Marriage & Family: Parenting
Help and encouragement for raising the next generation of Christ-followers.
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From Victims to Victors
As I was sitting in my doctor's office waiting to hear my name called, I noticed a headline on the November 30, 2009, edition of Time Magazine that immediately drew me into the cover story. It was titled "The Case Against Overparenting." The cover image showed a child suspended by strings like a marionette, and within the article was another picture of a well-intentioned mother wrapping her son in ...
Related Topics: Bullying, Education, parenting, School violence
Goof-Proof Christmas
I'm a big fan of Christmas. I love the smell of a fresh-cut pine tree and never worry about the needles in my carpet. I love knowing all the children will be home and enjoying their favorite foods. I love the songs, the foods, the shopping, the presents…I even like fruitcake. Granted, not every holiday season has turned out to be the Norman Rockwell painting that flashes through my brain. Like ...
Related Topics: Christmas, Holidays, Jesus, Birth of, stress
Jesus, Joy of the Highest Heaven
I have always loved to sing Christmas carols that tell of Christ's birth and Easter carols that tell of his death and resurrection. I have often thought of Jesus as a baby and then, though I had followed the biblical account showing him briefly as a young boy in the temple, I had quickly jumped to Jesus as a grown man, never giving much thought to imagining the journey from the manger to adulthood. ...
Related Topics: Babies, Christmas, Jesus, Birth of, Music
Four Minutes of Life
"What do you mean our baby doesn't have a brain? How is that possible?" I asked as I lay on the examining room table with my bare, protruding abdomen exposed. The room spun and tears stung my eyes as I peered at the ultrasound screen.
My husband, Mike, our two little boys, and I had waited all month for this doctor appointment. The boys were excited to see their new unborn brother for the first time ...
Related Topics: death, child, Grief, Loss
I Was Made to Worship
What is worship?
Before I had children, I thought worship was the amazing feeling I got when I sang at my piano, or the awe-inspired prayer I'd whisper on a mountaintop. These were the moments when the world around me melted away and I felt a connection with God unlike any other.
When I became a mother, diapers and laundry suddenly took the place of music and forests. Children filled my hours with activity, ...
Raising Your Children's Children
Sarah* works in middle management with a national company. Charlie took early retirement to stay at home when it became apparent that they'd have to raise their daughter Abby's child, because Abby and her husband refuse to take responsibility for their own lives, much less that of their child.
Sarah and Charlie face an increasingly common circumstance. Four and a half million caregivers are raising ...
Related Topics: Advocate, Grandchildren, Grandparents
I Was Made to Worship
What is worship?
Before I had children, I thought worship was the amazing feeling I got when I sang at my piano, or the awe-inspired prayer I'd whisper on a mountaintop. These were the moments when the world around me melted away and I felt a connection with God unlike any other.
When I became a mother, diapers and laundry suddenly took the place of music and forests. Children filled my hours with ...
Praying as They Grow
Like many expecting mothers, I started reading parenting books while pregnant in preparation for all the trials and tribulations I knew would be coming after the birth of our son. One of the books I discovered was on praying for your child. In it there was a list of prayers that focused on praying about a different part of the child's body. As soon as Nikolas was born I copied the prayers down on ...
Related Topics: Authenticity
Giving Gifts of Truth
At the cemetery by his little grave I watched the sunflower pinwheel spin in the warm May wind. "I didn't expect life to be this tough," I whispered to my husband, David.
He nodded, sniffed back a few tears and went to tell the children it was time to go home.
I watched him head toward the grassy lawn where our three children were happily playing and pondered how in the world this difficult life had ...
Related Topics: Biblical Guidance, Death, Grief, Heaven, Perspective, Trouble
Priceless Trust
Only my daughter Laura has the power to get me to eat a raw quail egg.
We did so at our favorite sushi restaurant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she lives. I'd come from my home in Florida to speak at a conference and had only a few short hours to spend with her.
It's been five years since she moved away from home, and I think I've finally, finally, finally (maybe) stopped thinking of her as some ...
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