So your kid comes up to you and asks, “Dad, how do we know there’s a God?” And you . . . freeze. You say something like “Because I believe there’s a God,” or “We just know,” or “Because there is,” or “Because the Bible says God exists.” Then your kid does what every kid does: he asks…
“Someday when you guys are older you will like each other and be best friends.” They’d been bickering. Again. But did I really just say that? How can I possibly know that? Is that just wishful thinking for my oldest son and my daughter who is two and a half years younger? Am…
It happened the other night. . . again. I shared the December 2015 data from Common Sense Media regarding media use by teens and tweens. I stated it simply: “Excluding time spend using media for school or homework, our 8-12 year-old tweens spend 6 hours a day engaged with screens. Our 13-18 year-old teens spend…
Sundays, in our family, are our home maintenance days. It’s the day we do piles of laundry that have accumulated over the week, pick up the stray Legos, put away a clean dishwasher, or load a dirty one, do the grocery shopping and assemble backpacks for the coming week. And by Sunday evening, when my…
So there we were, standing on a sidewalk in the middle of downtown Gatlinburg, Tennessee. A couple in their mid-thirties with three kids ages 5, 8 and 10 struggling to have fun and enjoy a vacation together. It wasn’t happening. People were passing us on either side much like water going around a rock in…
Initiative is a myth, and I can prove it. Think back to your childhood. Did you do basic household chores without being asked? I’m sure you did because everyone knows today’s moms are perfect in every way, right? Now think about your husband. Do you think he demonstrated initiative with his mom? Of course…
You may have already weighed in on the age-old parenting debate: should you let your kids see you fight? Clearly, the question springs out of the pain too many kids grew up witnessing. For sure, there are some things kids should never witness. And while God can use anything for good (and he does),…
Ted Lowe, author of Your Best Us, shares some ideas on how to get on the same page as parents. Whether you’re married, remarried, or a single parent, you’re better when you learn to parent as a team. Discover some conversations to have ahead of time, how to respond in the moment of conflict, and how to…
“Could we sign up for a cake decorating class on Saturdays?” This came from my fourteen-year-old daughter as I stood at the sink up to my elbows in dirty dishes. I paused. The last thing I wanted to do was give up my Saturdays. I was already losing the war with dog hair…
Remember that one time when you swore you’d never grow up to be one of those parents who used “Because I said so” as a defense for discipline? Remember that time not too long ago when you said those exact words to your kids thirty-seven times in one day? Yeah. Me, too. Discipline for me…