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I believed some crazy things as a child. I believed my mom when she said, “Keep crossing your eyes and they’ll stay that way.” I believed my sister when she said, “You swallow watermelon seeds, you’ll grow watermelons out your ears.” I believed my brother when he said snakes would slither up the pipes. Believed…

I can’t tell you how excited I was the first time my granddaughter Eowyn called me Bumpa. Then I discovered that she calls everything Bumpa. She calls a tomato Bumpa. She calls a block of cheese Bumpa. A friend’s grandchild calls him Grandma, and sometimes Grumpy, so I figure I don’t have it so bad.…

My wife and I have officially reached another anniversary. Each of them is a miracle. You don’t live with a humourist without wanting to throttle him from time to time. I was speaking to 400 pastors at a mountain resort. They said, “talk about marriage.” For some reason they stood and applauded at the end.…

I love to hear from children. Not all the time. Not while we are shopping and our two-year-old yells, “Look mama! That man is gonna have a baby!” But children sure write interesting notes to pastors. Here are a few that are too good not to share. “Dear pastor: Please say in your sermon that…

My wife is eight months older than I. No one believes this. You see the two of us together and one of us looks like George Burns, and the other looks like my wife. Someone asked her, “Is it your dad who writes those books?” Guess what she said? “Yes.” I was surprised too. Pray…

Music was highly important to me when I was a teen. I ranked it slightly ahead of eating and some days even ahead of girls. Steve Rendall and I would purchase the latest contemporary Christian albums, tape them (yep!), then insert them in our car tape decks. My car cost $100. That tape deck cost…

If you need a laugh today, hang out with children. Ramona and I were with our one-year-old granddaughter Sophie last weekend. She’s not just the most intelligent child ever, she’s tough too. Our daughter Rachael was throwing her in the air, and Sophie smacked her head on a doorframe. “I’m so sorry,” Rachael said. Sophie…

Each Father’s Day, my kids like to bring up interesting things I’ve done. Like the time I soaked their toothbrushes overnight in pickle juice. I’m not alone. Here are kids squealing on their dads:   “When we were growing up, my dad said the ice cream truck played music when it had run out of…

I consider ours a miracle marriage, especially when you consider that I proposed to my wife in a chain letter. Here it is:   Dear Ramona Bjorndal,   This chain letter was started by my ancestors just after the great flood and it has NEVER BEEN BROKEN! To keep the chain going, all you have…