Author: Palmer Trice

Marriage as a Crucible

. There is no one I love more. There is no one who drives me as crazy. There is no one I love more. There is no one who drives me as crazy. There is no one who thinks of me more. There is no one whose love I take more for granted. There is no one who sees me as clearly. There is no one whose opinion matters as much. There is no one whom I have hurt more. There is no one who has forgiven me more. Marriage… Continue reading Marriage as a Crucible

Life Planning

  Some of us love to plan.  Some of us hate it.  Some of us love to dream and scheme about the future.  We love to “own our hopes” and take proactive steps in that direction.  Others of us find that planning is confining or limiting and prefer to keep our options open, to see what life might bring us. Can you guess which one I am by the way I described the two? My wife Lynne told me years ago that I would rather plan the future than live… Continue reading Life Planning

Unqualified

“He can’t possibly use me!  I’m too old.  I had my shot.” I rarely hear those words, but I feel it from friends.  Their bodies tell them they are getting older.  They have passed their prime at work.  Retirement is here or it is looming.  Transition is or will be happening.  Younger men are taking over the leadership of their company, their church, their everything. “I’m too old.  He can’t possibly use me.  What do I have to give?”  More on this in a moment. On the other hand, I also… Continue reading Unqualified

Something Has Changed

I started my Christmas reading this week.  I read through the relevant Gospel passages and through some of the Old Testament prophecies, hoping to find the Reason for the Season, to recapture the magic of the Christmas story.  I want to be captivated by the manger scene, wonder with the shepherds at that star of wonder, smell and hear the cattle, feel the cold, and see the glory.  We all want that, don’t we?  We want Christmas to be more than gifts, more than hopeful words without content, longer lasting… Continue reading Something Has Changed

Gratitude

Are we optimists or pessimists? I think we all lean one way or the other… Is the glass half full or half empty?  Are we more aware of what is right with the world or more aware of what is not? Which is the better way to be? Is it about having balance?  Or should I become an optimist, more hopeful?  What about being realistic?  Is that better?  Dealing with what is rather than what could be?  Can I be too optimistic? Too pessimistic?  What should I be?  What is… Continue reading Gratitude

Does My Story Really Matter

Does my story really matter?  Is it any better or more valuable than anyone else’s?  Could anyone see God’s living presence in it? Don’t we all have those questions?  We know our weaknesses and our mistakes.  We know our sin and our limitations.  We feel like our lives are pretty ordinary at best and way too messy at other times. I had a conversation recently with a friend, not a close one, who had gone through a really rough time in his marriage.  They had had a very hard time… Continue reading Does My Story Really Matter

A Wistful Reflection

  I have spent a lot of time thinking about how to manage time.  I was an early convert to Day-timers.  I drank from the Steven Covey fountain.  I wanted to be more efficient and more effective.  I knew that “each of us has all the time there is.”  And I wanted to use every minute as wisely as I could. In my early years, I thought there would be no limit to how much I could do, as long as I kept increasing my efficiency.  There was no limit… Continue reading A Wistful Reflection

Our Family Vacation

  Do you have a vision of the perfect family vacation?  I do, somewhere in there.  I think I will know it if I see it – but I haven’t yet. I know I have seen it on television somewhere or projected it onto someone else’s family that seemed to have some sort of perfect bliss/fun/camaraderie.  I have had moments like these, but they have never lasted as long as I would want. I just returned from a long weekend in the mountains with my parents (97 & 90), my… Continue reading Our Family Vacation

Marriage is a Mystery

Supposedly, the DNA differences between Lynne and me are minuscule.  We are far more alike than different.  And not just genetically; we are both Caucasian, college-educated, deeply committed to Jesus, relationally wired, driven by a desire to love well… We are so much alike, with so many similar interests – in people, in walking, in Starbucks, in our intellectual curiosity.  We tend to like the same people.  We often feel the same things when we enter a house or meet someone.  Now some of this has grown over 36 years… Continue reading Marriage is a Mystery

Confession

Confession isn’t very hard for me – with God, at least.  Conceptually and theologically I buy it – I am a sinner saved by grace.  Yet I routinely fail to trust my heavenly Father.  Sometimes, no actually often, I dismiss His directives for my life and seek to make my life work “my way.”  I understand that sin is not simply wrong actions but wrong motives of the heart. But I also believe in the Gospel.  As Paul said in one of his letters to Timothy, “Christ Jesus died to… Continue reading Confession