I know a lady that never has anything nice to say about anybody. She is by far the most negative person I've ever met, and occasionally she has the audacity to say, "I don't know why my husband doesn't want to hang around the house with me more often." Wow, do I ever have to bite my lip on that one. I honestly have to admit that if I was married to this woman I'd ... okay, I best not finish that statement.

Wouldn't it be nice if we were all cheerleaders in our marriages instead of critics? I think the divorce rates in our nation would seriously drop if we became spouses who build up and not tear down. If you asked most people, they'd admit that they are much more critical than they are encouraging. What's worse is the ones we criticise the most are those closest to us (like our spouse).

Research shows that the single most effective way to change someone's behavior is to positively reward that person when they behave in a way that you want them to. Yet in marriage we often find ourselves being critics and not cheerleaders. Instead of rewarding, complimenting and building up our spouse, we're quick to punish and criticize. Criticism rarely works to change the one you're married to, yet sadly, we keep trying it over and over and over.

When was the last time you went out of your way to compliment your spouse? I know you can find something nice to say.

Sometimes all a relationship needs to get it back on track is one partner sincerely complimenting and honoring something the other partner has done. The partner then feels appreciated and reciprocates - it works.

The wisest man that ever lived said, "Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing" (Proverbs 12:18).

I don't know about you, but I could do a better job cheerleading in my marriage.

Labels: His Needs Her Needs

I'm honestly not a big movie watcher, and most of the movies I do watch are after they come out on television (helps that they are edited). Someone recently asked me to name my 10 favorite movies of all time. I thought that sounded fun, and I thought it'd be cool to know yours too.

So here are 10 of my favorite movies (click on the names to see the trailers)...

So, what are your Top 10 favorite movies?

Labels: Running

No post from me today. Instead I just want to say "Thank You."

You have blessed me through this blog with your comments, your friendship and with you just simply stopping by. I've thoroughly enjoyed this new little ministry God has dropped into my life.

From the bottom of my heart, "Thank you!" for allowing me to share it with you.

See you tomorrow.

HIS NEEDS HER NEEDS (HNHN) - Amazing, 13 couples came over last night for the HNHN bible study. I think it's great that 13 of us want to improve our marriages. It doesn't matter if your marriage is great, good, poor or bad, if you want to improve it you can, but it does take work. AND, like anything else in this world to keep a great marriage it takes effort. Nearly every profession requires you to take CE's (continuing education). You take the CE's so you can learn, grow and not become stagnant. It's the same with marriage. Your marriage and my marriage need continuing education. We need to grow so that we don't become stagnant. There are some of you in the internet world who are going to follow along with our class, so your homework for this week is in 3 parts. FIRST, read the chapters: How Affair-Proof is your Marriage, Why your Love Bank never closes & fill out the Emotional Needs Questionnaire in the back of the book. If you're doing it as a couple, each of you read and highlight with different color markers, then go back and discuss what you underlined. SECOND, without spending any money, do something "randomly" nice for your spouse this week. THIRD, pray with your spouse this week about your marriage. If you have any questions you can email me. (treymorgan@msn.com)

Labels: General

I think our country is full of seekers. People seeking God. I get that idea from things like Joel Osteen and Rick Warren writing books that go to the top of NY Times best seller list. It means someone out there is searching for answers.

There are people who are searching for meaning in life and searching for Jesus, but I worry that the church is answering questions that people aren't asking anymore. Too often we become consumed in irrelevant theological arguments that haven't been settled for centuries and probably never will be. I believe we are guilty of majoring in minor things and minoring in major things.

I love the fact that Jesus taught on relevant things that people needed and wanted to know about. I wonder if that wasn't one of the reasons people flocked to him in large crowds. Jesus taught on things like eternity, death, how to treat one another, how to forgive and how to enter the Kingdom of God.

Churches today need to find out what people really want to know about. We need to ask ourselves what questions are people asking that they need answers for. The church needs to provide a place where people can find answers for things they deal with in their every day lives. We need to be relevant churches.

Today is Taylor's 19th birthday. It's also his first birthday away from home. His work in AIM continues to go well. Lea and I are proud of him.

If you get a second today, would you drop by his blog and wish him a "Happy Birthday?" I know he'd enjoy getting some birthday wishes. (www.taylorrossmorgan.com)

You guys are the best. Thank you very much...

