Book Teaches an Alternative to Divorce

Here’s an excerpt from a Newsweek article about one of the most exciting new books on the market related to divorce and separation:

Her husband’s words hit Laura Munson “like a sucker punch.” And yet, she says, she was able to duck. After two decades together, he came to her on a summer day and told her: “I don’t love you anymore. I’m not sure I ever did. I’m moving out. The kids will understand. They’ll want me to be happy.” His plan was to leave Munson, their two young children, and the life they had built together in a farmhouse on 20 acres in rural Montana…So she held her anger in check and asked, “What can we do to give you the distance you need without hurting the family?” It took immense discipline and patience, as Munson recounts in her new book, “This Is Not the Story You Think It Is.”

You can read the whole story here, and get the book here. Laura is a writer from Whitefish, Montana and has a different story to tell than most people going through divorce.

Why Wait for Retirement?

Last time, I tackled the first of the four assumptions that form the groundwork for the American ideal of retirement. If you didn’t read it, or don’t want to look back, here are the four assumptions:

1. At retirement, we no longer have a full-time job.

2. When we retire, we will receive some kind of fixed income (pension, annuity, Social Security) to support us.

3. We will be able to do all the things we didn’t do before retiring because we were working too hard to make money – for retirement (among other things).

Is Retirement Healthy, Biblical or Smart?

Perhaps you are unaware of this, but one proposal before Congress is to raise the retirement age of Social Security.  The purpose of this is to help “save” Social Security from insolvency, a condition we are quickly heading toward. Other countries have already raised the age at which their retirees can collect a pension from the government, primarily because of two factors: 1. We are living longer; 2. That first factor is making pensions more expensive.

This article in Newsweek even goes as far to suggest that we shouldn’t give out Social Security until age 67. Do you remember the commercials on television a decade ago, where an insurance company promises you can retire at age 55? Do you wonder why you don’t see those any more?

New Packages…do they promise new hope?

Here is a great website…it has a dose of new product packaging. When you see these items, your heart immediately gravitates to the products; or at least, mine does:

http://designfeedr.com/more-awesome-product-packaging

But with new packages often comes the inferred promise of new contents. We often open a new type of packaging and instead of finding something new inside find a repackaged version of the same old, same old.

This is a perfect picture of religion. Religion is man’s attempt to repackage how our outer person looks instead of changing anything on the inside.

Only a daily, growing relationship with God changes the inside. And then the package will look new as well. A new creation completely.

The Last Lap

Gary was convinced that he would never get what he really wanted. In essence, he was absolutely sure there was a relationship between telling people what he wanted and not having it. The more he wanted something, the less chance it would come his way. So he figured the opposite would also be true: If he didn’t tell people what he wanted, then he might get it. As confusing as that logic was, it had interesting effects on him. He would never tell his deep desires to his friends. He never told his wife what he wanted. But when he didn’t get what he wanted, he would roll into a passive-aggressive shell

Take Another Lap

Jackie called me about 9:30 at night, late for anyone to want counseling.

“I’m not going to work tomorrow. I may not ever go back to that place”. I hadn’t heard that Jackie had a developed a bottomless source of money, so I thought this idea of not going to work should probably be thought through more carefully. I asked her to defend her decision.