Jon Acuff “I’d like to get a manicure.” This is a sentence I hear often as a dad of teenage daughters. Nails are a thing. I didn’t know that when I was growing up, because until I was 15 there were only brothers in my house. We didn’t talk about nails. We didn’t think about…
Kim Nunes Fighting for the Heart of Our Adopted Son Family A Year’s Progress What a year it has been! You can read more about our story on adopting Carlos almost two years ago in an article that was posted last year and the fight for his heart which is so very different than the way we have fought…
Jon Acuff Long before I got my driver’s license, my parents taught me about driving. Before pulling out in front of someone they’d say, “You can’t always trust that a blinker means someone is really going to turn.” When crossing traffic, they’d point out places I needed to focus. On the highway, they’d extol the…
Adriana Howard Do you remember that scene in It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown where Lucy parades out in her Halloween costume? You know the one. Black pointed hat. Green witch mask. All in all, it isn’t a great look. I mean, the frown is liable to slide right off of her face if it droops any…
Dan Scott When we hear the word courage, we often think of these grandiose moments of bravery. Experiences like leaping off a high-dive, trying out for an ultra-competitive team, or taking your first step off a zip-line seem like the most appropriate ways for us to help our kids to understand courage. But what if…
Crystal Chiang Lots of relationships in life come without a manual. How exactly do people learn to . . . · Be a good spouse? · A good student? · A good parent? · A good coffee-shop customer? Without any instruction, you can wonder “am I doing this right?” And just like all of those,…
Leah Jennings I Go to Therapy I go to therapy. I’ve been going to therapy off and on for the last nine years. I’ve seen therapists for coping skills for panic attacks, for postpartum depression and anxiety, when my marriage wasn’t going as I thought it should, and when I lost my third child to…
Sissy Goff This is an excerpt from Raising Worry-Free Girls by Sissy Goff (used with permission) What’s Worrying our Girls By nature, girls want to please. Girls define themselves against a backdrop of relationship. Feeling known and loved is crucial. So to say something that might sound crazy or weird, or might make others reject them, can feel…
Sometimes it takes another voice to say the same things you are saying to your kid(s) about the most important things in life—just in a different way. That’s what we call “widening the circle.” So, how do you widen your family circle? Pursuing strategic relationships for your kids takes a little bit of intentionality, but it…
Holly Crawshaw Have you ever found yourself in tears for no real reason? Or have you ever been so frustrated that you wanted to throw something? (Maybe you even did!) Or have you ever woken up one morning with an overwhelming sense of anxiety but couldn’t quite pinpoint what exactly you’re so worried about? 27…