Marriage & Family: Parenting: Parenting with Purpose
Help and encouragement for raising the next generation of Christ-followers.
Sort By:
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
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
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 ...
Worried About Worrying
My daughter Charlotte just got her driver's license and first car. It's been a rocky time for me. Keeping track of where she is. Making sure she doesn't use her phone while she's driving. Struggling not only to accept but also to embrace her acceleration toward independence. Worrying. Yesterday she drove 40 miles to Barnes & Noble. Her goal was to go that far alone, to cross "the big road" into their ...
The Parable of the Neighbor Lady
"The Parable of the Neighbor Lady" is a story I made up several years ago after a futile attempt to control the universe, or at least the part of it my youngest daughter inhabits.
Just barely 20, she'd moved 500 miles away from home to create a life of her own. Because I wanted her to succeed in this new venture, I set out to "help" her.
Since I couldn't reattach her umbilical cord, I made do with several ...
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, ...
Where No Mom Has Gone Before
The night I heard James Dobson singing the praises of mother of five Sarah Palin as a vice presidential candidate just after I heard a couple of feminist-minded commentators suggesting Palin ought to be staying home with her children, I wondered if the book of Revelation had something to say about times like these. Surely such side-swapping is a sign of the apocalypse.
I mean, no offense, but Dr. Dobson ...
The Least of These
I was exhausted. It was the middle of the week before Christmas, and on top of all the things I was planning to do that week, my two-year-old Timmy came down with croup. My husband and I lost sleep with him for two nights in a row, caring for him, listening to his raspy breathing, or worrying about whether we'd need to take him to the emergency room. Timmy had nearly died of croup when he was 11 months ...
'Turning in My Cape'
Carla: Okay, I give. Uncle. I just can't do it anymore. I can't keep trying to be SuperMom.
I wasn't all that good at it to begin with. I've tried to be the perfect combination of devoted mom, conscientious employee, committed volunteer, trustworthy committee head, loving wife, solid Christian, helpful daughter, and caring friend, and have failed miserably on all fronts. But even if I had been able ...
back to top
