Kevin East Christian Blog and Commentary Archives

We hire people we like, and that's about it. When it comes to picking your staff, or even building a team of volunteers, how do you decide who's in and who's out? For most, if they connect with the applicant, there is a good chance they'll want to offer them the position.

As the spring approaches and the weather turns warm, thousands of kids across the country begin to dream about attending a summer camp. They should. Summer camp can be the best week of the child's entire year. Or, it can be disastrous. Sometimes, it just takes parents knowing what to ask.

My wife likes to describe me as humbly confident. She says she appreciates the strength that I provide her and others. I find it hard to believe she still thinks this, even after all I have told her over the years. See, I might have an err of confidence, but deep down there is something more to the story.

Patrick Lencioni just came out with his book, Three Signs of a Miserable Job: A Fable for Managers. I've read many of his books, but I haven't read this one yet. However, the title has me thinking where he might go in the book. All of us have bad days at work. We might even go so far as to say we were miserable that day. But how do you know if you have a miserable job? I would imagine it somewhat comes down to the eyes of the beholder.

I knew this day would come. From the first day we thought about fostering kids, I wondered what it would be like to love a child for a certain period of time, and then say goodbye to them at some point. This past weekend, saying goodbye became a reality.

It doesn't matter how many times you have talked about sex with peers or students, when it comes to talking to your own child about it, something is different. In a previous post, I highlighted why and when to talk to your child about sex. Now I'd like to turn to how to have the conversation.

It was just the two of us. My oldest son, Walker, and I sat down recently to discuss the massive topic of sex. He had no clue. He didn't ask that good of questions. I couldn't really expect him to. After all, he is only five years old.

"How did you make the decision to do this?" This is the question I hear the most from people when they find out we foster kids. Most of the time, it is well-meaning people who are agonizing whether or not fostering/adoption is for them.

This book, Spiritual Leadership, is my favorite book on leadership. In trying to keep with the age-old axiom that great books shouldn't be read just once, I just went back through it. This time, I asked 3 questions of the book before jumping in.

It's true. Occasionally, my wife and I get into it. Figuratively speaking, we kick, punch, claw, wrestle and just plainly get mad. Throughout our marriage, the fighting hasn't gotten better; it's actually intensified. And now here we sit, with a total of 5 kids in our home, and we realize we have a problem. The problem: we aren't fighting enough.

[M]en are an endangered species. I really believe that. Over the past 15 years, I have been working directly and indirectly with college students. Almost 10 years ago I noticed a trend that -- at the time -- was alarming. That alarm has now been going off non-top since, and I'm finally seeing it come to fruition.

In 2004, my assistant walked into my office in tears. Drowning in debt, she was struggling hard to keep her head "above water." She was upside down on a car, owed thousands in student loans, and had credit cards piled up as well.

I haven't liked Valentine's Day since 5th grade. Cindy Smith was the girl for me back then. Valentine's was my opportunity to express my vast, undying love for her. I did the best I could to fully describe it in a little hand-written note. To seal the deal, I topped it off with a few sweethearts in the same envelope. She read my note, ate my candy, and then promptly threw the note down the sewer drain.

My parents made plenty of mistakes. Yours did too. As a dad now with 4 kids, I've finally arrived at that place where I am more cognizant of the mistakes I am making. Wouldn't it be nice if -- like the idea of the "easy button" -- we could just hit a button to erase all the mistakes we've made? Unfortunately, we can't.

Almost four months ago now, we received our first foster child. That night, we were awakened by a phone call around midnight and were asked if we'd be willing to accept her into our family for a time.

I am not a staunch Republican. I don't watch cable news over and over, and mindlessly repeat the taglines to anyone willing to listen. I say this because I recognize that George W. Bush is a polarizing person. Most love him or hate him.

As leaders, we have an issue to face: How can we really influence the culture within the organization we work?

More and more people seem to keep asking me about our story of fostering. I remember being on the other side, wondering how tough it would be to get certified, or what it would be like to welcome a stranger into our home.

The quickest way to a parent's heart is through their kids. There is no way around that. Just like when a momma bear gets aggressive because her cubs are around, most parents jump into a different frame of thinking when it comes to their children.

The other night I was tucking my kids into bed. I noticed my oldest had a glowing silly band on his wrist. Knowing that he would play with the bands and not fall asleep, I asked him for them. This is a normal nightly ritual for us. Once I asked for it, though, he saw his opportunity. You see, only one of his silly bands was glowing, and the others weren't. In that moment he took the chance and told me the glowing one was the only one he had on. I