“Children aren’t Expensive, Lifestyles are!” Have you ever heard some well-meaning knucklehead (usually with young children) say that? You may have even heard this knucklehead say that. Yeah, me. I used to say stupid things like that. There’s quite a bit that I used to say and write about that I now look at and think, …
Category: Raising Great Kids
For nearly 24 years, motherhood was my main focus and my passion, as I raised my five closely spaced kids into well-adjusted and productive adults. Suffice it to say, coming out on the other end of the season of full-time mothering, I have a few opinions on raising children, which I happily share below. I’ve also written some posts and shared some tools for homeschooling elsewhere here.
The Blessings of Generosity
The other day, I was sharing my thoughts on having a Personal Mission Statement on my other website, Thoughts and Designs. Some may think such things as mission statements and goal setting removes the spontaneity from life. In fact, for me, anyway, it’s quite the opposite. I’ve found that if I do not plan for …
Parenting According to Our Theology
Parenting reflects what we believe about God more than anything else. Mothering is a thumbnail portrait of our theology. The Crux of Christian Parenting Do we believe in salvation by grace alone by faith alone, or do we believe in salvation by works? Do we believe God is at work in each person’s life? Do …
Who’s Afraid of Teenagers?
For some reason, when a woman with more than the usual 1.8 children goes out into public, people feel the need to comment about our large family, though my kids don’t consider us a large family at all. Most of the time, I know the commenter is meaning well, and they are saying anything just …
5 Thoughts on Developing Personal and Family Convictions
I’ve given a great deal of thought, over the years, to a couple of basic questions that influence me as a parent: why do kids walk away from the faith they were raised in? how do some kids seem to walk the walk, and talk the talk, but then run as fast as they can …
Of Crayon Choices and Parenting Methods
Yesterday, I posted a bit about getting too carried away in parenting methods and teachers, rather than simply obeying God, seeking His will. I wanted to clarify that I am not against getting wisdom from others. It’s a great idea to get insights from those with more experience in an area. The Bible reinforces this, …
Why We Need to Use Discernment When Dealing with “Experts”
When I was younger, I had a bumper sticker on my guitar case (I didn’t own a car yet), which said, “Question Authority”. I didn’t choose to follow Jesus until I was nearly 21 years old, and so I had quite a bit of fallow ground that needed plowing in my heart when I was …
Why Moms Shouldn’t Feel Guilty About Me-Time
When my oldest daughter was a toddler and my son was a baby, I was so busy with activities filling my schedule, I hardly was fit to call myself a stay at home mother. It was more like an “always on the run mother”, attending parenting classes, play dates, mother’s days out, Bible study, visitation, …
Making the Most of Worship When You have Little Ones
I got a reader email about some comments I made recently about using Sunday School and Children’s Church, voicing a concern about influences. I thought I would quote it in part here (slightly edited for brevity): What do you do about negative influences with using a nursery or Sunday school class? We’ve always felt that …
Rethinking Church and Family
In some circles, it is complete sacrilege to even mention children’s programs at a church in a positive light. Especially as a newer Christian and a new mom, I always was very determined to do whatever it was that God asked of me, though sometimes (actually, many times!) this lead to me becoming legalistic, hard, and …