Money is the last thing I want to think about if I feel my child needs something. Looking back at how I spent money it is clear I wasn’t thinking. I did not go crazy and send us into debt, nor was I selfish because we always gave generously, at least ten percent to ministry. However, I certainly did not save as I should have and that was my money mistake. I wish I knew then what I know now.…
I am so thankful I am not a teenager today. It is not an easy age to grow up in! Teenagers have so much more coming at them in the form of opportunities and temptations. Teenage rebellion is really the natural manifestation of your children growing up and asserting themselves as individuals. When they’re young they’re happy to wear what you want, do what you want, and go where you want. Then they hit the transition stage to adulthood. It…
What in the world do I mean when I say “love code”? It’s a kind of code that forms from observations you made growing up. The code can be influenced by your parent’s marriage or another relationship you admired throughout your childhood. What you observed can subconsciously – or perhaps consciously – influence how you relate to your husband or children. When Mark and I got married we brought very different love codes into our new life together. In my Irish,…
Can a bad attitude really kill your marriage? Yes! Attitude affects the way we communicate with our husband; so if our attitude toward him is negative, that’s how we’ll sound when we’re talking with him. Mark and I work together every day which makes having a loving attitude really hard. One day when I was out with our daughter Emily running errands, I called Mark from the car. He answered the phone with, “Ya, what do you need?” Well, I…
Are you different from your husband? Mark and I are opposites and it can be a point of contention. I often crave the marriage compatibility I observe in other couples. If you are like us, it’s easy to feel frustrated and want your spouse to be more like you. However, that might defeat the point of two people coming together in marriage as one. Tony Evans puts it like this, “Of course you are different from your spouse. If both of you were…
I have a friend whose life hasn’t turned out the way she thought it would. In some ways it’s better than she ever hoped for — she has two wonderful children, a beautiful home, and she married a good man. But then there are the things that haven’t turned out the way she envisioned — she doesn’t have financial security, she still battles emotional issues she thought she’d outgrow, and her marriage is more up and down than she’d like.…
It’s such a struggle to discipline our kids. I think it’s a struggle because it doesn’t feel good and it’s not fun. We had children to love them and nurture them and see them grow, so to talk about what they did wrong, or trying to train them not to do things that are wrong… let’s just say it’s difficult and uncomfortable. It doesn’t give us that loving feeling that we wanted with our kids but we know it’s necessary.…