Making Christmas Better
by Mike Jeffries I'm writing this post from the Latin American nation of Nicaragua where, over the past few days, we've had an interesting international experiment in global generosity from the perspective of five young children. Three families decided one of the best...
Children are Like Dogs
The middle school years are a time of transition—both for your kids and you as a parent. One of our staff members heard the following excerpt at a parent middle school orientation, and if you've raised a child through the middle school years, you'll find this analogy...
Parent for Life
For some reason when my kids were little, I used think that I only had them until they turned 18. Like my job would suddenly end. When they were babies and I imagined the end, I imagined them graduating from high school and then I was done parenting. Boy was I wrong....
Rushing! Rushing!
The last few weeks have been crazy at work and crazy at home. Too much going on! When I know that I have a lot to do, I get in this rushing mode. Rushing the kids out the door in the morning. Rushing from meeting to meeting. Rushing to meet writing deadlines. Rushing...
Humility Wins
Anyone who ever played for UCLA basketball coach Wooden knew he was more about building character than he was about winning basketball games, although he did both pretty well. His teams won ten championships during a 12-year period, the final one in his last year of...
A To-Don't List
Chances are you have a TO DO list that is longer than today...maybe even this week or this month. The pressure that can put on you is huge. Parenting only makes it more complicated. Every parent wants their child to succeed and do well in life, and it seems the...
Are You Available?
I tend to completely over estimate what I can get done. Some people call me a high capacity person, but honestly, I just have a hard time saying “no”. It’s a weakness that I have to pay attention to. It’s a weakness that steals time away from my family. In my home are...
Emotional Decisions
So you want kindness to characterize your attitudes and actions, but how do you get there? We live in a fairly emotional age. We've coined terms like emotional eating and emotional spending. And the dominant ethic seems to be that we should do something if we feel...
Positions v. Interests
Anger is such a difficult emotion. The fact that someone didn't clean up their socks or take out the trash or lied about an issue is a problem for sure. But my response can make a bad situation worse. It's easy to dig in and argue hard, but that can turn a...
Being Right in the Wrong Way
Sometimes you and I meet people who are right in what they say and believe. But they have a habit of being right in the wrong way. They're angry, annoying and frustrating. You want to value the truth they stand for, but it's hard to value them. In fact, sometimes...
Determined Parents
One of the reasons its so critical to help our kids live a determined life is that almost nothing happens on the first try. Fast forward twenty years and imagine your son or daughter grown up. Their character (including their determination) will directly impact what...
Protective Parents
Finding God in the successes of life . . . . . ..happens so rarely. I wish it did. We pray for success after all. Well, at least very few of us pray for failure. But if we were to be honest, we seek God more intensely in the hardest moments of life. Although I wish...