R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Can I Get a Little?
0No matter how hard we try to keep calm, sometimes we blow it. When that happens, we can be open to ideas from the Holy Spirit, as was Brenda, a mom who receives our email tips. When we heard her story we invited her to …
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Teenagers, Sass, and Life that Is Truly Life
“Are you going to help me or not?” I snapped at Daniel, our fifteen year-old-son. He’d been asking for the past hour to go to a friend’s house. I kept dodging his request while also badgering him to enlist his help in a backyard project …
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Planning a vacation this year? Read this first.
Your kids are watching you. Constantly. All the subtle messages from the way you live life are being absorbed by their active little minds, even if neither you nor your child are aware of it. How you do vacations is no exception. So it’s a …
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T.E.A.C.H.ing Values in Real Life
Renee and Randy were in a common repeating cycle with their 5-year-old, Peter. “We felt like we were constantly on eggshells because of his daily meltdowns.” We showed them the T.E.A.C.H. framework, and their next report was a great review of how effectively they applied …
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5 Ways to T.E.A.C.H. Your Kids Values
There are lots of things we want our kids to learn, from how to ride a bike to how to be a faith-filled, responsible adult. Some, like getting dressed, are easy to teach. But how do we teach our children the values they’ll need to …
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The Best Plan for Teaching Faith!
We had it all figured out. With strong desire to be more intentional about teaching faith at home, we’d put together a little lesson plan for a family Bible study. Complete with some fun object lessons and activities, it was sure to be a hit! …
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What to Do When We Blow Up
As hard as we try to parent like God would, we are human, and sometimes we mess up. We lose our cool, we speak harshly, or sometimes we even blow up at our kids. See how one mom handled her blow-up: The boys wouldn’t stop …
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Should We Lie to Our Kids about Santa?
Note: For some of our readers this post may touch a nerve. Please know we write in a spirit of wanting desperately to see the story of Jesus magnified far above all other stories – fueled by recent days of hearing story after story of heartache …
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To Spank or Not to Spank?
We often get asked, “What about spanking?” Recently it was by a parent who had explained to her pastor that her daughter’s behavior was really frustrating and difficult. She told us that the pastor’s advice was brief and to the point. He said, “When she …
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Thankfulness in Three Dimensions
As we prepare for the upcoming day of “giving thanks”, take a moment to reflect on these three dimensions of thankfulness. First Dimension: Thankfulness for Blessings Big and Small When we think of thankfulness, we often give thanks for things — turkey, pumpkin pie, or …
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Do YOU Respect Authority?
This Election Day, there’s bound to be a candidate elected that you would rather not see take office. Or maybe an amendment that doesn’t go your way. The way parents respond when this happen speaks volumes to their kids! If we humble ourselves and pray (see 2 …
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How to Have Positive Politics in Your Home
On Tuesday we talked about the importance of practicing what you preach at home. Practically speaking, if you want your kids to learn respect and responsibility, you need to set the stage for it at home. Here’s an idea for developing great “politics” in your …
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The Politics of Respect — In Our Homes!
Republican, or Democrat? Mitt Romney, or Barack Obama? With pre-election hype now at fever-pitch a week before the polls, it is easy to get either fed-up or worked-up with politics! Being an informed voter is certainly important, but we think the most important politics for …
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Are We Teaching Our Kids to Bully?
I saw her coming, eyes flashing and surveying the crowded checkout lines. Her cart was full. Mine was too. I shifted my gaze to the lines as well. It was time to go and there was no way I was going to let her find …
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What Is Technology Doing to Us?
In the last few weeks, we’ve written about techniques for How to Peel Your Kids Off the Screen as well as 10 Screen-Free Ways to Have Fun With Your Kids. Then recently, this alarming article was brought to our attention, and we felt compelled to …
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Solving a Child’s Big Spiritual Problem
As parents who care for our children’s spiritual well-being, we try to teach them right and wrong and help them tackle whatever spiritual problems they encounter. However, other than the fact that they’re born into sin, it may well be that a child’s biggest spiritual …
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Chores Made Easy!
Two Year-Old Doing Chores? Are You Serious? We’ve seen two year olds trained to do chores. In fact – here’s a picture of our housemate’s son Eli – at age two years and two months, posing for a picture of the table he set by …
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Connected Families | Learn to Parent with Contagious Love and Faith!