5 Life-Changing Lessons to Teach Your Children
Yes, life-changing. The following list, all rooted in Scripture, takes deliberate, faithful teaching, but will pay big dividends in the lives of your children. Teach them to: 1. Not be easily offended. Luke 6:29 speaks of turning the other cheek when slapped. The principle here is, love is not easily provoked and covers a multitude […]
The Goal of Motherhood: An Older Me to the Young Moms
A Journey Between Two Worlds: Embracing Life’s Dualities It’s a strange, hard, fun, and wonderful place I’m in right now—almost like standing between two worlds. I find myself with one foot in each realm, peering back and forth with eyes that see so much larger now than they once did. Motherhood: Navigating the Beautiful Chaos […]
The Remarkable Thing That Happened When I Quit Blaming My Dad
Reflections on My Youth I was a pretty miserable teenager into my middle adult years. It was always his fault. Everything I didn’t like about myself anyway. I blamed my promiscuity on the “lack of affection” from my dad. Also, he didn’t treat me like the princess I longed to be treated as, so I […]
The Heart of Motherhood: Teaching Children to Know God In the Moments
Morning bible reading–check. Family worship–check. Church on Sunday–check. I think these activities are the undergirding of the Christian life and are needful and good. But I don’t think they are the essence of teaching our children to walk daily with the Lord, to cultivate a living, breathing relationship with the Creator. It begins with the […]
Bring on the Hassle: Keeping the Right Perspective Through Daily Trials
Life is hard… Sometimes it’s very hard, but more often, we let the pile of daily hassles make it hard, robbing us of our joy. You know the hassles…car break downs, computer break downs, air conditioner break downs, the flu, traffic jams, bickering siblings, overflowing toilets– they can be managed, but if we don’t keep […]
God’s Heart Toward Children: What is the Purpose of Children? (Part 2)
Read Part 1 HERE. Is our paradigm of parenting wrong? Another way our view of children affects the world is that if our thinking about children is not synonymous with His thinking about children, our entire paradigm of parenting is wrong. Did you hear that? We come into parenting with a completely wrong basis for […]
Raising Children: My Spaghetti-Smeared Generation
Farmer holds a few ordinary seeds in his hand. But he doesn’t see seeds. He also doesn’t see, or rather, doesn’t dwell on the work he’s about to give himself to. OK he does see the seeds, and dirt, and sweat and weeds. But it’s what lies beyond the seeing….it’s the VISION. He really sees […]
Essential Life Skills Every Child Should Learn for a Balanced Education
The Importance of Practical Skills in Child Development I got an email a while back from a reader who said she’s afraid they have focused too much on academics and not enough on practical skills. This can be common. SO many parents go to the ends of the earth to provide what they hope will […]
Real Living Only Happens On Purpose
“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” (John Lennon) Our noisy lives Is it possible, in this noisiest-of-ever-century, that we hardly ever hear, hardly ever see anything much? Have you ever noticed your world when the power goes off? It’s not just that you can’t check you email…it’s a deafening silence […]
The Beauty of Humility: Lessons from Washing Feet
Washing feet Not a glamorous job. But a job worthy of the King of Kings to perform with love and humility. But there’s more. He then admonishes us to be like Him. “Oh Lord, I want to be like you…I really do”, we say. He replies, “then wash their feet.” “No, I mean I want […]