Last week, I asked my dad, a pastor in North Carolina, about something I read in Proverbs 1. Here are what two verses I read said:

8 Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

9 They will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.

After reading that, I thought I’d ask my dad what he would consider his “instruction.” I was curious what he and my mother would say. Here’s an excerpt of his response, which I think probably applies to a lot of us:

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(I love sharing Ben Meredith’s writing with you because in addition to being funny, it’s true. As a pastor’s kid, I can completely attest to what this guest post is all about and I think it’s hilarious. I hope you enjoy another guest post from Ben.)

At my grandfather’s funeral, the preacher stood up and shared all about what a sweet, gentle man my grandpa was. He went on for several minutes, and then called me up (one of the perks of missionary life–and this is not sarcastic at all–is to get the opportunity to speak at funerals.) I approached the microphone, and not knowing where to start, said “Well, I’m gonna share a little bit about my Grandpa from the perspective of someone who was around when the preacher wasn’t.”

The reason that joke worked (or landed as they say in the biz–people actually laughed!) is that cleaning up your act for the preacher is a near-universal thing, especially here in the South.

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On Tuesday, November 30 I’ll be on the radio with Dave Ramsey. I’ve never been on the show before but with over 450 stations across the country picking it up and millions of listeners, I’m already nervous/excited/kind of sweaty. (I’ll post more details as I find them out.)

We’ll be talking about my new book “Gazelles, Baby Steps and 37 Other Things Dave Ramsey Taught Me About Debt.” It’s a comedic look at money with some wild illustrations and I think it will be a blast to laugh about it on the radio. Dave wrote the forword and for a limited time you can get a free audio book and free e-book when you order the paperback for only $10.

Click here to order!

Last night, when I came home from work, I sat down at our family computer. When I opened up Firefox, the page it was resting on had a very unexpected title. Here is what my wife had been looking at:

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I’m not completely sure why there are killer whales in San Antonio. When you think about Orcas, and where you should be able to find them, chances are your first thought isn’t, “Texas. We definitely have access to some killer whales in Texas.” But when I visited recently, I realized that not only did they have a Sea World, they also had one of the most terrifying elevators ever.

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I never thought I’d see this bobble head.

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Weird things happen to me when I fly. If you followed me on Twitter you would know this because I tend to have “tweet explosions,” when I’m at airports.

Last Sunday morning, as our plane lifted off the ground, the person behind me started to play what sounded like a pan flute. Just as we began to soar above the clouds, we were greeted with a Zamfir melody from what I can only assume was some sort of satyr. In his defense, the flight attendant did not say, “Please return your seats to their upright position, carefully stow your carry on luggage and put your pan flute back in its elk skin satchel.” He had every right to play that beautiful wooden instrument and play he did.

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This is like a hat trick of awesomeness! For $10, right now you can pre-order my new book, “Gazelles, Baby Steps And 37 Other Things Dave Ramsey Taught Me About Debt,” and get the audio book and e-book versions FREE.

Let’s repeat that, for $10 you get all three versions of the book.

I read the audio book and we added a bunch of funny stuff, including some exclusive chapters that aren’t in the book. It’s going to be a blast.

The book releases November 30 and makes a really fun Christmas gift.

Click here to get this limited time offer!

A few months ago, I wrote an article on Stuff Christians Like about sex. CNN.com picked it up and it got a lot of attention on the homepage of their site. Out of nowhere my wife got emails from folks she hadn’t heard from in a while that essentially said, “Hey Jenny! Saw your sex life on the homepage of CNN.”

You’re not going to believe this, but my wife was embarrassed by that. Who knew?

So let me come right out of the gate and say this:

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Christmas is right around the corner. (If you live at the Acuff house, it’s already here as we enjoy the Mariah Carey Christmas album starting in November.)

I thought it might be fun to do a huge Christmas month at Stuff Christians Like. But what should we write about? What Christmas related ideas do we need to cover?

Carols? Fantastical church musicals? The donkey in the live manger that always tries to bite everyone? The reason for the season?

What should we talk about on Stuff Christians Like this Christmas?