I’m six years old. And like normal six-year-olds, I am fidgety, shifting my little body back and forth in a wooden church pew in a community called Plateau, which, by the way, most people mispronounce. I’m clutching coins in my hands. They’re mostly pennies, a few nickels, and some dimes…

Why I Despise this type of “Motivation” — Did I just use a big hairy spider to induce you to read my article about fear? Yes. Yes, I did. A friend invited my wife and me out to supper once. I thought it strange that there were about 20 other couples there also. …

My grandmother’s gift to her new husband would later become a blessing to her as well. — When they got married in 1903, in Alabama, my paternal grandfather (Ollie Manning) could not read. I am sure this was common in this area of Alabama in the early twentieth century. Probably common to lots of people during this time. My grandfather was a carpenter, so he could work…

Baldwin Square is not just another city park to me — Before it was a park in the middle of the now “heavily populated” Satsuma, Alabama, under a canopy of oaks and home to a few billion squirrels, there stood a small wood-framed house with a detached garage, or as I liked to remember it — our horse barn. We didn’t…

Not everyone sees the happiness you may be sharing I twirled her around a few times while the soft moonlight filtered and fractured its way through the frozen branches of a row of nearby birch trees. It was this magical moment that one simply cannot replicate in the warm and…

What is your facial hair hiding? — I was a grown man before I decided to shave off that awful mustache. And, I’ve never looked back. The impetus for change? A girl. A stunning and multi-lingual college-age Russian who was a part of a group of other college girls assigned as translators for a motley crew of…

This biblical character made a stupid vow that he likely didn’t carry out — I’m at Vacation Bible School on a Tuesday night in central Arkansas. I love going to VBS. When our girls were little, we’d take them to every possible VBS we could find. Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, Church of Christ, Church of God, Catholic, Free Range, Wiccan, didn’t matter. Just kidding about…

Greer never gave up on his dream, although his body had reservations — Greer Davidson took a light and guarded step, planted his foot onto the football field, shifted his weight, and swung his right leg toward an object perched in the grass in front of him. Eighty-thousand fans stopped screaming and, for the moment, breathing, while Greer readied to kick a football…

I had never paid much attention to the lilies until they were out of focus — We’re at a little church that we’ve visited several times lately. It’s just a big country church with good, friendly people. Nothing fake here. There is one problem, however. And I hate to bring it up. But … There are pieces of artwork on either side of the front wall…