Trey

Labels: Video

The Christmas card I carry in my bible is over 10 years old, and still serves as a powerful reminder of how simple Christianity can be sometimes. The card came from a sweet teenage girl named Cindy. There's nothing fancy about the card, but the words still rip at my heart.

Cindy's dad had been an alcoholic all his life. Occasionally he'd call me and we'd meet to talk, over a cup of coffee in a local coffee shop. One day out of the blue he mentioned to me that he'd like to "get cleaned up" and get off the alcohol. I immediately called his bluff, and amazingly after a couple of tries, he did exactly what he said he was going to do. To this day, 10 1/2 years later, my friend is still dry.

The first Christmas following his recovery, his beautiful 17 year-old daughter sent me a Christmas card that said, "Thanks for giving me back my dad." I was dumbfounded. I never realized that I'd done anything significant. In fact, I really didn't do anything to help her dad other than just be his friend and meet him for coffee when he needed to talk. Yet, she said that was what he needed at the time.

Who knew drinking coffee with an alcoholic would pay off. That's why I always carry that card in my Bible, simply to remind me how easy it is to make a difference in someone's life and not even know it. Who knows what simple things we could do today that might have a huge effect in someone's life. Something as simple as...

There is nothing complex or hard about any of those things. They are all such simple things that I call "Simple Christianity." Such simple things can make a difference in the life of another person, if you slow down enough to do them. I never dreamed that having a cup of coffee with an alcoholic would make such a difference in the lives of an entire family. Even Jesus talked about simple Christianity when he said, "And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward." How simple is that!

Never, ever, under estimate the power of simple Christianity.

Now, don't just sit there, get out there and DO something simple today!

Labels: Christian Living, Ministry

I really liked this story! Check it out and if you have a second, leave them a note!

Thanks :)

I'm a runner and I run because ...

Labels: Video

Labels: General

Have you noticed that Sunday mornings are one of the most pressure packed mornings of the week? Why is getting the entire family ready for church services so tough? We get our families around fine for school, but Sunday mornings are almost pure madness. People running everywhere, everyone fighting for bathroom time, everyone running behind and everyone trying to find the right clothes.

I laugh as I think about how it's only during this Sunday morning madness, that you will find your hands around the throats of those you love, and you'll be screaming, "HURRY UP, WE'VE GOT TO GO TO CHURCH TO LEARN ABOUT THE LOVE OF GOD." (smile)

Surely the Morgan family isn't the only one that struggles with Sunday morning madness! Are your Sunday mornings anything like this?

Labels: Church

Last Monday's book giveaway has turned out to be quite interesting. I was already pumped about giving away two books this week, but then I got an email from a blog reader, and he sent my excitement through the roof. Here's the email...

Hello Trey:
I read your blog, and I wished I had read a book like "His Needs, Her Needs" fifty years ago. The thought crossed my mind this p. m. on my daily walk. I was going to ask you to send me the addresses of several people, and I would have "Amazon" to mail a book to the address. I think it would be better for you to send the list to "Amazon" and I will send you a check for $100.00 and you can purchase used-books. As you will notice there are several dealers price of 1 cent plus postage of $3.99. Let me know your decision and I will put a check in the mail.

I replied to the kind person and he's already sent me a check. So here's the news people... WE'RE GIVING AWAY A BUNCH OF BOOKS TODAY and hopefully improving a lot of marriages. Yea!

Here are the two books I promised. I will need each person that is listed below to email me their mailing address:

The random generator also picked these people to send a used copy of the His Needs Her Needs book to...

Again, I will need you to email me your mailing address so I can ship you your book (please include your "screen name" that you signed in with too. (treymorgan@msn.com)

And, a big thank you to person who donated money for the books!

Wow, this was fun!

Cooper's 7 today. We'll celebrate his birthday this afternoon with cake and a few presents. If you're new to this blog, you might not know Cooper very well, so I thought I'd introduce him to you this morning with a few of my favorite stories ...

Dear gracious Heavenly Father: Thank you for blessing our family with Cooper. Thank you for his life, his spirit and his love. Continue to use him to teach me about You. Allow me to influence him for good, that he may be a faithful servant of yours. In your Son's holy name I pray, Amen!

Labels: Morgan Family

It's been years, but I still remember it like it was yesterday. The music had been loud and the lights had been bright. Then all of a sudden the lights dimmed, the music went soft and the DJ said, "Alright it's couple skate time, and girls, it's your choice." That meant this time the girls were the ones who asked the guys to skate with them.

