As Valentine's Day approaches, and I start pondering how to celebrate the holiday, my mind wanders back to a Valentine's Day in seventh grade. When I moved to a new town in sixth grade and started middle school, I met "Daisy." To me, she was so pretty and smart. Quickly, I figured out that in our small class in this tiny town, she was the smartest girl, and I was the smartest boy. It only made sense for us to be together, right? That spring, Daisy accepted my offer of becoming her boyfriend....

Can you imagine going 22 years without being in contact with your parents - not even knowing your father's whereabouts? Or caring? And then not only reconnecting, but repairing the relationships and starting over? That's Ashley Kinkead's journey. She shares her story and her learning in this episode of the Practical Faith Academy podcast, and in her new book, "After the Locusts: A Story of Hope for Anyone Estranged or No Contact with a Parent". One thing that struck me about this episode was...

Over the years since I first read " The Road Less Traveled " by M. Scott Peck, Peck's comment about evil has stuck with me. His words pop into my head from time to time, and they have done so again lately. Peck wrote: "Evil is strangely ineffective as a social force. . .Evil backfires in the big picture of human evolution. For every soul it destroys - and there are many - it is instrumental in the salvation of others. Unwittingly, evil serves as a beacon to warn others away from its own...