It is a rare person who, when his cup frequently runs over, can thank God instead of complaining about the limited size of his mug!

—Bob Russell, pastor and author

The Thing in the Bushes is a book about corporate blind spots. Authors Kevin Graham Ford and James D. Osterhaus point out that most leaders of companies or other organizations know "something is seriously wrong, but they can't see it. Something unidentified and insidious is lurking in the shadows like a 'thing in the bushes,' and it has the organization in a death grip." Through careful research, ...

My friend Linda, who teaches first grade, told me about an interaction she had with one of her students on the first day of school. Accustomed to going home at noon in kindergarten, Ryan was getting his things ready to leave for home when he was actually supposed to be heading to lunch with the rest of the class. Linda asked him what he was doing. "I'm going home," he replied. Linda tried to explain ...

My youth group was hundreds of miles from home on a mission trip in New Orleans. We were piled in the van on the way back to the motel when someone yelled out, "I get the pay phone first!"

"Why?" another kid asked. "Who do you need to call?"

"It's Father's Day, dork!" came the reply.

Father's Day. I hadn't thought about that in years. As everyone scrambled for coins and planned out a calling schedule, ...

I discovered the importance of healthy counsel in a half-Ironman triathlon. After the 1.2 mile swim and the 56 mile bike ride, I didn't have much energy left for the 13.1 mile run. Neither did the fellow jogging next to me. I asked him how he was doing and soon regretted posing the question.

"This stinks. This race is the dumbest decision I've ever made." He had more complaints than a taxpayer at the ...

Crazy things happen to our sense of judgment when we get angry.

In February 2009, a 27-year-old woman from Fort Pierce, Florida, walked into a McDonald's restaurant and ordered a 10-piece McNuggets meal. You know how it is when you're hungry and you have a taste for something particular. Your imagination starts working and you can almost taste those McNuggets now.

Well, that's when things got really ...

When our daughter, Kathy, was participating in a parenting class at her church, she explained to her 6-year-old daughter, Kayla, that she was taking a course to help make her a better mommy. The next Sunday, after church, Kayla became upset and had a tantrum because she was not getting her way. Both parents tried to calm her. But with tears streaming down her face and in a loud voice, Kayla announced ...

Amy Knight—single mother of Kayla, Ryan, and Alex—attends Whitehouse (Texas) First Assembly and had heard stories of divine healing, but she had never personally experienced or seen one. When 11-year-old daughter Kayla began complaining about ongoing headaches that continued to grow in severity, Amy desperately needed those healing stories to become a personal reality.

The headaches grew ...

How Americans manage stress:

• Listen to music: 52 percent
• Exercise or walk: 47 percent
• Read: 44 percent
• Spend time with friends or family: 41 percent
• Watch TV or movies two or more hours a day: 41 percent
• Nap: 38 percent
• Play video games or surf the Internet: 37 percent
• Pray: 37 percent
• Eat: 34 percent
• Hobby: 30 percent
• Church or religious services: 21 percent
• Drink alcohol: 18 percent
• Shop: 18 percent
• Smoke: 16 percent

The Waltons was a popular television series in the 1970s that told the story of a large family living in Virginia during the Depression era. In this particular episode, one of the Walton children, John-Boy, aspires to publish his own county newspaper—The Blue Ridge Chronicle. He enlists the help of his younger brother, Ben, and they soon stumble upon their first headline story. The county judge, ...