I always knew that brown-eyed girl was cute, but I didn't know she was smart too until she skated over to me, took my hand and said, "Wanna skate?" I had butterflies in my stomach and my heart was beating a million times a minute as we skated together to a Bee Gee's love song. I remember thinking as we held hands, "We've got to be in love because our hands are sweating so much." In my head I begged for the song not to end, but it did. It was there that love began for a couple of young kids.

The skating rink was the big hang out when we were teens, and so it was a big part of the memories that we have of "falling in love."

About 10 years later I called the old rink where we used to skate. It had been turned into a children's day care. I told the man on the other end of the phone that my anniversary was coming up, that we'd fallen in love as kids at his rink, and I was hoping to surprise my wife and come skate one more time. He paused and then told me he still had some old skates and the stereo system still worked, "Why not?" he said. He and I set a time to be there and I told him I'd bring the music. Lea was a little confused when I told her I was taking her out for our anniversary, and she needed to bring a pair of socks. I surprised her when we showed up at the skating rink. I handed the nice man a CD that I'd burned as we laced up our skates. He turned the lights down as we spent the next 20 minutes skating by ourselves to songs from our past. We must have still been in love, because our hands were sweating as the old Bee Gee's song played. I was hoping that our twenty minutes wouldn't ever end, but it did. When we left, I thanked the man and tried to pay him for his troubles. He wouldn't take my money.

Why is all this on my mind? Because today Cooper's having a birthday party at the local skating rink and I will forever associate skating rinks with falling in love. There will be no Bee Gee's music today and we'll be too busy with kids to skate, but I can guarantee you that that little brown-eyed girl will show up, I'll get butterflies in my stomach when she looks at me, and if we hold hands ... yep, they'll still sweat because we're in love.

Labels: Lea

Wow, what a church building. I was reading about a church building online this morning. It has 10,000 windows, 52 bells in the bell tower, massive 90 foot tall doors that electronically open behind the pulpit, a 17 foot 18-karat-gold cross, and an outdoor movie screen for "drive-in" worshippers. This only scratches the surface of what this building has.

We put so much money into buildings these days. We seem to have this philosophy that says, "If we build it, they will come." And boy, not only do we build it, but we build it big and spend lots of money on it.

Just a reminder...

I don't know what Jesus would think about our multimillion dollar buildings, but I have my ideas. I think he might just be more comfortable worshipping out in the church parking lot or in a field across the street. Who knows what would happen if Jesus visited our big fancy buildings today. I can see him chasing kids though the auditorium, washing dirty feet in water fountains, tearing holes in the roofs to get the crippled people in, feeding the homeless out of the refrigerator in the fellowship hall, inviting kids to swim in baptisteries and flipping over cash registers in the bookstores. At this point I can see a deacon running up to Jesus scolding him, "Jesus! What are you doing? Were you born in a barn?" And Jesus would say, "Yes, actually I was!"

I pray that our churches would not be defined by their locations, buildings or budgets, but by their love for lost people.

Labels: Church

I'm a social Christian. That means I choose not to ignore culture around me, but instead participate in it. I think it is essential for me to be aware of the culture in which I live or as Jesus said, "To be in the world, but not of the world." I often get asked these questions...

Great questions and I must say a resounding "Yes" to all of the above.

Now, before you fire off an angry email to me, I'm not promoting watching filthy movies or listening to ungodly music. I would never promote just watching any movie out there. Instead, I use the good judgement, wisdom and the brain that God gave me to know the difference between good and evil. In fact, I really don't watch many rated R movies. I can count on one hand the amount of R-rated movies I've seen in the past 10 years. And before you say, "Not me!" did you see the Passion of the Christ? Yep, me too, rated R. Before I see nearly any movie, I check it out to see what's in it.

The fact that I see secular movies, watch secular television programs and listen to secular music doesn't mean I'm not disturbed by many of the things of this world. There are songs that greatly disturb me, but how can I teach my children or talk to others about them if I don't know they exist. The same can be said about movies or television shows. What scares me more than educating myself culturally is being so oblivious to the world that I'm out of touch with my children, my peers and the unsaved world.

Labels: Christian Living

And the answer is .... We'll go there tomorrow. I can't wait!

Labels: Give Aways

We've been training for months and our run finally got here. Me and three buddies had a great time traveling to Amarillo for a half marathon this morning. I think we're all a little sore, but we'll survive. We ran about 90% of the run in the fog, which made it a little interesting.

