Onword and Upwords by Dennis Brady

Dennis Brady

  • Confidence Is Not a Competition

    I was competing against Will in our home bowling alley, Wii style, and I was on a roll, going for a turkey when Will started heckling me to mess up. A question rose up inside of me.  Why do we… Continue reading

  • The Icy Waters of North Myrtle Beach

    Last week my family and I spent a glorious week at the beach. We arrived on Sunday and the late October weather was sunny and 80 degrees all week. God knew that we were coming. We left the following Sunday… Continue reading

  • Proving Him Faithful

    In yesterday’s post I stated, “If I am dying to self so that He is increasing in me and the Him who is increasing in me is greater than the him that’s in the world, then I shouldn’t be a… Continue reading

  • No Self To Doubt

    Continue reading

  • I Want My Best Purpose Driven Life Now

    The company I work for recently had its employees take a personality test. It revealed that I didn’t have one. The company then hired a consultant to spend a day with us to help discover our God-given passions. It was an… Continue reading

  • Getting To The Root Of Things…

    I heard someone talking the other day about how her employer was treating her. She is performing tasks outside the scope of her position and she hasn’t had a raise since she was hired almost 3 years ago. In fact… Continue reading

  • Painfully Making Headway

    Yesterday was a beautiful, breezy and cool Fall Saturday. A great day for outdoor chores. At least I thought so. Young Prince Will, not so much. Anything other than playing Mario is a “not so much”. But he relented and… Continue reading

  • Trust

    Hollywood produces a lot of pointless movies. Some are even entertaining. Every now and then one comes along that fails to entertain, but does enlighten and educate. Sandra and I watched one of these the other night. Trust is a… Continue reading

  • A Little More Effort

    When was the last time someone blew your expectations out of the water; he/she just completely over performed? It doesn’t happen often, does it? It happened to me today. No, I wasn’t the over performer; I was the lucky recipient.… Continue reading

  • Learn From My Mistakes, The Sequel

    An earthquake rumbled through Charlotte and most of the East Coast today and I know that it’s because I am a day late delivering the 2 remaining life-changing, mind-bending amazing tips that I promised in Learn From My Mistakes. I… Continue reading

  • Playing Chicken

    I know, promised you that I’d give you the other 2 tips tomorrow, but it’s not tomorrow yet. It’s still today. And I have something else, so you’ll still have to wait til tomorrow for the remaining 2 tips. This… Continue reading

  • Learn From My Mistakes

    Forty-four years on this planet and I’ve learned a few things that I feel are my moral responsibility to pass along to make your life a little easier. While it’s true that I just learned these 3 things recently myself,… Continue reading

  • Better Habits, New Habitat

    I recently posted a blog, Are You Dreaming or Are You Doing?, and it basically dealt with my most consistent character trait, which is my inconsistency. I ended the blog with a message that God was trying to get through… Continue reading

  • Happy Birthday, Keely!

    Happy Birthday to my beautiful 14 year old miracle daughter, Keely. She was the gift God gave to me to prove that He is real! Check out her new website which is just underway at www.keelybrady.com. Continue reading

    Happy Birthday, Keely!

  • Are You Dreaming or Are You Doing?

    I made a profound statement to my daughter, Shelby today and the words have been stirring around in my head ever since. So, that tells me 2 things. The first is positively true; the second is probably true. One, if… Continue reading

  • UNDERWATER HOCKEY, REALLY?

    I was pretty sure that we Americans have too much time on our hands. How else could you explain the prevalence of reality TV shows? Then when curling became a wildly popular Olympic event, my suspicions grew to almost 100%.… Continue reading

  • The Apple Fell Too Far Away

    My parents are gardeners. Me…not so much. The apple fell a little too far away from the tree.(Pause for laughter). But that doesn’t mean I forsake trying. I like tomato sandwiches. So every now and again I will buy a… Continue reading

  • Who’s Being Unreasonable?

    My kids think I am unreasonable at times, well, maybe a lot of times. High expectations, unreasonable demands and just plain grumpy. Since they are unemployed, too young to drive and because we don’t live in West Virginia, they aren’t… Continue reading

  • Counting the Costs

    My daughter, Keely, asked me the other day if we had any electrical tape. I responded, “Probably”.  She continued to stare at me. She asked me a question and I answered it. I was ready to move on. I was… Continue reading

  • Are You Hanging Out in the Kiddie Pool?

    Will took swimming lessons at the Y this summer. He wasn’t thrilled about it. I could have taught him how my grandfather taught my dad…just threw him in the river and hoped that he was a fast study. We’ve come… Continue reading

  • Follow 2011

    Pastor Steven took away any excuse a person might have not to be baptized this weekend as Elevation Church did spontaneous baptisms at all 4 campuses this weekend. By spontaneous, I mean that attendees didn’t know about it, but the… Continue reading

  • My Fantasy Life

    I didn’t follow the NFL lockout too closely. It was hard for me to take sides with anyone. Both sides make too much money for me to feel too sorry for them. It is after all a GAME that the… Continue reading

  • Arise

    Happy Easter! The other day we celebrated the awesome truth that Jesus rose from the grave overcoming sin and death. The Bible says that as Christians we have resurrection power in us. This means that if we have relationships, hopes or dreams… Continue reading

  • You Really Want to Know God’s Will for Your Life?

    We pray to know what God’s will is. We say we want to be in God’s will. And I wonder, really? “If I just knew what God’s will for my life is, then things would be easier.” Again, really? Jesus… Continue reading

  • Joe and Tammie

    I’ve got nothing clever and creative this time; just a straightforward account of God’s mercy and greatness. Tammie is a good friend of mine and my blog’s biggest fan. A couple of months ago her husband, Joe injured himself very… Continue reading

  • Was My Head Spinning?

    This Wednesday, March 9, is the start of the observance of Lent.  I don’t always participate, but my white shiny Reebok wearing brother-in-law does so we were talking about it tonight. I suggested that he give up trying to tell… Continue reading

  • I’m Not King Anymore

    I am not king of my own domain anymore. For 22 years I’ve had a thriving paralegal business. Every idea that I had was great because well…who was around to tell me it wasn’t? The business is not thriving anymore.… Continue reading

  • I Got Punched in the Mouth

    Pastor Steven has preached for the last 2 weeks on honor and it has been great. The biggest insight I’ve gained is the biblical meaning of dishonor. I always thought that to dishonor someone is to treat her with utter… Continue reading

  • Your Baby May Be Ugly

    Yes, your baby may be ugly. Mine was and I just had to face the facts. Eight years ago I started writing a novel. I finished it 6 years ago and sent out 50 query letters to literary agents. When… Continue reading

  • Discounting Our Dreams

    For big periods of time I didn’t write. Even after I began to accept the fact that God gave me the gift. I doubted my ability to come up with ideas, my ability to find an agent willing to work… Continue reading