Glorious Mud

My little girl, Victoria, is starting her senior year of high school.  It really seems like just yesterday she was running around the house pretending to be Snow White in her little princess dress.  She was, is, and always will be my little girl.  But - the reality is that she isn't so little any more.  She is a senior. That means we are talking about cars, jobs, and, of course, college.  She is looking far afield (she is determined to go somewhere away from home to get the full college experience - even though I keep pushing SIUE!).  She scored very well on her ACT and is in the process of writing application essays.  As the former English teacher in the house, I get the privilege of editing my kid's work. That is how I came to read this essay - she wrote it to apply to a college in Nashville (at least that is only four hours away from home).  I was floored, humbled, and thrilled at the same time.  As my daughter's "pastor-daddy," I am ...

Yes, I know I haven't finished my series on volunteer recruitment, envisioning, and leadership - but this was too good to pass up. In the 1960s, Stanford conducted some very famous psychological experiments dealing with temptation. They put kids into a room and put a marshmallow in front of them. They were told they could eat it whenever they were ready, but if they waited for the researcher, they would get second marshmallow. Studies have shown that the kids who resisted the temptation had a higher reported rate of success as adults - because they were willing delay gratification and suffer discomfort in order to turn the situation to their advantage. I believe there are numerous applications for this as we consider the gospel, but for now, let's just look at the video. It is hilarious. Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo .