How old are you? By Joe McGinness At the age of perhaps four I asked my grandfather “Granddaddy, how old are you?” He smiled, and then said, “How old do you think I am?” “I’ll bet you are a hundred” I responded in my youthful naiveté. “Well I certainly feel that old but I am [...]

The Art of Returning Gifts by Michael Huseman The Christmas season is here, and while most folks recognize the birth of Jesus as being the reason for the season, sometimes too much attention leading up to Christmas Day is spent finding what people think is the “perfect” gift. We search on-line, in stores and malls. [...]

Light from light By Jon Ransom October 5, 2005: Second worst day of my life. Sitting in the emergency room of T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital, I was told that my 2-year-old daughter, Emily, had cancer—neuroblastoma, to be specific. Cancer is supposed to be an adult thing, right? I mean, we all know about Susan G. [...]

Thank you, Lazy Sue and Father Time By Eric Steiman Thank you Lazy Sue and Father Time…. (“Wait—what?” you say.) Just stick with me a moment longer, while I work it all out in my head. It’s 4 a.m. In this upcoming season of “thankfulness,” we all have reasons to be grateful for the blessings [...]

When children roamed the earth By Steve Smith I remember how big the world seemed at 8. The Earth was 20 acres, and I roamed it with the neighborhood kids. A patch of woods in the back concealed wolves and bears, ogres and giants. At times you could hear Panzer tanks and anti-aircraft barrages; we [...]

Dean W. Arnold is a writer and publisher and the father of a son, Jaime, and a daughter, Tabitha. Contact him at dean@deanarnold.org. Going man-to-man with Dad By Dean Arnold I was headed to tell my dad I had wrecked the car. Driving with my buddy in Greenville, S.C., we came off an exit ramp—perhaps [...]

Where the babies are By Eric Steiman Photo by Julie Hogue I love babies…really. Man, do I love babies. There, I said it. I’m a man, and I get all soft around babies. Recently my family and I were at a gathering of friends, when one of them remarked (as I was bent over a [...]

Save the nails By Mike Cound We began to notice that our son was becoming an accomplished nail-biter before we moved back to Chattanooga, a little over a year ago. It wasn’t too hard to pick up on this, as he seemed to prefer the taste of cuticles over corndogs. Back in Little Rock, we [...]

A real nail-biter By Mike Cound We began to notice that our son was becoming an accomplished nail-biter before we moved back to Chattanooga, a little over a year ago. It wasn’t too hard to pick up on this, as he seemed to prefer the taste of cuticles over corndogs. Back in Little Rock, we [...]

The real summer of love By Derek and Zack Littlefield It was an exciting time back in 1970-something. Dad had something very important to share with us. We flipped through a large, full-color brochure at the kitchen table, gazing at pictures of families roasting marshmallows around a campfire. Throwing Frisbees. Having picnics. Fishing (and actually [...]