Here are "before" and "after" pictures. I have one question for my four running buddies ... why am I the only one smiling in the "after" picture. Ha

Zach, Me, Kirby, Randy

Labels: General

Here are a few things that have caught my attention "this" week. There are some good, some bad and some really weird. Just click on the "this" to check them out.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I'm always blessed by your visit.

Labels: General

There are only a few events that have happened in my lifetime that I can still recall exactly where I was standing when I heard the news. 9-11 is one of them.

I will never forget.

(Warning: Video is a little graphic)

Where were you when you heard the news?

Labels: Video

I laughed and laughed. Absolutely hilarious!

I know you're going to have a hard time believing this, but I've said a few things to my wife that have put me in the dog house. One recent thing ... "Ew, you're not going to wear those shoes are you?" Not smart!

Click Here for a few other funny things that'll get you in trouble.

Just curious, since confession is good for the soul, is there anything you ever said to your spouse that you shouldn't have?

Labels: Video

Walking back to my office from the elementary school, I stopped to talk to a little boy who was sitting by himself on the curb, waiting on his ride home.

Labels: Dads, Fathers

Just a little advice for you today...

If you're going to send your wife a spicy text message on her cell phone, make sure to double check that you're actually sending it to your wife and not one of your son's high school buddies.

Sorry Cozy!

Lea has grounded me from texting for a week!

Labels: Humor

And the award for stupid church sign of the year goes to...

Havens Corners Church in Blacklick, Ohio is getting a little flack for their sign out front. Borrowing from Katy Perry's hit song "I Kissed A Girl," the sign reads:

Labels: Church

Labels: Lea

I worry that sometimes my prayers sound a little like this guy's.

Labels: Video

When you think of intimacy in marriage, most people automatically think of sex. Intimacy in your marriage does involves sexual fulfillment, but intimacy is SO much more than just having good sex.

Intimacy is achieved when a husband and wife can share their thoughts, opinions, and feelings with one another to the point that they become best friends. And, it's impossible to grow in your intimacy with your mate when you're not spending time with them. So, here are a few things you can do to become more intimate (with the most important at the end)...

I love praying with Lea. I love listening to the things on her heart as she talks to God. There's something about coming before God as a couple that brings about a level of intimacy that nothing else can. Sadly, I didn't realize this the first few years of my marriage, I honestly struggled to pray with my wife, but thankfully I finally caught on. I now believe, if you are not praying with your husband/wife, you are missing out on one of the greatest levels of intimacy in marriage that there is.

It seems to me that husbands struggle with this more than wives. Husbands, believe it or not it's not unmanly to pray with your wife. In fact, she'll love you for it. Don't be ashamed to pray.

I challenge you, if you are not praying together as a couple, start today. If you desire this level of spiritual unity in your marriage, begin to pray together and watch your oneness grow.

So, I'm curious...

Labels: His Needs Her Needs, Marriage

Labels: God

I love the church in Childress, and I'm so blessed to be a part of it. It is often times easier to say negative things about churches than positive things, so I also love hearing people brag about their churches. Let me start today with 3 things I love about the church I worship with, then hopefully you can share three things too.

Labels: Church

Today is my Mom's birthday. She's the second most important woman in my life. God blessed me when He planned for her to be my mother.

Labels: Morgan Family

When I was a child, I understood that being a real Christian meant not doing certain things. Those evil things that I understood to be un-Christian-like were things that would lead you down the highway to hell. Here were a few of those no-no's...

My thought process was if you didn't dance, dip, drink, cuss or do one of the other unmentionables, you were a good Christian. Oh, and you simply had to go to church. I even remember one day looking at my old dog Samson and thinking, "Sam doesn't drink, cuss, smoke or dance. He is by far the best Christian I know." (I didn’t know at the time that Samson, much like the guy who he was named after, was chasing wild women at night time. Another no-no that was later to be added to my list.)

While I still try to refrain from most of the above no-no list, it wasn't until later in my spiritual maturing process that I came to understand that Christianity wasn't defined by what we didn't do, but by what we choose to do. It is when we choose to love, when we choose to serve others and when we choose to have a vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ that we are Christians.

Sadly, I still meet many Christians today who still hold to that old "AA" belief about being a Christian. They simply believe that abstinence from the no-no's and attendance get you into heaven.

So, what did you think were "evil" things when you were a kid?

Labels: Christian Living

Thank you John Dobbs for being so kind to Taylor. He called last night, excited to tell me that he'd rece