Parenting

Take time to share with your son the way God used teenagers in the Bible to accomplish His purposes.

Grab your mud boots and pumpkin spice latte, and let’s kick off the season with some fun things you and your family can do to ring in the season. Are you ready to make some memories? Below is a list of activities that are sure to put some smiles on your sweet little darling’s faces (and yours).

Autumn. Doesn't it bring the crisp delight of pumpkins, fall colors, and cozy sweaters? It's also the perfect time to pack away the summer decorations and crafts and pull out all the great fall projects you've been waiting for!There are so many fun and easy fall crafts to do. We've taken some time to pull together some easy ones that you can make without too much trouble, experience, and not a lot of clean up! Are you ready? Pull out your craft table and supplies, and let's get going!

Praying for our children is one of the most important things that we can do. Let’s look at some Bible verses we can pray in various situations. (Note: All verses are from the NIV but various translations may use wording that you prefer. A Bible app is an easy way to compare translations!)Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/tatyana_tomsickova

But, the truth is, we weren’t meant to be invincible, striving to do it all only to crumble into a heap, only to feel invisible.

Whether you interpret Proverbs 22:6 as a promise for raising your kids “in the Lord” or a warning about not doing so, there’s one thing we know: what you do as a parent matters and it will lead to results.

As our children go back to school, we throw ourselves into preparations. Instructions from teachers send us scurrying for supplies, including everything from notebooks to calculators to tissues. We shop for new school clothing, shoes, backpacks, and more. For those who don’t buy lunches at school, we stock the pantry with nutritious, easy-to-pack foods. With older students, we analyze class schedules to make sure our kids have the courses they’ll need for their next steps in life.By now, most of us have already posted first-day-of-school pictures on social media. We breathe a sigh of relief as transportation snafus finally resolve. The days fall back into routine after summer’s freedom. But have our preparations been enough?When we send our children to school, we allow others to influence them. We all can remember that special teacher who inspired and motivated us. Most of us also recall others, perhaps a coach or a bully, who devastated our self-image. The content of the curriculum itself shapes young minds and hearts. There’s no doubt our kids will encounter material that is contrary to God’s holiness. Despite our best efforts to shield them from the world, our children’s peers will expose them to all forms of ungodliness. And behind all those primary concerns, we wonder if the recent spate of mass shootings could make its way to our hometown.These transitional days back to school mark a critical need to lay a foundation of prayer for our children. Our best resource for prayer is the Bible because it contains God’s will for us. Meditate on the following verses and ten prayers for the school year. As you pray, include the names of your children to make them personal.Photo credit: ©Getty Images/SkynesherHere Are 10 Prayers for the School Year:

Camp Hideoutis an impressive "first film" from Called Higher Studios, which offers audiences a rare treat: a live-action, family-friendly PG comedy. Too often, family films in the comedy genre include elements -- coarse language and sexual innuendo, for example -- that have parents diving for the remote. There is none of that in Camp Hideout.

We know we need them, yet there is the underlying tension nobody really talks about when it comes to making mom friends. The hard truth (just going to go ahead and lay it out there up front) is that making mom friends is hard. Plain and simple.

Our peace cannot rely on how our children are behaving or performing. Jesus “Himself is our peace” (Ephesians 2:14). In all of the ups and downs of the middle school years, and the years that follow, we must solely find our strength in the Lord and lead our children to do the same.

While under-parenting can throw our kids to the wolves, is it possible that over-parenting can turn our kids away from faith?

God’s Word is living because its author is living. Children grow up, life moves on, but God’s Word always soothes our fragmented places.

