Results

A new study at the University of Toronto suggests that family bonds are far more important to adult wellbeing than friendships. Researchers surveyed some 3000 people between 57 and 85, asking about their closest relationships, health, and well-being. They found that those who felt “extremely close” to…

In THANKS! How Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier, Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D. writes, “The family, friends, partners, and others who surround them consistently report that people who practice gratitude seem measurably happier and are more pleasant to be around.” —Jim L. Wilson —THANKS!, 44 Psalm…

In the 2013 movie Her, Theodore falls in love with Samantha, his name for the female voice behind a new operating system with artificial intelligence. Over time, he begins to lose the real relationships in his life as he falls for his virtual love interest. In the end, Samantha evolves to a higher level…

In “Restraint in Relationships,” Mike Clements writes, “Mustering restraint in hostile relationships can feel like walking through a minefield. Our footing will seem unsure as we meet hostility with restraint. God’s character and resurrection power help Christians rise above the hostility of this world.…

A new app for your smartphone is called Invisible Boyfriend. It allows anyone to pretend they have a loving relationship with a boyfriend who sends text messages and leaves voicemails. According to the designer, Matthew Homann, “single women who use the app just want to use the text messages and voicemails…

As a symbol for the University of Nevada, there is a large “N” formed by white rocks in a Nevada hillside near Reno, NV. In November, 2013, Brent Wilburn, in an effort to win the love of his ex-girlfriend, Tina, decided to add three additional letters to the “N” to spell out her name. Using chalk, he…

An 81-year-old Michigan man recently discovered a son he didn’t know he had. In 1959 Tony Trapani’s ex-lover sent him a letter to inform him he had a son in Pennsylvania, but he never received the letter. His wife intercepted the letter and hid it from him for more than 50 years. When she died in 2014,…

New research published in the Journal of Applied Psychology has found that being rude is contagious. Researchers tracked 90 graduate business school students and found that if they rated someone they interacted with a rude, they were also more likely to be judged as rude by someone else. The researcher…

In his book, Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation, M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., writes, “If you want a good litmus test of your spiritual growth simply examine the nature and quality of your relationships with others.” —Jim L. Wilson Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual…

The Japanese have found a good friend for you and it will only cost you $1,600. Pepper is a 4-foot-tall human-shaped robot built by Tokyo-based telecom giant, SoftBank. Pepper’s programming allows it to sense your emotions based on vocal inflections and facial expressions. Pepper can talk, dance, tell…

In his book, Replenish: Leading from a healthy Soul, Lance Witt writes, “Not only does technology generate a lot of internal white noise, it hinders our ability to focus on people. It seems to me many of us have developed a kind of social ADD. We can’t stay engaged in a conversation or an experience…

Dave Earley says, “Relationships can be understood as bank accounts. Realize it or not, you have a relational account with every person within your sphere of influence. Every positive interaction makes a deposit in that account. Every negative dealing with a person makes a withdrawal in your relational…

There is an invention, which is an article of clothing called “Like-A-Hug.” It is a “wearable social media vest” and was invented by MIT as a part of their Media Lab’s Tangible Media Group. It is essentially a vest that inflates, almost like a life jacket, every time one of your facebook friends “likes”…

In a new book entitled, Friendfluence, author Carlin Flora looks at the effect friends have on people and says the influence of friends could even affect a person’s health. Flora says psychologist have long believed that friendships have a direct effect on our overall health and life expectancy. One…

A 2008 study reveals that 49% of American workers are not satisfied with their job. Why? Do you think it is because it is too demanding? Or maybe because of too little pay? No—the reason is their perception that their boss doesn’t listen to their ideas. –Jim L. Wilson and Joe Lam http://www.cbsnews.com/news/survey-more-americans-unhappy-at-work/…

A study conducted by researchers in Germany has found that stress may be contagious. The results suggest that stress can be transmitted to people simply by watching other people confront anxiety-provoking situations through television programs or motion pictures. Researchers paired people either as an…

A public opinion poll conducted by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion surveyed a number of adults and found that there is one word that annoys Americans more than any other. The casual “whatever” was rated as “most annoying” by 38 percent of those who responded to the survey. Pollsters said…

The growth of social media has created a new perspective on friendship. Over a period of several years, it is easy to collect a lot of cyber friendships that are no more than people that appear on the computer screen. News feeds can be full of chatter and information, but not much of it is from real…

A study conducted by Lifeway Research found that a majority of people who attend church regularly say they have significant relationships with others at church, but less than half of them say they are intentionally helping other believers grow in their faith The survey identified “building relationships”…

When an employer mistreats an employee, one possible response is to quit. Another possibly would be to convince the entire staff to quit at the same time. After the manager of a footwear and apparel store in a New York mall was rude to an employee, all three employees of the store quit. They wrote a…

In an effort to build relationships with their community, an Ohio church decided to open a store offering clothing, purses, shoes, sheets and toys absolutely free. The store is operated by the Women’s Ministry of the church. The idea came from an annual clothing giveaway the church used to do every July.…

Published September 08, 2011 | Associated Press Dutch prosecutors are charging a 42-year-old woman with stalking after she allegedly called her ex-boyfriend 65,000 times in the past year. The 62-year-old victim from The Hague filed a police complaint in August due to the persistent phone calls. Police…

Philip Yancey wrote of a friend of his named Susan, a Christian who told Yancey "that her husband did not measure up and she was actively looking for other men to meet her needs for intimacy": When Susan mentioned that she rose early each day to "spend an hour with the Father," I asked, "In your meetings…

There’s a question mark in my mind after every Discovery Class. (By the way, if you don’t know what the Discovery class is, it’s the class that allows you to discover more about Peace Church and whether or not you want to join our church family.) That question mark is always there. Know what I’m asking…

Police visited Vladimir, a resident of Berlin Germany. They confiscated his air raid siren because neighbors were complaining about it’s piercing wail. Which may leave you asking the question, “Why did Vladimir have an air raid siren to begin with?” It’s simple: Vladimir was tired of his wife’s loud…