Of all the strengths you bring into a marriage, none is more valuable than your character. That may not sound as exotic as romance, wit, or charm, but character is the beam that holds the structure together.

After seeing my recent post about Francis Schaeffer, my friend Doug Nichols, founder and international director emeritus of Action International Ministries, emailed me this story. To me, given my respect for both men, it's priceless. 

In our last EPM quarterly newsletter I included an excerpt from Alex Harris’s The Myth of Adolescence. I’ve known the Harris family for many years. Gregg and Sono have been used of God to raise extraordinary children. 

“There is a God,” Portland Trailblazer head coach Nate McMillan said when Portland won the NBA draft lottery, giving our city the number one pick. It’s an understatement to say that event dominated news coverage here. Had Philadelphia been vaporized by aliens, it might have made page three.

In 1998 I spoke at a Green Bay Packers pre-game chapel. The players and coaches there were just like the rest of us, except more famous and wealthy (and somewhat larger). This is the message I shared with them.

In January 1999, Randy Alcorn spoke at the Generous Giving Conference in Atlanta, Georgia on the subject of giving to organizations. He gives us 19 questions to ask ourselves before we give. Download the PDF version here. In this clip, Randy offers us a ninth question to consider.

Character is what you are in the dark, when no one but God is looking.