Posts by Dale Payne

“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” Ephesians 6:4 Think with me for a moment.  How would history have been different, if key individuals had experienced an engaging, loving, kind, good, honorable, and godly father who invested positively in the lives of their children, and who were fa...

"Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." Ephesians 6:4 I still remember sitting in the audience watching for the first time the Christian film, Courageous. Alex Kendrick played Adam, a sheriff deputy, who tragically lost his young daughter in a car accident. Throughout the movie he wrestled with ...

"If any (child) be in Christ, he is a new creature, the old things passed away; new things have come." 2 Corinthians 5:17 Someone once asked me, "What did you do to get your kids to turn out sogood?" What an opportunity to puff up my pride for "my secret" silver bullet to having a great family. I took a breath, and said, "Honestly, it's only by the grace of God that m...

Have you ever wondered what if some turn of events had happened differently in history, how it might have affected things in the present? We may muse over the "what if" possibilities, yet for some reason it happened just as it did. Yet, we may still wonder how close things might have come to having a completely different outcome? This is portrayed in the Christmas classic ...

"Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child;the rod of discipline will remove it far from him." Proverbs 22:15 In my early parenting years, I enjoyed taking my son and daughter to thelocal park on my day off. One Monday, as we enjoyed the swings and playgroundwith several other mothers and their children, we noticed a specific event unfoldbetween a mother and her chi...

"Whatever you have learned or received, or heard from me,or seen in me put it into practice." Philippians 4:9 Mirrors are interesting things. What we see is what we get. We sometimeshope when we look into a mirror that we will see something different, but amirror only reflects what is in front of it. The mirror may be cracked or distorted,but it still reflects. "Mirror, ...

Whenever I have gone with someone to the shooting range or hunting with friends, our main goal is to shoot at something precisely, not to just shoot into the air, which can have serious consequences. Paul said, "Run in such a way that you may win Therefore, I run in such a way as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air" (1 Cor. 9:24b, 26). He told the ...

"Let your father and your mother be glad, and let her rejoice who gave birth to you." Proverbs 23:25 "A child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother." Proverbs 29:15b "A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her who bore him." Proverbs 17:25 Please click here to download part 4 of Family Matters...

Matthew 12:25 "Any city or house divided against itself will not stand." Proverbs 12:7 "But the house of the righteous will stand." The opening line of the Council on Biblical Manhood Womanhood March 2020 blog states, "There has never been a time when the family faced so severe a crisis as the time in which we are now living." That is quite a sobering statement. Is the...

I still remember those first, now familiar words, "Honey, I think I'm pregnant." We were being obedient to God's command of being "fruitful and multiplying," which now meant our family was no longer going to be just two of us. Those first nine months were challenging for both of us - my wife being pregnant and me learning to live with a pregnant lady. Our menu during that ...

"I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth." 3 John 1:4 What? Another blog on parenting? Hasn't everything on this topic been said? George Barna stated that thousands of books have been published on the topic of parenting recently, not to mention the endless number of blog posts. It seems to be a hot topic close to home. Everyone seems...

Saturday, August 10th. We are doing a day trip up to the Kern River. Lord willing, the river will still be flowing at a fun level and we can get some runs in. The day will cost you about $20 in gas for the vehicles. Lunch and drinkable water is on you. We will supply the rafts, paddles, helmets, and life jackets. Facetted shoes or Choco/Tevas are mandatory on the river. B...