Kyria

A Heart Open to the "Yellow" Girls

A couple weeks after starting kindergarten, my son shared with me his affection for one of his school table-mates. A private boy, like his father, Nikolas told me about her only after I was sworn to secrecy—this would become an Eickhoff family secret.

I was privately pleased with my discerning son. Nikolas had his sights set on "Heather," and from what I observed from volunteering in his class, ...

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A Mom's Guide to MySpace

Sixteen-year-old Piper is a parent's dream—an excellent student, a leader, and positive role model among her peers at church. Only one thing has ever caused discord in her family: MySpace.com.

Piper insists her parents are being overprotective because they have banned her from this popular social networking site most of her friends have surfed for years. She thinks they've been influenced by media ...

Related Topics: Communication, with Teen, Computers, Internet, MySpace, Online Predators, Online Safety, Online Social Networking, Parenting, Wisdom in, Protection, Technology

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Cutting Edge

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She lingered behind the others, waiting to speak to me after my workshop at a Christian parenting conference.

"My daughter's hurting herself," the woman whispered, her eyes brimming with tears. "I don't know what to do."

She'd discovered faded marks on her daughter's arms a few days earlier. When she inquired about the scars, her daughter made an excuse. But later, when the mother passed her daughter's ...

Related Topics: Cutting, Depression, Self-Injury, Self-Mutilation, Teenagers

The Good, The Bad, & The Filter

By the time a child graduates from high school, she's watched 22,000 hours of TV. That includes 16,000 televised homicides and 640,000 commercials, according to J. Kerby Anderson, national director of Probe Ministries. Add to that thousands of hours of music, Internet, video games, and telephone usage. That's a lot of information streaming into our kids' minds, and most of it is at odds with our Christian ...

Body Wars

My friend Barb recently asked her daughter what she wanted for her high-school graduation gift. Positive that Tessa would ask for something extravagant—a diamond ring, a laptop computer, or a trip to the ocean—Barb braced herself.

But she wasn't at all prepared for Tessa's request: "I want my breasts enlarged!"

Barb couldn't believe what she heard. Tessa had a lovely figure. Her weight was ...

Going Public

From the day my husband, David, and I found out we were expecting our first child, we had choices to make. Find out the baby's sex, or be surprised? (Find out. I just had to know what color to paint that nursery!) Trendy name, or family name? (We went with one of each.) Epidural, or natural childbirth? (Could someone meet me in the parking lot with the needle?) Breast, or bottle? (Breast.) Back to ...

Creating Refuge

Stories of war and terrorism fill the headlines, TV news, and the minds of our children. The fear of terrorism hasn't turned out to be a short-term deviation from the norm, but a lasting reality of daily life.

Do you know how it impacts your kids?

As a research fellow with the George H. Gallup International Institute, I helped design a Gallup Youth Survey to determine what today's kids, "the Millennials" ...

The Razor's Edge

She lingered behind the others, waiting to speak to me after the workshop I taught at a Christian parenting conference.

"My daughter's hurting herself," the woman whispered, staring at the wall behind me, her eyes brimming with tears. "I don't know what to do."

She'd discovered the faded marks on her daughter's arms a few days earlier. When she'd inquired about the scars, her daughter had made an excuse. ...

Teacher Talks

It's a routine thing. You load up the car after church, and each week your kids go round robin to tell you what they learned in Sunday school that day.

One week, however, your third grader repeats a story her teacher told that doesn't seem to match what the Bible teaches. How should you respond? It would be easy to pull your daughter out of that class or gossip about the teacher with other parents. ...

Parents and The Passion of The Christ

What did you like most about the movie?

What bothered you the most? Why did it bother you?

Are there particular scenes that have stayed with you? Why do you think this scene or scenes affected you?

Do you see Jesus differently than you did before watching the movie? How so?

Have you read the Gospel accounts of the passion of Jesus to see how the movie compares to the Bible? If so, what do you think the ...