David J Baldwin

Don't most of us wish we exercised a little bit more?! I once read that Michael Phelps doesn't believe in taking a day off swimming. So I'm challenging myself to JUMPSTART my summer by putting in 20 minutes per day of some sort of exercise in June! 30 days X 20 minutes =  600 minutes of exercise! Reasons to exercise: -"Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don't shoot their husbands, they just don't." (Elle Woods, Legally Blonde) -Could be good for your partner: In a phenomenon known as "health concordance," partners' health behaviors tend to merge, as they pick up good or bad habits from each other related to eating, exercising, etc. -You know you want to, so JUST DO IT! Ways to get in a 20 minute exercise session: -Get off the subway 1 stop early and walk home from there! -Get up 20 minutes earlier and take the dog out for a run! -Go to the gym on your lunch break! RSVP HERE FOR THE FACEBOOK EVENT!

Last week, I wrote about “Three Things Your (Gay) Christian Kid Needs to Hear from You,” and I received so many positive responses. Some thanked me for offering simple advice they could apply while raising their children. Others thanked me for being willing to share my story in order to try to make a difference for gay kids. Others wondered how I was confident enough to share such personal things on the Internet, especially through Facebook. There are many things I cannot say that I believe for sure. There are many things I don’t think we can ever know! But one thing I have grown to understand lately is the concept of a universal “truth.” Augustine said “All truth is God’s truth.” And Paolo Coelho put it a little differently in The Alchemist: “There is a universal language, understood by everybody, but already forgotten.” I am learning that the truths I “discover” (such as last week’s “You Are Enough”) have been understood by people before me, and people before them. They’ve alw

When I posted my last blog (which over 600 people have read, thanks to your sharing,) I emailed my family to ask them to read it, and to ensure that they knew my intentions were only to do something good for the next generation. (If you missed the last post, read it here .) I received this thoughtful response from my sister, which she agreed to let me post: Hi brother, I read your blog post earlier this week and have spent some time thinking about it, especially in the context of my own life. As a child growing up in the same home 9 years later, my experience was different. In thinking about the reasons why, perhaps birth order (oldest feeling a greater pressure to succeed vs. youngest typically being more carefree) parents struggling for answers the first time around vs. maybe having a better idea by the time #5 came along, peers, etc., I can't say I can pinpoint a specific reason why our experiences were so different. I too faced my own struggles (and still

 Dear Friend Raising Your Child(ren) in the Christian Faith: A friend sent me an article today written by James Clementi, the older brother of Tyler Clementi. Tyler is the Rutgers student who committed suicide in September 2010 after his roommate used a webcam to spy on him. It moved me that poor James had to say things to his little brother that he would never get to say to him in person. I thought of a time in junior high when I thought I might commit suicide. I’d just started to grow uncomfortable with the feelings I was having for boys, I was unpopular and lonely at school, and I faced rejection when I asked girls to “go out” with me (really, where would we go anyway, the mall? “MOM, can you take me to the mall?” Well, yes, I guess that’s what the cool kids did do. Seems silly now.) I remember starting to pen suicide notes in Study Hall. I imagined leaving them unsigned and causing a stir, or I’d imagine actually killing myself at home, and I’d imagine how bad the kids wh