When my son was a few months old, my husband and I decided to try for a second child. It took over a year to get pregnant with our son, so we figured we had time. Much to my surprise, two short months later, I discovered I was pregnant! This meant my children would be 16 months apart in age. Talk about close! We opted to know the gender before birth, and we discovered it was a girl. If I'm honest, I had mixed emotions about that. I know what it was like with my mother growing up. We were a lot alike, so we often butted heads. I also worried about her safety and her relationships, but most importantly, her walk with God.Now that she's a senior in high school, here are some things I wish my daughter knew:Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/Lordn

In a growth mindset, you focus on the progress you made yesterday or the previous attempt. You look back at where you came from and acknowledge the advancement. You are comparing yourself to you yesterday. By recognizing the improvement, you get even more excited about continuing forward. In a fixed mindset, you are looking to the people ahead of you doing it better, thinking, why am I even bothering? We want your perfectionist child to develop a growth mindset.

Parenting is an exhilarating, exhausting, and sacred task. Author Jodi Picoult beautifully describes the gift of a child: “Sometimes when you pick up your child, you can feel the map of your own bones beneath your hands or smell the scent of your skin in the nape of his neck. This is the most extraordinary thing about motherhood. Finding a piece of yourself separate and apart that all the same you could not live without.”While it’s often easy to fall in love with our children, raising them is not so easy. The fear of getting it right is real, and children do not come with a manual. Thankfully, God wants to partner with us as we parent. What follows are six popular parenting myths. Learn why they’re problematic and how faith offers a different vantage point that can help your family soar.

If school hasn't already started, it's coming—fast! And for those of you with small children, you could be embarking on their first day of half-day or full-day Pre-K. Or, as my four-year-old was very insistent, we call it "4-K"— because four years and school is a very grown-up place to be.But how do we prepare our child for Pre-K? And not just the first day, but the first month, the first semester, the first year. What are the challenges? What can we as parents expect to navigate through these next several months? Are there steps we can take throughout the year to help our little ones with the culture shock of the classroom versus the living room?One of the things that we struggle with as parents, especially this first year of school, is that our children will be outside the safety zone of our nest at home. That means they will begin to face the infant-sized trials that will eventually become adult-sized as they age. The stages of being a baby and a toddler are over. We have now entered the era of navigating issues with our children, and that territory can be as new for us as it will be for them.You would hope it would be this way, but unfortunately, your little one will face the newness of a social environment that may not be altogether welcoming. Other children with personalities that collide, attitudes that affect, and behaviors that are unacceptable in your home will be part of your child's everyday life now. The routine from home to school will be markedly different, and while it's not necessarily a negative, it can have a huge emotional impact on the little ones. Their teacher may become their next best safe adult and emotional comforter, or they may feel ostracized and resistant to their teacher. This will be the first time they are being "assessed" by someone other than their parent, and the subtleties of this criticism—even if constructive and pleasant—will begin to shape how they receive instruction and view their personal performance and abilities.And then, there may also be the very real impact of leaving home for three to seven hours. This means no mommy or daddy nearby or no comforting grandparents or caregivers that they've been accustomed to. No. They are entering what to them is a big new universe of alien ideas, strangers, and belongings. Separation anxiety can be a real thing. It may not be an issue the first day or even the first week. You may find that separation becomes a deeper issue the longer the school year progresses and the more the child realizes that this new routine isn't changing anytime soon.So what can we do to prepare our kiddos for Pre-K?

