My friend, Pastor Heath Davis, wrote a great blog post last year called “Parenthood and the Ticking Clock” and gave me permission to re-post it here: It’s 9:17p.m. I just got home from a meeting and have to get my boys down, return a phone call, look over some mail and hopefully catch a few […]
Matthew Guevara recently posted a video called: “What Do Children Pray?” …is a critical question with incredible potential to impact our understanding of how children relate to God and how children determine their priorities. When the common tool of prayer is given an environment where kids can connect to God and one another, powerful stories […]
As a parent, I would definitely take issue with the words “spying on your children”. Parental monitoring of your children’s online activity is NOT spying! It is called parenting. I wisely monitor all aspects of my children’s lives–online or offline. It’s my job as a parent. There should be a weaning of sorts as trust […]
Do you have Facebook? Do your kids have Facebook? Did you know that it is against the law for children under the age of 13 to create an online profile that collects their personal information? In the last couple of weeks I have read a number of articles and such regarding this interesting phenomena (I […]
Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things. ~Robert Brault via Slowing to See
Hmm… I came across this intriguing post from a blog entitled True Woman (interesting reading I do, eh?!). It has to do with summer time projects that families can do with some of the freedom they have in the summer. I thought the article was worth sharing. You can read the post below or go […]
This article is a re-post from a campaign/emphasis we did at Hayward Wesleyan called “Ablaze for God.” We did a series of devotionals for that week on a blog you can find here. I wrote a few of those devotionals that I recently re-read and thought I should re-post another one of them here: “Jeremy, […]
At Kids Camp 2011, one of the counselors had an interesting interaction between two boys that were picking at each other. One of the boys complained to the counselor who in turn instructed the camper to forgive the other. The boy looked at his leader, scowled and said: “No way! He’s not even sorry!” The counselor […]
Just like the post below, I believe in the power of a story to teach. I’ve got to admit that as a young parent, it is easy to default to the “lecture” format, but I’ve found that telling a story, whether real or make-believe, has been very powerfully effective. My friend, Jesse Smith, shares some […]
As a parent, you want the best for your children. You want to see them succeed. You want them to live up to their full potential. You don’t want obstacles to get in their way or failures to keep them down. A well-meaning parent says: “You can, you can, you can! You can grow up […]
Does this ever happen to you? Sari hurt her foot the other day. I don’t remember exactly how, but it seems like she is always running in to stuff! Anyway, when she hurt her foot she screams bloody murder! Life is over! I know, I know… kids respond to pain in a variety of ways […]
This is fascinating… I wonder what kind of conversation this would spark, not only in the family unit between father and son, mother and daughter, but also in the faith community as a whole as we try to “intentionally” pass on faith (and wisdom) to the next generation… As the parent of a teenager, you invest a […]
Sometimes other people have said things (and organized their thoughts) better than I could do, especially regarding dealing and coping with the topic of death. There’s no way to avoid this simple fact: death happens And, when it does, we often struggle with how to approach talking to our kids about the subject. Recently, in […]
Chris Spradlin over at EpicParent.tv wrote a list of 40 parenting tips in honor of his 40th birthday. It’s a noteworthy list: 1. Take lots of pictures 2. Leave notes in your kids lunches 3. ALWAYS ASK FORGIVENESS 4. Let your kids fail 5. Laugh 6. Stop aggravating your kids! Still trying to learn this one 7. […]
I credit this to my Mom! When my brother Brad and I were young, my Mom would help us memorize Bible verses. We had no idea at the time what an impact knowing these Bible verses would be. So, drawing on the tradition of my family, in our home we’ve been trying to do some […]
I was driving down Railroad Street in Hayward, WI the other day and a truck with a camper trailer pulled out in front of me between Marketplace Foods and McDonalds and made me stop short. Now obviously according to the generally accepted etiquette of civilized driving, one does not make another vehicle wait or stop short […]
Generation Y, also known as the Millennial Generation, consists of people born around the late-1970’s to the early 2000’s. MTV, for better or worse, is known for its culturally relevant or astute programming, targeted, almost precisely, at its intended demographic. “MTV made a decision at its point of inception to never grow old with the […]
Sari and Macie were playing a game (Hungry Hippos, I think) and they started to fight about it. Amanda stepped in and told Sari that she needed to teach Macie how to play so she wouldn’t get frustrated. At this point in the intervention, Sari was exasperated and she exclaimed to her mother: “I don’t […]
The title of this post should be: Random. But “random” is well, random. So I borrowed the title of the chapter where this story come from in the ministry book I’ve been reading: Middle School Ministry: a comprehensive guide to working with early adolescents by Mark Oestreicher and Scott Rubin. Random is the best way to describe […]
Promoting Responsible Online Surfing! source YouTube