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Why Should We Respect Those in Leadership? By Lisa Burkhardt Worley, D.Min.
Recently, I was at Washington Reagan Airport getting ready to return to Dallas when I heard loud boos mixed with loud cheers. They were coming from the other side of the gate area. At first, I thought it was just a rowdy group of travelers, but then I spotted Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, and they were shouting at him as he waited to board. I told my husband, “I can’t believe they’re booing him!” A woman standing next to us, carrying a baby and holding her toddler’s hand, overheard me and started…
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Your Reputation by Lane Jordan Burday
Choose a good reputation over great riches; being held in high esteem is better than silver or gold (Proverbs 22:1 NLT). Warren Buffet once said, “It takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that seriously, you’ll do things differently.” In this day and age of Facebook posts and Instagram reels, it is easy to post something that will later come to haunt you. It seems that no matter what you post on these public platforms, people can turn it to your advantage or against you. So we need to be…
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“Um, How Do I Say This?” By Onyx Conklin
Yassou! Kalimera! Kanèla! Those were my first three words I learned my first day in Greece. Yassou is one of many ways to greet a person—similar to hello, hola, or aloha. Kalimera is my favorite word and means “good day or good morning!” And kanèla is an important word at the coffee bar because Greek cappuccino tastes divine with kanèla aka cinnamon! At the time of this writing I am still learning Greek. It’s an interesting language because the Greeks have their own alphabet. While some of their 24 letters resemble our English letters, the pronunciation and grammar rules dance…
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Praising the LORD! By Lane Jordan Burday
Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness…Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD (Psalm 150:1-6 NIV) I’m not sure if it’s because I’m getting older or because I’ve been walking with the Lord longer, but all I want to do is praise Him! I see the trees behind my house, and I give thanks. I see the beautiful blue sky and the clouds billowing there, and I give thanks and praise to my God. I see…
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A Compassion that Never Fails by Lisa Burkhardt Worley, D.Min.
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. (Lamentations 3:22) This week, I listened to a YouTube video of a pastor speaking about God’s compassion. He said that if we are so focused on our work and have no compassion for others, then we’ve fallen short of emulating God. This resonated with me because the husband of a friend of mine passed this week. It was sudden. I had just seen the two of them at a conference the week before it happened. I asked my friend, “Is there something—anything—I can do for…
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You are An Evangelist! by Lane Jordan Burday
Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim His greatness. Let the whole world know what He has done (Psalm 105:2 NLT). I am passionate about sharing the Gospel (the Good News) of Jesus Christ! This makes me an evangelist. An evangelist is a person who proclaims the Christian gospel with great zeal and purpose. This was actually Jesus’s last request as He ascended to heaven, to everyone according to Matthew 28:18-20: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and…
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Waiting on Him by Lisa Burkhardt Worley, D.Min.
But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength…(Isaiah 40:31, NKJV) My husband often says his role in my life is to “drive, wait, and carry” because of all of the activities I am involved in. There are people to meet, jobs to complete, and possibly books to carry. I often see him give me that “It’s time to go” look. Waiting is the hardest thing to do, and not many people enjoy it. Waiting for a test result. Waiting for the opportunity. Waiting for a situation to turn around. But God tells us it is best to…
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Speak Less by Lane Jordan Burday
After all, God is in heaven, and you are here on earth. So let your words be few. (Ecclesiastes 5:2) I was reading this verse with my husband for our nightly devotional time, and I didn’t understand it! Yes, I know God is in heaven, and we are here on earth. So? As we read the devotional, we realized it was teaching us to remember to listen. We need to listen when others are talking, and especially, we need to listen to God to hear Him. Stephen Covey once said, “Most of us don’t listen with the intent to understand….
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How Great is Our God? By Lisa Burkhardt Worley, D.Min.
When I think about my relationship with God, I remember the old Willie Nelson song, “You Were Always on My Mind.” Maybe I didn’t love you quite as often as I could have… Sometimes I am guilty of not telling God how much I love Him often enough. I don’t give Him the honor He deserves. What about you? I can get distracted in the mornings during my worship, prayer, and Bible reading; I can forget to thank the LORD for another day, or praise Him for who He is in my life, a Heavenly Father whose attributes and care…
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Power of Our Words by Lane Jordan Burday
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. (Proverbs 18:21) This is one of my very favorite verses of all time. Why? Because I would forget how powerful my words can be, and this verse reminds me. I remember the first time I read this verse; I realized how much I should pay attention to what I say. Do I speak negative words? I will end up with those in my life. Do I speak life-giving words? Then my life will be enriched! Words are so powerful. In fact,…
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It’s All Greek to Me by Onyx Conklin
The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing (Psalm 23:1). I fell in love in and with Greece. Before I go on, something you should know about me is I am the emotional, sentimental, everything has meaning, type. Just keep this in mind… By a blessing of God, I was able to take a trip with my Uncle Spiro to Greece. He lives in America, as do I, but he is from the beautiful city of Kalamata. Yes, if you have ever had a Greek salad, those lovely tangy olives are from Uncle’s hometown. I go on record to say…
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Teaching the Young by Lane Jordan Burday
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up (Deuteronomy 6: 5-7) My husband and I just got back from spending ten days with our precious two-year-old grandson, our daughter, and our son-in-law. She is very pregnant with baby number two, a little girl, due in about a…
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Angels Among Us by Lisa Burkhardt Worley, D.Min.
