Discipling Your Own Kids – 3 Principles
If you disciple anyone, make sure to disciple your own kids. This is easy to overlook but absolutely essential. Unfortunately we created a discipleship pipeline for our children that doesn’t work. We act like it works but it doesn’t work to raise mature disciples. I am talking about the drop-off youth ministry hamster wheel. Not […]
Parenting Kids and the Invisible Line Between Helping and Hurting
Bringing up kids is no easy task. They need to know you are in their corner but what it means to be in their corner may not always fit their preference. We are encouragers. We are educators. We are protectors. We are providers. We spur them on without running them off. What a hard balance! […]
One of The Most Important Prayers a Parent Can Pray & the Safest Place Your Child Can Be…
With all the prayers of protection going up you might think we live in a war zone. We are all concerned for our kids. Many parents feel a tremendous amount of guilt over things their kids do and how much of that is our fault as parents. So we pray and pray and pray God […]
Imagine Hearing Jesus’ Voice for the First Time
This is so touching…almost made me shed a tear. What got me even more was after watching this…thinking about hearing the voice of Jesus for the very first time saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and […]
The Importance of Making Decisions
Life is full of decisions. Sometimes people make decisions that affect you and other times your decisions affect others. There are some decisions that anyone can make and others that you should make for yourself or others. We are trying to teach our children the value of making wise decisions. Our older son, who is […]
How I Told My Kids the Truth About Santa Claus
A few weeks ago our 4 year old son Elijah asked a question that was profoundly insightful and forced an important conversation. Here is what he asked “What did Santa Claus do to God? He knows everything about us…what did he do to God?” Kids need plenty of room to have their imagination. At the […]
The Walk
Jonah started kindergarten last week and I can’t tell you how full my heart is each morning walking him to his class. Jonah’s school is right next to our church building and so each morning we park at the building and walk about a block to where his classroom is. I have made it my […]
List of Bible Blessings to Speak Over Children
Two Sunday’s ago we talked about blessing. One of the things that was mentioned was the need for parents to bless their children as people in the Bible often did. Here is a list of biblical blessings that can be used as either blessings to be said over children or a starting point for you […]
The Joy of Kids
Yesterday Jonah told me he wanted to be a pirate. He brought his red cape to me and asked if I would tie it around his head. He then made a makeshift sword and started saying “Arrrrr…” Then Elijah got in on the act. He put on a Santa Claus hat and told me he […]
Postmodernism and the Death of Santa Claus
Before you read further I want you to know that I am not wishing Santa an untimely demise. Instead, I am asking about his future in light of cultural headwinds. The more I think about the Santa Claus issue the more I wonder if Santa Claus is not going to have difficulty moving forward. In […]