“I’ll be up a little longer,” I told my wife Sara as she headed down the hallway to bed on Christmas Eve. I went into the living area, found a space across the room from the lighted Christmas tree, and plopped down against the wall to mourn my children. My future children. The ones we didn’t have after five years of infertility treatments. The regimen had been expensive, intensive, and inconclusive. Exploratory surgery had recently uncovered a structural problem that made pre

It's a scene I'll never forget. Our adoption tour group was navigating its way through hundreds of noisy people outside the United States embassy in Guangzhou, China (pictured). The group's purpose was to finalize paperwork authorizing newly adopted children, including our daughter Rebecca, to exit China for the U.S. The purpose of the crowd outside the embassy was to enter the USA themselves. Many people were holding a square card of different colors: blue, green, red, and s

In the small towns where I grew up, you could always rely on three churches to be present: The United Methodist, the Baptist, and the Catholic. Even though I was the Methodist preacher's kid (or PK), it wasn't unusual for me to visit the Baptist church now and then. They would sponsor different events for their youth and invite others to join them. One of the memorable visits in my high school town of Poteet, Texas, was when the Baptists sponsored a Valentine's dance. I reali

Little, quirky things can make our lives more fun. I have a few such objects in my house. First, I have assigned a plastic green kazoo...

I've often said that, aside from having a family, the best thing I've done in my life is church youth ministry. I spent 30+ years across...

My father Carl was faced with a horrible dilemma. No matter how fast he drove the ambulance, he couldn't save J.R.'s life. What could he do?

I feel the closest to my late mother when I’m planting flowers. She had a green thumb; I don’t. But she taught me how to gently pull the...

Cecil recently shared his secrets for a happy marriage with a young single friend and shares them here. Add your ideas to the conversation!

Photo provided by Paul Smith and Martin Fox under CC BY-SA 2.5 found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/deed.en It was my...

As Christmas approached, our family was suffering from my spring layoff and inability to find steady work during what eventually became a...

Cecil runs down his top ten most challenging on-air situations while broadcasting sports.

I recently received a positive comment about my interviewing skill from a Practical Faith Academy podcast guest. It got me to thinking about the mistake I made long ago with my most stressful interview guest that led me to improvement. Podcast guest Barbara Ann Holmes wrote: "I've done quite a few interviews and he spent the most time researching and actually paying attention to learning about who he interviews." (You can hear Barbara Ann's excellent conversation in Episode 1

I've been reading "Famous Last Words," compiled by Ray Robinson. Here are some notable deathbed sayings that struck me. STILL THINKING...

It wasn’t going to be easy to move my mother three hundred miles to live closer to me, considering the accumulation of possessions over...

As I watch the variety of sport and nations in this year's Summer Games in Paris, I think back to a wonderful moment during my trip to the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. The Olympic atmosphere was unlike any other. Although we in the crowd cheered loudest for the American athletes, we appreciated the other athletes. They also received applause. But none like the ovation for a foreign swimmer who finished last. I attended a swimming session containing all preliminary events

Cecil's father preached a sermon heard by a president before an auspicious signing of legislation. What did the sermon say?

Back in the day, I loved office pranks. Not just office pranks; my family came to disbelieve anything that happened on April Fools Day....

Reflections after the Trump assassination attempt on Jesus' imperative to love our enemies.

Cecil tells a touching story of reciprocal love as expressed through the baking and eating of pecan pies.

One of my favorite museums is the Sketch Museum in Lund, Sweden. This college town museum contains sketches and prototypes of public works of art. I have visited twice and came away fascinated by the artistic process that sculptors and painters have used to create their works. For example, in the included photo, you can see various sketches from when the sculptor conceived her man-and-bird statue. Even the large statue is a prototype itself. I feel inspired by such a careful