How does your family prepare for the transition from one year to the next? One of my favorite traditions is to gather our family and recall how God has shaped our lives during the past 12 months. During this hallowed time, we discuss where we’ve been, share our hopes and dreams, and prayerfully consider where…
Why You Should Bring Your Uniqueness Center Stage
Growing up I felt like I didn’t fit in. I was athletic enough to be on the team but not good enough to play in the games. I was friends at school with the popular kids but never invited to hang out with them after school was out. I wanted to play sports with the…
Treat ‘Em Like Grandkids
Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter. — Deuteronomy 5:13–14 A grandfather in Yona Zeldis McDonough’s novel The Four Temperaments reflects on having grandchildren: People…
Pain Is One of Those Things I Don’t Like Much
Editor’s Note: This post, taken from Lisa Gungor’s new book The Most Beautiful Thing I’ve Seen, touches on the moments after she, her family, and her close friends discover that her newborn daughter Lucie (Lucette) has Down syndrome. Lisa wrote a song about Lucie titled “Light,” which is what Lucette means. Click here to watch the music video. I…
How To Create A Safe And Nurturing Bedtime Ritual For Your Kids
Do you find it easy to fill your kids’ non-school hours and days with stimulating social, intellectual and recreational activities but challenging to get them to wind down at the end of a long day? If so, you’re in good company. As many parents discover, children are experts at finding creative ways to resist going…
The Hard Places That Make Us Holy
Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone…
Helping Our Teen Daughters Find Their Own Beautiful
“Finding your own beautiful has a lot to do with deciding what kind of person you want to become.” – Chelsea Crockett It’s official. I’m the mom of a teenager. Technically I’ve been one for a year now, but this past September it became real when my daughter started high school. I immediately saw a…
Why Our Family Doesn’t Celebrate Halloween
There are many schools of thought about the observance of Halloween by Christians. Should we participate in the activities around us? Do we dress up and hand out candy? What about the harvest festivals hosted by local churches that are intended to offer an alternative? Our family has made very deliberate, carefully considered decisions about…
Bear Picks a Pumpkin (Pumpkin Spice and a Little Bear That’s Nice)
By the time you read this blog post, you’ll have already been inundated with pumpkin spice everything. It feels like every year the flavor pops up earlier than the last. And it’s not just pumpkin spice-flavored coffee and lattes anymore. It is in donuts, muffins, bagels, and even pancake mix (which I happen to have…
Teaching Children Love Acts as Much as It Feels
I don’t feel like going to school today. I don’t feel like cleaning my room. I don’t feel like asking her to be my friend. It seems as soon as our kids could talk, they learned to utter some version of the “I don’t feel like it” statement. What started as them asserting their independence…