Teaching children about Good Friday isn’t easy, especially if you’re talking with younger children. How do you explain why Jesus had to die? That Jesus knew ahead of Good Friday that he would die? And the true meaning of the cross as Jesus’ sacrifice for our ultimate salvation? Teaching children about Good Friday isn’t easy,…
Jesus or the Easter Bunny: An Easter Memory
As I think back on the years of celebrating the Easter holiday with my husband and children, my memories are filled with Easter morning church services, frilly handmade dresses, matching ties, and baskets full of fresh fruit, plastic eggs, and inexpensive treats. I remember Easter afternoons spent vacuuming the green plastic Easter grass off our…
Bedtime Liturgies That Help Us Rest in the Work of Jesus
Failure and Grace in the Story of God In a very real sense, parenting is one long process of revealing who you are. And usually that is not pretty. Perhaps it’s a one-year-old who won’t sleep. Or maybe it’s a pre-teen who talks back constantly, a five-year-old who is still wetting the bed, a third-grader…
A Bright Future
Christmas is the time of year when you are actually excited for snow, cold, and all things made of wool. We have a Savior to celebrate and a house that smells like peppermint candles and cookies. Come February though you start to look and feel like a bloated version of Wendy Torrance from that Stephen…
How to Set Family Goals: Becoming a Family with Purpose
Have you set any family goals or resolutions for the new year? I like the word goals better than resolutions. New Year’s resolutions always seem doomed to fail, and if you don’t start on January 1 or fall off the bandwagon by January 3, you feel defeated. But goals? Goals can be set anytime, and…
Christmas Traditions That Keep Christ In Christmas
“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and they will call Him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). – Matthew 1:23 Every year, as my husband and I plan our Christmas activities for the season, my mind cannot help but wander down memory lane to reflect upon Christmas’s past. I am flooded with…
Teaching Children Gratitude – My Extreme Measures
Teaching my children to be thankful and have an attitude of gratitude has been one of my greatest challenges as a parent. Like many children in our Western culture, my kids are very privileged and they don’t always appreciate the things that they have, from the food in the fridge to the abundant toys in…
Helping Kids Express Everyday Gratitude
Finding ways to grumble and complain is easy. Choosing to look for ways to express gratitude can seem like one of those dreaded last chance workouts on the hit series, The Biggest Loser. And for kids, giving thanks in all things can be like eating their peas before the can enjoy dessert! So parents, how do we…
Grandparents Day Roundup
Grandparents are special people. I have a thousand wonderful memories of all four of my grandparents and maybe you do, too. Maybe it was… Playing “Sorry” at the kitchen table eating grilled cheese and homemade tomato soup. Eating Christmas dinner at their home, opening presents under their old-fashioned tree, and singing carols together. Walking…
5 Ways to Help Kids with Back to School Anxiety
Do your kids suffer from back to school anxiety? My two older children are both in grade school. Neither had experienced any type of school anxiety before, even when entering Kindergarten. I’ll never forget standing outside of my son’s Kindergarten classroom and thinking “WOAH, that was way easier than I thought!” Then, last year we…