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I can’t thank you enough for stopping by and reading my blog. I love meeting new friends so it’s great having you here. Here are  a few specific reasons you may want to get in touch with me and how to do it:

1. If you are interested in reposting or using one of my blog posts, please check out my Copyright page.
2. You may be looking for a specific blog post. You can either search my Archive page or use the handy search feature in the sidebar of this page.
3. Please take a second to read the commenting policy for MarkMerrill.com.
4. If you are interested in writing a guest post for my blog, please check out my Guest Post Guidelines.

If you can’t find what you’re looking for through any of these links, just fill out the form and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks!

  • Ejfrost

    Hi Mark,
    Help, my oldest daughter at 10 years will tell these lies and I don’t know how to stop it. I am so afraid it will keep getting worse and worse. She knows what she is doing is wrong and we have had many long conversations about the lost of trust that is happening when she lies. Her reasoning is she just can’t stop herself and she didn’t want to get into trouble. Her lying has caused her to get into more trouble and loss of privileges but it still hasn’t hit home with her. I am at a loss on what to do next, loss of electronics or being grounded isn’t working. Any suggestions?

  • Tammy

    When i was a child I got into trouble for a lie or the truth so i just figured out which to try first.  Maybe adding positive reinforces when the truth is told will help…maybe

  • Sandra

    4 mos. later I am reading your post Ejfrost.  Before I had a personal relationship with TRUTH Himself (my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ), I began lying when I thought it would prevent possible trouble for either myself or someone else.  I learned it from my parents who were hypocritical in the way they behaved toward my Grandmother.  I got different messages about how to live life from both of them.  Thankfully, the snowball of lies culminated in my reaping the results.  I allowed my parents to choose my destiny at that point.  Either way, I believe the LORD used my sins to bring me to HIM.  Be sure you are not the cause of her lies.  Pray much!  ; )

  • Sandy

    Mark,  I am writing about the section in your blog on “Affair Proof” Your Marriage.  I am angry as I type this.  I would REALLY love to hear someone from the Christian community acknowledge that wives have sexual desires and needs that, often times than not, are not being met either.  It is NOT just the husbands who are affected by the lack of interest.  Have you spoken to women or created an atmosphere in which they feel safe to address this?  I have only to see if I’m crazy. I have spent the better part of 26 years listening to men speak on marriage and addressing this as only a male deprived problem which leads to temptation of infidelity. Speaking on the subject as if to tell wives to take care of their men because they have sex drives that we don’t.  God created men AND women with sex drives.  I for one and happy about that. I wish the world and the Christian Community would acknowledge that more.  Please know that I mean no disrespect as I write this.  I only want to convey my frustration on this subject as I know other women feel the same.  PLEASE, revise your blog to make it a couple problem and not just a male one, even if there is some statistic that says it is a male dominated problem.

  • Marcela Ferioli

    I would like to share one post from your blog with my friends in my Facebook wall and I don’t know how to do it.
    Thanks for your help!

  • http://www.FamilyMinute.com/ Mark Merrill

    Marcela,
    Each post has a toolbar beneath the title which allows you to tweet, like the post on Facebook, etc. If you hold your mouse over the red “+ Share” button, a menu appears. Click on “Facebook” and it will direct you so you can add a message before posting to your Facebook wall. Hope this helps, and thanks for helping spread the word!

  • Marywahne

    Mr. Merrill,

    I am the chair of a community placement for the Junior League of Midland (Texas), also entitled Family First. As the theme is family-building and community education, I can’t help but think the name is an homage to your fantastic work.

    I am writing to inquire if you would assist me in finding a worthy public speaker on family education topics for our event. You are already booked for the weekend of our event, or else I would ask you! I was hoping you might know an up-and coming speaker with a good message to serve as our 30-min. Keynote.

    Thank you, and please keep up your gretat work!
    Mary Baker

  • Jlabusch

    I need to send you a private email…how can i do that? Thanks

  • http://www.FamilyMinute.com/ Mark Merrill

    Jlabusch, you can email me at MarkMerrill@familyfirst.net. Look forward to hearing from you!