Last night, at church, we had the opportunity to watch the first episode of Season Six of The Chosen. It was incredible, but I was perplexed early on when I saw people with gold skin running at hyper-speed and scaling walls. Who were they? I didn’t put it together until I saw them surrounding the High Priest Caiaphas’ house, where Jesus was being tried. They were angels guarding Jesus! When Peter tried to stop Jesus’s arrest by cutting off the ear of Malchus, the servant of the High Priest, Jesus rebuked Peter, saying, “Put your sword back in its place,” …
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Want to Live Longer? Here is One Easy Habit. By Lane Jordan Burday
A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones (Proverbs 17:22). (I saw this on a news feed and felt it was so important that I wanted to share it with you. Ashley Fike wrote it, and it was posted on the New York Post on August 29, 2026.) Did you know that research links social connections to lower mortality, while loneliness is associated with chronic stress, inflammation, and earlier death? Most cosmetic companies are trying to sell longer life with creams and lotions. But Bryan Johnson has turned his entire existence into a longevity…
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A Word about Patriotism and Faith by Lisa Burkhardt Worley, D.Min.
Yesterday, we remembered the events of September 11, 2001, twenty-five years later. I still vividly remember what happened because I was the spokeswoman for the airport in San Antonio, Texas. On 9/11, I was preparing for the day when someone from the airport staff raced into my office, frantically yelling, “Turn on your TV! Turn on your TV!” That’s when I saw the first plane hit the World Trade Center tower. 1-1/2 hours later, we held a press conference to explain what we were doing to secure the airport. For the next year, my job was to assure the community…
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All Nations Will Hear It by Lane Jordan Burday
And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come (Matthew 24:14). Since I am in Christian ministry, I receive a good bit of information from many ministries, and lately many of them have been talking about the End Times. When is Jesus coming back? Is He coming back before the Tribulation, during the Tribulation, or after? There are countless books, blogs, radio/TV broadcasts, and articles about this subject, and truthfully, I am ready! I’m ready to see Jesus because I know I…
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Do You Miss the Good ‘Ol Days? By Lisa Burkhardt Worley, D.Min.
We are spending Labor Day Weekend with our oldest son, daughter-in-law, and grandson in my hometown of San Antonio. The San Antonio days in the 80s and 90s were exciting during my sportscasting days at the local CBS affiliate, KENS-TV. I was even recognized this weekend by a salesperson, almost 30 years after I retired from secular television It would be easy to say, “I miss the good ol’ days,” but Ecclesiastes 7:10 warns us against that mindset: “Do not say, ‘Why were the old days better than these?’ For it is not wise to ask such questions.” Instead, I…
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Better Get to Living by Onyx Conklin
“It’s hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world.” That line was written by the (can I even type these words?) the late great Dolly Parton. If somehow you ended up sleeping through this month, let me let you in on a sad truth—Dolly has departed earth and gone to Heaven. Y’all (that’s the word we use in the south), this loss has messed me up. One of my music heroes has gone to be with Jesus and I’m not okay about it right now. I have been playing song after song for days just grieving the loss of this…
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Are You Like Pinocchio? By Dr. Lisa Burkhardt Worley
Do you remember the childhood story of Pinocchio? Every time he told a lie, his nose grew. It’s a story I’ve never forgotten, and I wonder if it had an early impact on my life because I have always been a truth-teller and feel betrayed when someone is less than honest with me. Just like Pinocchio’s nose, when we lie, are deceitful, or omit part of the truth, the lie grows and becomes far worse than it would have been if we had just told the truth in the first place. And lying goes against God’s holy standard for our…
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A Salty Soliloquy by Onyx Conklin
Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips (Psalm 141:3). Duct tape. Yup, duct tape. If you don’t think God as Creator is brilliant, you’ve never been at the mercy of a crazy emergency in the middle of a snow storm and used duct tape to patch, seal, and hold together something you can’t go and get the proper parts for. I’m a single woman who has to resort to playing Ms. Fix-It on a regular basis. I’m telling you, duct tape fixes many things. But one thing I wish it could fix is people’s…