I’d known him since birth. 14 years of watching his reactions both to praise and to discipline had helped me decide the best way to guide and direct him to become the man that God had planned for him to be from the foundation of the world. My husband and I had always believed in teaching this mild-mannered, deeply-caring individual the priority of obedience to authority and respect for his elders. Homeschooling our children for a time...

First, Kerri, thank you for correspondence and for allowing me to print my response here. In your contact message you asked, “How do I become a humble person when it is in my nature to practice one-upmanship?” I would like to start this response with a short disclaimer. I want to be able to answer your question and to be as helpful as possible. Yet any answer I could give you, on my own and with little background information, really...

When I was in my twenties, I had a saying that went something like this, “I’m always happy, just never satisfied.” I proclaimed it often and at the time I considered it to be a rather profound statement. I imagined that it made me sound like a real go-getter; a determined, self-motivated, high achiever, if you will. When discussing such things as my home, wardrobe, car or most any material object, I would interject this saying, my...