Family

Helping Your Kids… When You Can’t Be There!

Steve Davis
3 Mar 2015
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helping your kids

When our children come home from school depressed and crying, wailing and sobbing, we hurt with them! We were not there to help them. Sometimes they acted out of a raging emotional storm in a not-so-positive way, and then were sent to the principal’s office. With that news, we hurt some more. We couldn’t be there. Kids face problems alone. Some issues include mistakes and embarrassment in class, teasing, name calling, mockery, fears and anxieties. What can we do to help them? Is there a good answer? Oh, yes! There’s a strong, proven, researched method to significantly help our kids […]

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Pretty Little Liars

Lyette Reback
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At one point or another, as a parent there is a certainty that your child will lie to you. Guaranteed. If you haven’t caught junior in a whopper yet then either you’re blind to it or he’s not yet old enough to be speaking.   I remember telling fibs and outright tall tales to my parents. My dad had a nose for truth, and I never really got by with much. But the worst part of having told a lie was the inevitable “Now you have lost our trust and have to earn it back” speech. I’ve heard that scenario […]

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pretty little liars

Why I Don’t Want To Raise an Obedient Child

Lyette Reback
2 Mar 2015
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obedient child

It’s funny the things people will ask me when they discover I have 15 children. Most times, the questions are a barrage of “How do you do it?” and “Don’t you know what causes that?” Sometimes the questions are heartfelt: “How did you get to adopt four children?” or “Why have so many?” But one of the most important questions that rarely gets asked is “What’s the most important thing I can teach my children?” Of course the most vital thing to teach any child is the redemptive power that faith in Jesus gives us. But past this, most parents just tend […]

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Parenting Teens: Surviving the Alien Abduction

Brody Howell
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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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parenting teens

Rekindling the Father-Daughter Bond with Your Teen

Lyette Reback
3 Feb 2015
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daddy loves you

It’s Valentine’s Day…a day where husbands (should) spoil their wives with chocolates and flowers — a sweet card full of gushy memories, a nice dinner out with your sweetheart — Ahhhhh…l’amour. Recently a father wrote me asking about how to relate to his teenage daughter. How can he read her, know what she needs or understand what she is really asking for? And I thought this being the season for love maybe I could help you dads out a bit — woman to man. I’ll let you in on some secrets about what women want…really want — even if they […]

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

Brody Howell
2 Feb 2015
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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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A Chasing After The Wind?

Maritza Cosano
30 Dec 2014
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“The enemy is within the gates,” writes Chuck Colson in Against the Night. “I believe that we do face a crisis in Western culture, and that it presents the greatest threat to civilization since the barbarians invaded Rome,” he says, and a quick read of the news at large may show that he is right. Just two months ago Facebook, Apple and Google were in the news, not for pushing another product, but a plan — one that some people view as “sinister,” if not “deeply disturbing.” They are offering to pay for female employees to freeze their eggs. Yes, […]

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Raising Kids in an Upside Down World

Brody Howell
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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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The Common Core: Solution or Intrusion?

Steve Davis
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What is “The Common Core” and how will your child be affected by it? The Common Core is a K-12 English (language arts) and mathematics minimum academic standards set of benchmarks meant for all students in the US with an emphasis on preparing for college or career.   The National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers appointed a commission to develop these standards in 2008. The 2008 report, “Benchmarking for Success: Ensuring U.S. Students Receive a World-Class Education” asserts, “…because benchmarking is also-and most critically about improving policy, states must take the lead.” Therefore adoption and […]

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Geocaching – A Family Hobby for the New Year

Bob Woods
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Looking for an idea for a hobby for the New Year that will provide an activity for the family, promote physical exercise outdoors and be a fun way to get your kids away from their video games and new electronic devices? Then you are ready to discover Geocaching. Geocaching is an outdoor game using hand-held global positioning systems (GPS) devices. It’s an inexpensive, interactive high-tech treasure hunt that’s a great way to learn geography. Participants use location coordinates to find caches. Some caches are easy to find; others are more difficult. The biggest reward is the thrill of the search […]

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