Parenting Articles

I recently watched the Hatfield and McCoys miniseries from the History Channel. The acting was superb and the storyline was compelling, but it left me with a feeling of unease. The conflict between the two families started over a supposed stolen pig, but after generations of fighting the two families couldn’t even remember the...

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Growing up a kid in a Christian home in the 1970s, the one day each year I was trained to fear was Halloween. It was the Devil’s day after all–the one day out of the year that evil was at its peak, mayhem was rampant, and somehow Satan’s “power” was able to supersede over that which was good. As a m...

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Learning to love one’s neighbor requires a willingness to live as part of the community. If you read part one of this Halloween post, then you know this was never easy for me when it came to Halloween. For me to embrace the idea of celebrating Halloween with my neighborhood meant that there would have to be an act of love ...

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Our culture loves creating scapegoats. When the economy goes bad, we point fingers at the President. When kids don’t make high enough grades, we blame teachers. When a marriage crumbles, it’s always the other person’s fault. When we feel afraid, hurt, or disappointed, a scapegoat is never far out of reach. We do the same t...

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If your family is like mine, you love basking in the pleasure of summer break. There are no tests, science fair projects, homework, or anything else that resembles school. This also means your child is at home all day long, everyday, with lots of idle time on his hands. We all know what the idle mind of a twelve year old can bec...

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Here is an interview with Brian talking about his Engaging Your Teen’s World book. It’s not just important to understand the mistakes you’ve made in parenting. You have to develop a plan to set your teenager free to be the person God created them to be.

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“I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have preserved my life.” – Psalm 119.93 We have all had those days when you feel like nothing is happening; nothing is changing. You are at a standstill. There is simply no spark. In the middle of this dessert your teen walks in with a crisis that needs fixing or a pr...

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I didn’t mean for it to happen. As much as I wanted to come up with some justifiable reason for my loss of temper, there wasn’t one. I overreacted. And my 12-year-old daughter got the brunt of my anger. Before I knew it, words were coming out of my mouth that were beyond what was called for in the situation. Instead of const...

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My kids call me “the king of deals.” It no longer surprises them when I come home with something that I got for next to nothing. Most recently it was the $1500 living room suite that I got for $300. Its not always something as big as this. Many times its as simple as six boxes of pasta I got for free or .99 dry clean...

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I walked into the living room to see my son playing on his XBox 360. With his headphones on and an intense look on his face, he was lost in a world filled with armed alien soldiers. Out of nowhere he said, “No dude, don’t go that way. Follow me.” Only he wasn’t talking to me. Curious, I asked, “Who are you talking to, ...

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