My wife loves CHOCOLATE more than she loves ME!

Our family decided that we were going to give something up for the Lenten season this year...Grace gave up candy and the rest of us gave up sweets of all kinds.

Tonight at dinner Laura was lamenting about how much she missed chocolate. "40 days with out the one thing I love more than ANYTHING!" she pined.

I turned to Grace and said "did you hear your mother...she loves chocolate more than me!" to which Grace replied "Dad, I love chocolate more than you too!"

Wow, can a get a bit of sympathy...

Eminem called me!

I'm driving to Traverse City for a show friday night when my cell phone rings...I answered..."This is Jay" to which I hear in a very street wise tone "Yo~ "Dre" this is Marshall". Now I suspected this was one of my comedian friends playing a joke so I played along...
"Marshall who?"
"Marshall Mathers" came the reply
Now I'm not big on pop culture but I do know that Marshall Mathers is the Rap star Eminem.
"Marshal, what can I do for you?"
"Dude, I want you to be on my next cd"
"What do ya want me to do?"
"Freestyle"
"Freestyle what?" I couldn't believe I was having this conversation...
"Dude this is "Slim Shady" and I want you on my cd"
"Well hey this is Fat and Sassy and I don't know if I can"
I carried on with the conversation just waiting for the voice on the end to break character and he never did, he insisted I was "Dr. Dre" and that he got my phone number from a reliable source...Then, I told him I was a minister...
At that point I KNEW it was REALLY Eminem, because he launched into a litany of curse words...some I hadn't heard in quite a while...
I'll never forget my phone call from a Rap star...I've tried to call him back a few times but have not gotten through...who knows maybe the Lord will use this as a ministry opportuntiy...
What fun!

The power of Laughter!

We've had a stressful few weeks here at Celebrate headquarters...
Book Deadlines
Conference Deadlines
Radio Interviews and...
Two of our best friends are moving from Alma.

My family will tell you it's had dad a bit edgy...ok GRUMPY the last few weeks.

Tonight at dinner that all changed, Laura fixed a great meal, the kids were talking about seeing the first robin and were telling jokes they had heard in school.

Seeing how making people laugh is part of what I do for a living, I thought I'd chime in with an old familiar "Knock Knock" joke. I proceeded to masacre this simple joke at which time the family burst out in laughter and began mocking me incessantly.

At first, I was upset and almost cut loose with a tirade! But then I realized what I'd been missing these last few weeks...a good HARD LAUGH!

We laughed so hard Laura had food coming out her NOSE! Which of course made us all laugh even more~

Laughter is POWERFUL...the Bible calls it "good medicine" why don't you take a dose today...it sure cured me!

Blessings~
Jay

A great weekend in Lansing

Our first Celebrate Your Marriage Lansing is in the history books and boy were we blessed!

The couples attending had to battle "March coming in like a Lion" weather, but that didn't dampen their spirits! David Dean and Dan Seaborn did an outstanding job presenting life changing messages for marriage, along with our world class teaching of course :-)

David shared lessons he learned from his parents. How to Laugh, Listen and Love your way to a better marriage. And Dan Seaborn poignantly reminded us of the importance of prayer in a marriage relationship.

Many thanks to our Co-sponsors Smile FM and Compassion International for helping us pull off a great weekend helping marriages Celebrate!