  • Steve Rogers

    Mark,
       I just heard your Family minute spot on WGTS 91.9 about loosing weight. And about a year ago I would have totally agreed with you.  I am big into alternative health, my main thought is to get back to nature.  So the most influential books I have read recently concerning health and weight are “Why We Get Fat: and what to do about it” by Gary Taubes,(a historical look at our weight epidemic) “The Paleo Solution” by  Robb Wolf (a practical guide and explanation of the “caveman” or stone age diet) and “Wheat Belly” by Dr. Davis (Why today’s wheat may not be “heart healthy” after all).  All these books point to the same message that we need to get back to what God designed us to eat; the food that we ate since we left the garden of Eden up until we started farming. 

    According to science at least we have been on this planet in human from for 200K+ years and we have been hunting and eating animals and gathering vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and the like.  So since farming started we have gotten, shorter, fatter and got a lot more cavities and more disease (it did help civilization expand of course-doubled edged sword).  The message is that if we eat more fat and eat less carbs in the form of grains and sugars then we are running on the optimal fuel and we naturally will loose weight, our triglycerides drop like a rock, our HDL cholesterol numbers go up, and LDL particles size tend to go from small dense (bad) to large buoyant (good).  Our visceral fat around our waists start going away ( I lost 2-3 inches around my waist and I am already slim).  It is true that you can eat like this for a year and all these great things will happen, but if we start eating high-glycemic (blood sugar raising) food again like wheat (pasta, bread, crackers, snack foods), sugar, white potatoes or even too many grapes we will start heading back to the dark side. 

    Grains is a food group today, but it wasn’t for the vast majority of our existence. And if you say Jesus ate bread, well yes he did, but the bread ate and the bread we eat are completely different, the difference between an ape and a human.  You cannot make a jelly filled donuts or a 7-tier wedding cake with heritage wheat; it doens’t have the right baking properties and unfortunately all the other negative consequences from the hybridization process.  Did you you know that from a blood sugar standpoint, that is is healthier to eat a Snickers bar than it is to eat a slice or two of whole wheat bread?  Snickers bars (glycemic index:46) and today’s whole wheat bread (Glycemic index: 71).  The glycemic index is a measure of how much our blood sugar goes up from eating different foods and it is a scale from 0 to about 100 and table sugar comes in at 56.
        The take-away here is for 30 days try to avoid all wheat products (don’t worry, vegetables have way more fiber and vitamins and nutrients than wheat), avoid added sugar containing foods, eat more fat from avocados, fish oil, animal fat, coconut oil, more meats (red meat, pork, chicken, fish, lamb, organ meats) and eat lots of vegetables and see what happens.  If you want to go strict, avoid legumes (beans, peanuts, etc.) as well.  Amazing things can happen like autoimmune diseases lessen or go away, diabetics (type II) reducing or not needing to take insulin, weight lose, much improved heart health, more energy, better mood and general feeling of wellness. 
       Check out some of those books too; they majorly changed how I think about health and weight lose.  I believe that God wants us to be as healthy as possible and I also believe that the devil wants us to be sick and ill. This stuff makes so much sense to me. 
       My final thought is this: If you put the correct gasoline in your car it will run pretty good, but if you put the wrong fuel (fuel it wasn’t designed to burn) it will start running badly really quick.  I believe that is same as our bodies. Our bodies were not designed to run on 50-60% carbs and low-fat; so bad things are happening our health as a nation.

    P.S. I didn’t mention exercise; it is secondary to diet, but it is certainly important to move more, but don’t overdo it;  too much exercise reduces our metabolisms.  We have very smart bodies; if they see that we are expending large amount of energy they throttle back on the burning energy (fat and sugar) when we finally stop moving.  Exercise has many benefits, but it isn’t the best weight lose tool. It does make us build up a a bigger appetite though.  Eat less and exercise is a recipe for failure. That is what I have learned though reading hundreds of health articles and listening to 100+ podcast by low-carb/paleo experts and reading many books as well and from my own experience.  What do you have to loose?