Does your family have a list of values, standards, and expectations you strive to live by? Maybe it is a family motto, a few phrases, or particular Bible verses that are often said to help lead and direct your family. Why is this important, you may ask? Valid question. Why I can’t speak for everyone, I can tell you how having a list of values has shaped our own family.When my husband and I became parents sixteen years ago, we needed as much help as we could get. We had a fussy baby that no matter how hard we tried, we could not sooth, and financial burdens were putting a strain on our marriage, causing fear to abound and tension to ensue. My sweet hubby kept saying no matter how hard this is, we must find joy. We clung to that and did our very best to seek out the joy in that season. But, it was often in those late nights when I was utterly exhausted and crying out to God in a voice only a mother could understand that God showed up, tenderly touching my heart, showing how the burdens I carried as a new mom could collide with joy. So, while choosing joy didn’t come easily, God made it possible.As our family has grown, we have taken on more values and changed or adopted new phrases to meet certain seasons of our lives. Understanding what we wanted for our family has always been important to us, but placing those values in our home in a tangible way has made it all the more meaningful. Having a list of values shows our children that while we may all fail and mess up from time to time, we are still called to do our best to build a Christ-centered home – together.In our home, our values tend to revolve around three key attributes: love, identity, and joy.-Always Show Love (John 15:12, Luke 6:31, Corinthians 16:14)-Remember Who You Are and Who You Follow (2 Corinthians 5:17, Romans 5:8, Galatians 4:7, Psalms 139:14)-Choose Joy (Psalm 16:11, Philippians 4:4, Romans 15:13)So, does your family need a list of values? Still wondering if it is a good fit for your family? Well, then read on and find out why it may be valuable, and discover a few values you may want to implement in your own home.

There is nothing quite like the endless concerns and built-up worry that comes from being a momma. Now that my oldest is driving, my anxious heart has hit a whole new level, and many days, it comes with some rather big emotions. Just yesterday, my daughter came to me asking if I would put the school sticker on her car to be able to park in the student parking lot. I could have sworn she asked me that in her sweet little 5-year-old voice. As I managed to clumsily add that sticker to her windshield in the blazing Texas heat, flashbacks and memories began to flood my mind. Then, that all too familiar and uncomfortable feeling came over me, bringing on misty eyes and a tinge of terror. Two more years until she’s off to college, it loudly declared, as if it were audible! Before I knew it, I had punctured a tiny hole in that parking lot sticker and quickly became a hot mess, literally and figuratively. Ugh.Oh my, there is so much to worry about, isn’t there? The questions, decisions, and concerns are real and valid. It’s so easy to get triggered by things out of our control and bend to fear rather than lean into peace. As you may well know, finding peace as a mom is hard enough, but when anxiety wants to rear its ugly head, acquiring peace seems absolutely impossible.So, today, I invite you to pause with me and ask God into the broken and messy parts of your anxious heart. Let’s seek Him together as we find Scriptures that back up His many promises to be with us and to go before us while reaching out through our heartfelt prayers to seek peace.

There’s a lot of pressure on kids these days. This type of pressure comes from various sources, not the least of which is academics, sports, extracurricular activities, and the incessant messaging barraging them via the media telling them what it means to be a kid. We’re even entering the age where our children will be faced with determining their own gender—something I never had to contend with because it wasn’t a scientific option.So, with all these variants, we’re also seeing a continual climb in the charts for childhood depression, obesity, suicide, and learning challenges. These often result in a vast array of prescription medications meant to control or moderate the various emotional and mental health issues our children are plowing through. But the fallout doesn’t end there, either, because the medications bring with them health risks that have side effects, and the pressure on our kids becomes a domino effect that just continues to spiral out of control.As parents, how do you encourage our children in this culture of high pressure and expectations? Are there ways to step outside of the box of the norm and find solutions based on grace and love and not in fear?Janet Newberry of John15academy.com states: “Childhood isn’t a season of measuring up. It’s a season of growing up... ‘Burned out" is not supposed to describe children, but it does. A growing list of performance requirements comes accessorized with a longer list of labels and disorders for children who struggle to measure up... {but} the only way any of us really learn is when someone helps us.”How can you help your children? Be an encouragement to them? Allow them to grow up unhindered by the fear of failing and, instead, grow up enriched by the truth of love?Here are three ideas that are game-changers!

Whether it was friend groups shifting or friends no longer there, it meant some adjustments in a very pivotal part of a girl’s life. Maybe you are experiencing this right now with your daughter. It’s painful to watch, isn’t it? How do we encourage our daughters to seek new friends and not let the shift in friends or losing friends cause defeat?