Author: Steve Endress

I’ve been fixated on this concept for several years and I’m just putting it all out there because I need to get it organized. My most recent try was here. God created us to flourish, not just to survive. This conclusion has been a journey for me with several aha moments over the years: “When…

Betsy and I had an unusually-philosophical coffee time this morning. We were reflecting on a recent social event, and commenting on how the children – ours and others – behaved at various times and circumstances. We talked about the effects that social experiences have on children. For example, Betsy was homeschooled for the first eight…

What if you never fired an employee? I listened to an interview of Bob Chapman (on Simon Sinek’s channel…thanks Grant!) and Bob says that life changed for him when he realized every person was someone’s precious child. Seeing people as children then caused him to realize that he was the parent…. So, he never said…

“I’m from the government, and I’m here to help!” I’ve heard this enough times to remember it, but I had to look up where it came from. It came from a US president who was born about 50 miles from here, and, among other things, attended Eureka College. President Reagan called it the nine most…

I’ve been working on another model. It’s built on the idea that we grow most when we simultaneously 1)work on ourselves; 2)help others; and 3)coach others. I thought…if there is a constitution that provides the framework, guidelines, and authority-granting instructions, then three branches of government can be balanced and work together. Why can’t the same…

A friend argues that this is the most important question a person can ask himself. He argues that our whole life is a series of decisions based on the comparisons we make. I’ve found that if you approach something with very low expectations, you perceive the response completely differently than if you approach that same…

I have a rich uncle…that’s so trite and yet so fun to write! He had a knack for business and risk/reward. So, he industriously built. At some point, a friend of his, and perhaps a brother in faith, asked, don’t you have enough? How would I answer that question if it were asked of me?…

It seems to me that there are two types of conservatism. One type (I’ll call it destructive conservatism) is worried about change because of a desire for control, and that isn’t very compelling to others. When I view life from that negative angle, I win in the short term by sticking my heals in the…

Reading in 1 Corinthians 2 this morning, the instructions here are deeper than what first meets the eye. “And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the…

About this time every year, my girls get tired of unstructured free time (or maybe it’s the extra jobs assigned on the fly) and start thinking about the upcoming educational year. Last year, they get started about this time, and no doubt would have this year had it not been for a real-world educational experience…