I still remember the first time I drove our first new born home from the hospital. The journey was slow, careful and deliberate. Since then, a lot has changed, not only in the way I drive, but also in the way I parent… If parenting can be described as a journey, I am not sure…
Just last week I talked to my wife, Lisa, about my ten year old daughter who seems to have changed overnight. Just as I was getting to understand how to interact and support her, I was suddenly interacting with someone else… She’s starting to look different, think different, act different, and even smell different! Whether…
Splink 1: Amazing Metamorphosis Watch an amazing 4-minute video about the butterfly’s metamorphosis. Here’s a shorter 2-minute one for non-readers: What does metamorphosis mean? (To change, such as the change from a caterpillar to a butterfly) When the caterpillar appears from the chrysalis, it doesn’t look anything like a caterpillar. Instead it is a…
I’m learning that friendship, as a parent, is even more life-giving (life-saving?) now than ever before. And this says a lot coming from a friendship-nostalgia-freak who has a file box of every single note I received in middle and high school organized by name of the sender. (If anyone under 25 is reading this, a…
Remember when you used to have fun? I know, it seems like it’s been a while. Maybe a long while. Sometimes parenting can seem like a burden. Even reading about parenting can make you feel like you need to button down and master 5 more parenting skills—which, sometimes you need to do. But in the…
Splink 1: As Sure as the Stars Stay up late, go outside, put a blanket on the ground, look up, and count the stars. God made a promise to Abraham that his descendents (children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, etc.) would be as many as the stars in the sky (Genesis 15:5). How many stars can…
My son attended a small, private high school. It was a wonderful school, that had a rule for everything, and many of their favorite rules had to do with uniforms. Students were required to wear their uniforms, and nothing but their uniforms, whenever they were on campus. As parents, we liked the uniform rule because…
Splink 1: A Gift…Just for You Buy a small gift for each child (favorite candy; small toy; gift card for fast food or ice cream; favorite treat; etc.) and put it in a gift box or bag. Give each child the small gift. What did you have to do to get the gift? (Receive…
A thought-provoking post popped up in my Facebook news feed yesterday that was brutally honest, gutsy, and representative of what most people think but never say out loud. . . and that’s why it’s worth pondering. Erin McClain is one of my young Facebook friends and the college-aged daughter of a pair of our youth…
Just kidding about that last part, but they could change a lot of things about how you talk about faith. If your house is anything like mine, the bath time and bedtime routine can often turn into a soul-sucking vortex of blood, sweat, and tears. All evening long, I feel like I’m herding cats. But…