Category: Blog

Elevate the Good  What do we mean by this? It is easy for parents to focus on the restrictive or negative side of parenting. You are “restrictive” in your parent when you point out your children are doing wrong. “Why can’t you get ready on time?” “When are you going to do what I tell…

    “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” (Colossians 3:23)   “Mommy, please can I help? Please?” “Mommy, I can do it!” Young children are anxious to ‘help’ with household duties. How quickly that changes! Before too much time passes, parents have to…

 “Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible, but not everything is constructive.  Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor.” I Corinthians 10:23-24  NIV   I was listening to the news on the radio as I was driving, and I stumbled on a discussion about spring break,…

We were visiting with a family the other night over dinner. They started to share about their concerns for their 14 year old daughter. She was starting to pull away from the family. She would hide in her room, texting her friends or playing games on the internet with them. She resented when she was…

Do you ever feel you have messed up as a parent? Perhaps you have disciplined your kids when you were angry and you were too hard on them, or your expectations were unfair. Do your kids tell you they hate you? Welcome to the club! There isn’t a parent alive who has not felt this…

With the start of a new year, people are often ready for new beginnings. One of the problems with a New Year’s resolution or a new beginning is we start with a grand vision but don’t always have a practical plan to put it into practice, and if we don’t, we aren’t consistent in implementing…

Have you listened to your children play lately? Or should I ask, have you listened to how your children play? Children can develop attitudes when they play that can readily be heard by anyone paying attention. When the noise level increases, Mom or Dad will typically say something like, “Settle down,” or “Say something nice or don’t…

Christmas! What a wonderful time of the year! Is it?? Advertising starts so early, children start clamoring for toys before Thanksgiving. Materialism, greed, parties that don’t celebrate anything of value, and performances galore is what our culture has turned Christmas into. How can you turn this around in your family? One way to do this…

We are told in Scripture) to “give thanks in all circumstances…” (I Thessalonians 5:18) Parents start teaching their young children thankfulness when they teach them to say “Thank you” when they get something. What are other ways you can teach your children to be grateful?   Have them write thank you notes when they receive…

We thought we were teaching our children to put the needs of others first, according to the commandment found in Luke 10:27: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.”   When we…