Advice for Graduates: Choose Your Friends Wisely

Every 2016 High School graduate is about to face a new world. This is a world of independence, freedom and self-discovery — a world in which becoming a responsible adult is the end game and learning how to become a responsible adult is the process in which to get there. If you have just graduated, then you are facing a few options in life. The first option is to further your education through local college or move away from home to attend a college or university. The second option is entering into the working world, looking for a job or […]

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What’s On Your Family’s Wish List

What does your family Christmas wish list look like? I’m sure if your family is anything like mine, your wish list will have little to do with toys and a lot to do with technology. Whether it’s the new iPhone 6s, iPods, iPads or iTunes, the massive takeover of technological devices and gadgets is what most consumers will be placing under the tree this year. But as popular as everyone thinks it is, have families, including mine, stopped to think about the real price that will be paid by giving everyone so much technological and media attention? I understand that […]

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Mending a Broken Family with Some Spiritual Superglue

As a kid growing up in the 70’s, family sitcoms gave wonderful and idealistic family values — two-parent families with lots of love, laughter and light-hearted humor such as “The Brady Bunch” and “Happy Days.” Family dramas included biblical and moral values such as “Little House on the Prairie” and “The Waltons.” But, perhaps the television version of family in those days was more of an escape from my reality, which was that I was the youngest of four siblings who lived in a blended family, as my mom and dad divorced when I was not just two years old. […]

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Our Children Are On Loan To Us From God; Invest in Them While You Can 

Well, I believe that whatever choices my son makes, whether good or bad, Godly or godless, wise or “what were you thinking,” we feel as though we managed and invested well. We’ve known from his birth that our kids belong to God and that we are simply managers and investors with what God has given us “on loan.” Life is about knowing and following an awesome God who by His grace offers forgiveness and freedom, even when things get difficult and challenging. We’ve guided Toby from birth to understand the importance of God’s inherent Word to teach and guide his […]

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Serving a Healthy Movie Menu for Summer Blockbuster Movies

  What does a proper diet mean in your home? My kids would be fine replacing broccoli and carrots with chocolate and soda at every meal. No doubt they would feel satisfied and content, but the truth of the matter is the end result would be they would be “jacked up” with short term energy and long term health issues. One of our favorite movies in our home is the 2003 holiday favorite called “Elf” in which Will Ferrell plays Buddy the Elf. He is a fun loving elf who enjoys maple syrup on every meal. One of the greatest […]

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Responding to Poor Grades

School is about to come to an end. Summer break is just around the corner, and sandwiched in between school and summer are the end of the year report cards. This can be the greatest day of your child’s life, or it can be the end of the world for some children. Everything that they have learned comes down to one of five letters of the alphabet. Ten months of their time and effort is reflected by one piece of paper stuffed into a yellow envelope. And what does this report tell parents? Pass or fail? Academic success or failure? […]

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Parents Should Take an Offensive Stance for Drug and Alcohol Prevention

Raising teenagers in South Florida is challenging. Pressure for teenagers to smoke cigarettes, do drugs and drink alcohol are prevalent in society. The problem can be found in our schools, neighborhoods and parks . My neighborhood is a family neighborhood, which backs up to a large church. And yet, my teenage boys have been offered drugs while shooting hoops in the park. Church kids skip out on church to smoke pot in the park. Most public schools have accepted teen drug and alcohol use, and Christian schools are facing the challenge of binge drinking parties and marijuana use. The problem […]

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Parenting Teens: Surviving the Alien Abduction

In 1997 Columbia pictures released a box office hit called, “Men in Black.” If you remember, actor Vincent D’Onofrio played a farmer in which his body is taken over by an alien. This alien abduction is quite funny for the audience because nothing quite works right as the farmer has not adapted well to the creature living inside of him. He is clumsy, awkward and off balance in the way that he speaks and interacts with the rest of the world. Parents can certainly relate to this when raising teenagers. The body and mind of a teenager is much like […]

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G-rated Romance and Relationships in an R-rated World

We live in a sexually saturated society. There is no secret to Victoria. There is nothing subtle about Miley Cyrus. And the sanctity of marriage is no longer sanctified. Parents, your children need to have a God Rating when it comes to romance and relationships. The world’s R-rated messages and images bombard our children. It’s in direct conflict with God. Parents having “the talk” can feel like jumping off a cliff without a parachute. So, most parents put it off too long or avoid it all together. As a preteen, I was given a book and instructed to “ask questions […]

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Raising Kids in an Upside Down World

In Disney’s third installment of “The Pirates of the Caribbean” series “At Worlds End,” the pirates of the ocean blue are faced with an unpredictable dilemma in which their ship is flipped upside down. Their world is flipped and seems normal until a pirate figures it out. Parenting in today’s world feels much like the pirates of the Caribbean must have felt as parents navigate their kids in a world that is completely upside down compared to the world that God originally designed and the world in which believers will one day live. It’s a daunting task helping our children […]

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