Did God Spank Moses?
The story of Moses at the burning bush is (thanks to Cecil DeMille and Charlton Heston) one of the most famous stories in the Old Testament (see Exodus 3 & 4). But have you ever read it as an example…
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How Would Jesus Discipline?
We have raised our own three kids who are now in their twenties. Through personal experience, as well as working with countless families, we have learned that not every child responds well to spanking. When we spanked our intense son…
How to Turn Misbehavior Into Success!
Few watching Jonathan Horton faithfully anchor the 2012 US Men’s Gymnastics team would guess that, apparently, he was quite a squirrelly youngster! But “squirrelly” is definitely the right word — as a commercial that aired during the Olympics describes, a young…
“Why Can’t You Just Do What I Say?”
I’m often tempted to discipline my children with the goal of gaining immediate results. While this might get me what I want in the moment, it often leads to greater frustration later because I didn’t really teach the value behind…
Discipleship, Consequences, and Toothbrushing
We recently got the following email from a loving, caring parent. We believe others among you might have similar questions, so we thought we’d share! Hope this conversation answers questions you might have and sparks a few new ones: Dear…
Be Angry (if you must) But Don’t Sin.
Sometimes parents get too angry. Other times they don’t get angry enough – or at least they don’t stand firm to keep kids growing in responsibility for their own lives. In the name of keeping the peace parents sometimes keep…
Managing Kids’ Anger – and Ours
We parents sometimes get it backwards. Our kid acts up and we get angry. We then tend to justify our anger saying, “I wouldn’t be angry if you didn’t act up.” This means that we’ve let our child be in…
Your Children, Your Mirror
My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. James 1:19, 20 Primitive emotions are…
When Kids’ Disrespect Gets You Fuming!!!
The memory is vivid. Our eldest son Daniel was quick with his tongue when unhappy. Quick and usually ugly. One day I was sternly (…OK harshly) disciplining my daughter for laziness, and she burst into tears. Daniel emerged from his…
Little Eyes Are Watching
I was fixing the toilet. Two-year-old Bethany was playing in a room down the hall. I was doing final repairs needed before we closed on the sale of our house. I just needed to get my little wrench down in…