One morning, during one of our content meetings, I asked our team if they had been reading anything interesting in their Bibles. After a few minutes of quiet, our intern spoke up and mentioned a passage in Ezekiel 37, which talks about the vision of the valley of dry bones. This creepy vision produced an intriguing conversation. We learned that dry bones represented Israel when they were in captivity to Babylon. Like unburied skeletons, the Israelites were in a state…
“It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all” was once said by Shakespeare. You may have a daughter who is desiring marriage, but it seems as though God is not answering her as quickly as she hoped. It seems to her that all her friends are getting engaged and married and she is far from those milestones in her own life. Being a mother myself, knowing that our daughters feel like this can…
Do you know of a family member or a close friend who suffers from addiction? How has their family reacted? Have they been open about their struggles with the mental illness or have they kept them hidden in the dark? I understand these can be emotional questions to answer because I have family members who struggle with alcoholism. Most people, when they hear the word addiction, automatically think of the social and behavioral problems. However, the root problem of addiction is…
This week, I heard a viral recording of a hilarious high school answering machine. The options for the parents to choose in the recording were ridiculous. Some of the options included were, “To make excuses as to why your child did not do his homework, press 2” and “To request another teacher for the third time this year, press 8.” The teachers of the school unanimously voted for this message because they were just fed up with the parents’ demands.…
A friend of mine has a fun family tradition. Every year, he spends one night with his children where there are no rules. I repeat, no rules. This night is crazy! Each No Rules Night is different than the last. The kids can do whatever they want (within reason) and it has created so many memories for his family. His kids talk about it all year and constantly ask when the next one will be. It’s definitely their favorite family…
When first in love, life is simple and sweet. You and your spouse stay up late dreaming dreams and making plans for how things will go. Everything seems promising and exciting. But then life happens. Those dreams you dreamed are pushed aside and saved for later. But why can’t later be today? I’d like to encourage you and your spouse to write a couples bucket list together. It can be composed of small dreams or big dreams. Whatever you plan…
Many a mother has puzzled over this: how to get kids to listen and follow through on what they’ve heard. As a wise man wrote, We want our children to be doers, not just hearers. I know that I have a part in guiding my children from hearing to doing. I know that talking to my son while he’s playing video games does not work. I know that bombarding my daughter with lessons and lectures first thing in the morning doesn’t work. And I know…