Earning Trust
Parents instinctively want to be able to trust their kids. But have you ever flipped the question. Are your kids able to trust you? I realize that probably sounds strange, but if you want to have influence and a great relationship with your children and teens, trust...
An Epic Adventure
EPIC. It’s a big word right now, the latest upgrade of “awesome” from years past. But to me, the word goes even deeper and conjures up larger-than-life characters and adventure from classics like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. On that note, I’ve been reading about...
Bankrupt Parents
When our kids were younger, I was working long hours at the church I pastored. My wife was working part time. The kids were in swimming, music and seasonal sports. And to top it all off, one of them was experiencing night terrors. You know, the kind of terrors where...
Help, Don't Hinder
By Gina McClain Our oldest son is in the 6th grade. He's close to exiting his pre-teen season and fully embrace the realm of teen-hood. (This is a great opportunity for you to pray for me.) Over the past year he's grown into a young man that loves his hair, girls and...
The Alice Factor
By Gina McClain I grew up watching The Brady Bunch. As part of our after-school television line up, Brady Bunch reruns were a favorite past time for me. From Marsha's broken nose, to the infamous broken vase incident. . .I loved the Brady family. There was a...
Family Voice
Here's an article we pulled from the archives that is worth taking a second look. Leave us a comment! What does your family voice sound like? by Carey Nieuwhof There's this thing that I believe every family has. I don't actually know what to call it. If we were having...
Entitled Parents
It's one thing to work on helping your kids fight an attitude of entitlement like we talked about in an earlier post, but let's face it, to some extent, they learned the behavior from us. If that's true, what can you do to fight entitlement in your own life? The more...
Getting it Right
I've been watching my daughter do all kinds of crazy things to get my little granddaughter to eat her vegetables. We are currently blending them into a green yogurt smoothie. As my daughter works to get Baby E to eat a balanced and nutritious diet, I listen to...
5 Signs You Lack Integrity as a Parent
We all want to see our kids become the kind of people we imagine they can become. To some degree we want to see that in their careers, but at the most basic level we want to see that in their character and heart. How do you do that? I recently heard Mary DeMuth...
Honoring People You Live With
Isn’t it strange that it’s easier for most of us to honor someone we don’t know than it is to honor someone we see all the time?
It’s easier to gather in a public forum to honor a hero we’ve never met who has come home from service overseas than it is to honor a hero in your own home.
Why is that? The answer, I think, is that we simply know the people we live with better.
Preparing Your Kids for Life Online
Almost every parent I know worries about technology and their kids. When should my child get a phone? Facebook? Be allowed to game? Get their own tablet or computer? How do I know what's really going on? I think our natural default as parents is to think about...
Disconnect to Reconnect Your Family
I remember getting my first smartphone about seven years ago. It wasn't much compared to what's in the marketplace today, but I was mesmerized. I thought it was so amazing that you could text and email right off your phone and almost (emphasis on almost) browse the...