Discovering how to escape enemy mode
The struggle is real and happens to me every day. I escaped again this morning. Explaining enemy mode is easy for me; reliably escaping is the work I will be doing with my people every day the rest of my life. Enemy mode enemy mode affects everyone around me, flowing outward in concentric circles from […]
Neurotheology: what does it mean and why does it matter to me?
What does “neurotheology” mean? Dr. Andrew Newberg wrote Principles of Neurotheology and was interviewed by NPR in 2010. He called neurotheology “the relationship between the brain and religious experience (https://www.npr.org/2010/12/15/132078267/neurotheology-where-religion-and-sciencecollide).” Long before Dr. Newberg’s article, Dr. Jim Wilder and a team of dedicated researchers and counselors developed the Life Model. “The Life Model is an […]
Tap the Brakes On Social Media
by Michel Hendricks A social experiment was unleashed on the world in 2007 by the creation of the smartphone. This development, combined with social media, is changing the way we relate to each other. At Life Model Works, we often hear from parents asking us for ideas about parenting in the smart phone era. Because […]
Enhancing Our Faces
By Michael Sullivant “As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.” Proverbs 27:17 NKJV. Practicing the Life Model has much to do with the importance of faces … God’s face, the face of Immanuel, other’s faces, and our own face as well. God has given us, even in infancy, the […]
The Green Zone
How can your life become a “green zone”? By Ray Woolridge When I served in the Army deployed in the Middle East, the only “green zone” was near the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. It may have been the most protected zone in the city, but green it was not. The “green zones” I think […]
How to Develop Joy Strength
“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11) “The joy of the Lord is our strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10) Would you like to increase your joy and displace the internal emotional pain in your life? The key is […]
Finding peace in disaster
What disaster are you facing today? We have all been shaken by news of another war and the painful images of displaced people fleeing for their lives. While you may not be facing a disaster today, know this: the time to prepare for disaster is BEFORE it happens. This is true for every human being: […]
Multiplying Wonder with the Breath of Gratitude
Over the last several years my wife Cathy and I have had our eyes opened and our lives transformed through the power of appreciation and wonder! The atmosphere of our family and community has been warmed, healed and transformed. The gift of noticing and amplifying the small and large seeds of beauty and goodness all around us in our everyday […]
The Life Skill of Keeping Your Cool
Did you know that your body knows what you’re feeling even before you do? In neuroscience today we’ve discovered that the right hemisphere of our brain is where our “control center” operates and it’s also responsible for the storage of “experiences”. In simple English this means that everything that you experience, and all the information […]
Subtle Narcissism – Wolves in Sheep's Clothing
In one of my Joy Groups, we are doing an in-depth study about narcissism and how to deal with it both in ourselves and with others. We are learning that there are different ‘’types’’ and different “degrees” of narcissism. Most of us have no problem recognizing the blatant, harsh, self-justifying, defensive kind. There’s no question […]
How to Return to Joy
This year my family had a lot going on for Mother’s Day. It was busy. In fact, it was so busy that it did not work for us to celebrate Mother’s Day like we usually would – on the day, together as a family. We decided to reschedule my Mother’s Day celebration to another time […]
The Appreciation Tree
This morning Andrew woke up in a sour mood. I noticed his brain’s relational circuits (RCs) were off and after several attempts to help him turn them on again, none of the normal solutions worked. His whining continued, even after I took some time to attune with his feelings and comfort him in his upset. […]
What's Missing? The Immanuel Lifestyle!
Last weekend I attended the Annual Gathering of folks who love Life Model Works. The focus was Living an Immanuel Lifestyle. I heard two speakers, both heads of ministries, say, “I was missing something in my relationship with Christ–and what I was missing was the relationship.” We spent the next two days looking at this […]
Appreciation Changes Everything
Just before bed last night I had an upsetting interaction with a friend. It was not a fight or an argument, but I was worried about her. In the past, something like this would have ruined my sleep. Yep; in days past this distress would have spun out my mind. I would have replayed the […]
The World Needs What the Life Model Provides
We were first introduced to the Life Model in 2006, by Karl Lehman, and attended our first Thrive Training in 2007. Thrive Training and many of the other Life Model resources we have used have been very beneficial to our individual growth and healing, as well as to our marriage. We have also witnessed over […]
4 Ways to Help Your Husband Grow
Wish there was a way you could help your husband grow? Every day our ministry gets mail from women around the world wondering what they can do in their marriages to make a difference for their families. Today, in this short post, I want to share some ideas we have seen truly help. 1. Accept […]
Creating a Family Culture of Appreciation
The jar sits on our dinner table along with a stack of little slips of paper and a pen. When I sit down at the table, alone or with others, my first thought is what I appreciate from that day. I pause, pick up the pen and fill out a couple of pieces with a […]
The Overlooked Discipline of Having Fun
During a coaching session not too long ago, I received an unusual answer to the question “what do you want to work on today?” My client had worked on several leadership and discipline challenges and chose this day to respond “Scott, I don’t have any recreation in my life. I don’t do anything for fun.” He […]
3 Things We Need for Emotional Health
Imagine this for a moment: you’ve been tasked with building a model airplane, but you’ve never seen a real airplane and you’re not at all sure what all these parts in front of you actually do. You pick up a propeller in your hand and you look at it from every different angle and ponder […]
Joy-filled Parenting
I have been a mother for 51 years and a grandparent for 27. I have been a nanny and a counselor. I have done many jobs with children and teens at churches I have attended. Nothing has impacted my views on parenting like learning from Dr. Jim Wilder and Life Model Works. I had never […]