Many Americans will enjoy an extra day off next week on Sept. 2.  Even before Labor Day became a federal holiday, approximately 27 states passed legislation recognizing it as a holiday. New York was the first state to introduce a bill, but Oregon was the first to pass a law recognizing Labor Day, on Feb. 21, 1887, according to the Department of Labor. Labor activists continued to push to have

Dale Lusk didn’t like the decisions he had to make when he began ministering at a boys’ juvenile detention facility here in Tennessee. His dilemma? Which boys get Bibles, which get discipleship materials and which don’t get either. Fortunately, the decision became easy. All boys who wanted a Bible or materials got them because Tennessee Baptists gave through the Golden Offering for Tennessee Mission and GOTM funds made it happen.

When our children were young, it was fairly common for the youngest child to delight in saying the blessing before meals.  When our youngest, Timothy, was 4 years old he often eagerly asked to say the blessing. His prayers developed, of course, moving first from unintelligible to intelligible and then adding and substituting topics. At one point a new item began appearing in his prayers. He began, in his list

Returning to school each fall always evokes a bit of murmuring from my children. Sleeping in, trips to the beach, and free time with friends is admittedly more fun than studying algebra and writing book reports. I get it.  What most children and teenagers do not realize, however, is that the revolving semesters of these years represent a season of life that not only passes far too quickly, but also

I don’t know about you, but every time I open a social media app, scan news headlines, or watch a news channel, I feel an ache in my heart, a pit in my stomach and a burden in my soul. Bad news. Tragic events. Vitriolic debate. Threats and predictions of more to come. And it seemingly never ends. Recently, as I scanned a newspaper and felt all these emotions, I

The men’s 100-meter race at the 2024 Paris Olympics generated global interest. It was the fastest field ever assembled with the winner not only winning gold but also claiming the titles as “World’s Fastest Man.”  This year’s field was so stacked with speed that for the first time in history, all eight competitors finished in under 10 seconds. American Noah Lyles came from last to first and won in a