Tim Boyd's Blog

In his book, The Effective Father, Gordon MacDonald wrote: "It is said of Boswell, the famous biographer of Samuel Johnson, that he often referred to a special day in his childhood when his father took him fishing.  The day was fixed in his mind, and he often reflected upon many things his father had taught him in the course of their fishing experience together.  After having heard of that particular excursion so often, it occurred to someone much later to check the journal that Boswell's father kept and determine what had been said about the fishing trip form the parental perspective.  Turning to that date, the reader found only one sentence entered: 'Gone fishing today with my son; a day wasted.'" I'm currently on the downslope of the most busy season I've had in my life.  I have had the opportunity to see how much I can be involved in and just how severe my own limitations are.  I have noticed that, when push comes to shove, I will shove a person out ...

This is my sermon for the "older brother" in all of us. This sermon is the second sermon in the story of the Prodigal Son.  We saw the young man take his inheritance early, and disrespect his father.  We saw the pain of the father to let his son go.  We saw the foolishness of the boy to sell off his inheritance, go to a distant land, and squander it away.  We saw him hit the bottom in a feedlot, come to his senses, and go back to his father to plead with him to let him be a servant in his father’s house.  Well, when he was a long way off the father saw him coming and ran out to get him.  The boy started to ask for forgiveness and his father interupted him and gave him his best robe, a ring, and sandals.  He then killed the fatted calf and they had a celebration.  Our story ended with the father gladly proclaiming, “This son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!” We understand that this is a parable that Jesus is...

I'm having a tough time with buying presents this year for my kids.  I want to get them all things that they want for several reasons. 1.  They are really good kids.  They can throw their little fits, but ultimately they are just good people. 2.  They aren't really asking for anything.  They are happy with what they got.  They're content. 3.  They are really cute. That's a dangerous combo for a dad.  I want to get them all some really nice stuff but I don't want to spoil them and ruin the great people that they already are. I wonder if this is the first Christmas, as a dad, that I have enough money to buy them good stuff without going into consumer debt.  Maybe I'm having a struggle that you can only have when you hit your mid 30's. My 5th grade son wants a new video game system.  He's not asking for it though.  He would like to have it but he realizes it's pretty expensive.  (He's more mature than I am!)  That m...

I've seen the opposite ends of the spectrum today. This morning my wife organized a Thanksgiving Dinner for some homeless and less fortunate people.  We had over 50 people show up to help load the food into containers and deliver it.  We had more than that drop by to bring in the food.  It was pretty nuts.  I didn't even recognize some of the people that helped us out.  One guy that showed up was from another state and happened to be in town, heard what we were doing (don't know how), and then wanted to help us.  It went really well.  People started bringing food in around 9:30am.  We had 150 complete meals with desserts ready by about 10:30 or so and then it was all delivered and cleaned up by 11:30.  Wow. Just a week ago Mindy was considering canceling because we didn't think we even had enough food for 50 people.  When we were all said and done this morning we had run out of containers (150) and had just a little bit of food left ...

The key to a Joy-filled life is Gratitude Life truly is great isn’t it?  It really is.  Yet, so many of us are so unhappy, discouraged, and unsatisfied.  Depression is on the rise. It seems that unhappiness is on the rise and we are increasingly becoming an unsatisfied and depressed culture.  It’s not hard to look around and see hopelessness, blame, ingratitude, and worry. And the great part is - is that we can look around at others and see how terribly ungrateful they are, but we seldom apply that to ourselves.  I wonder how many more negative things I say in a day than I do positive things.  Do you complain to your spouse about every person that you finish a conversation with?  Do you have a debriefing after each human interaction you have? John Yates writes, “Our churches and homes can be places of joy. They will be if we learn some of the secrets of joy. I believe one of the secrets of a joyful spirit is coming to understand the gr...

Gary Haugen , president and CEO of International Justice Mission , a Christian organization dedicated to fighting sex trafficking, writes, After we have poured into our children all the good food and shelter and clothing, after we have provided them with great education, discipline, structure and love, after we have worked so hard to provide every good thing, they turn to us and ask, "Why have you given all of this to me.”  And the honest answer from me is, "So you'll be safe.”  And my kid looks up at me and says, "Really? That's it? You want me to be safe? Your grand ambition for my life is that nothing bad happens?”  And I think something inside them dies. They either go away to perish in safety, or they go away looking for adventure in the wrong places. Jesus, on the other hand, affirms their sense of adventure and their yearning for larger glory." J esus was completely reckless with His disciples. He asked them to do things that were humanly imp...

I'm sorry that your dad didn't stick around.  I'm sorry if you never got to know him.  I'm sorry if your dad physically stuck around but emotionally left.  I certainly don't know your circumstance or where you came from.  Even if I did know those things I don't think a person can ever truly understand what is going on in someone else's head. I wish there was more that I could do.  I mean that.  Almost every single time that I get to do a good "dad" thing I think about it.  I think about you and what you didn't have.  I thought about it when I took my oldest daughter to pick out some clothes at goodwill.  She complained that she wanted some new clothes from a popular store.  I kept putting her off.  I put her off for at least an hour and 2 or 3 goodwills.  She kept persisting.  I finally just told her, "Honey, I'm sorry but we can't really afford to get you new clothes at that store.  Mommy and I have 4 kids and we h...