishes them for not conforming to gender roles.  In other words, if you are transgender, this is NOT a criticism of you. This is a criticism of those who have harmed you—those who have told you that your personality and interests are “wrong” for a man or a woman to have. First of all, transgender ideology is not logically sound. If you can’t be the wrong race, then how can you be the wrong sex? Both race and sex are observable, biological traits. But in fact, identifying as another race makes more sense than identifying as the opposite sex. Race is often less objective than sex. With the exception of a few rare cases, people tend to be o

"If you don't share with your sister, I'll take your ice cream away." Her tone was gentle yet firm. Her son, who appeared to be about 7 or 8 years old, pouted but didn't say anything. He clearly did not want to share his ice cream with his little sister, who didn't have any. "Why would you share your ice cream with me but not with your sister?" his mom continued. "That's rude." She wasn't harsh or angry toward her son, but she wasn't afraid to enforce the rules, either. Finally, he relented and gave his sister a spoonful of ice cream. Nowadays, it seems like that sort of parenting would be labeled mean or even abusive. (Though I prefer the term "basic human decency.") Recently I was talking to one of my friends about some of the larger families I've known where 2 or 3 children would have to share a bedroom. She was appalled! She told me that she believed it was wrong to make children share a bedroom for an