Family

God is Great. God is Good.

God is great. God is good. And we thank him for our food. By his hands, we are fed. Thank you, Lord, for daily bread. It’s a simple blessing, a prayer of thankfulness we teach our children to recite before eating food. Many children have memorized this blessing or maybe one that is similar. But do children really know why they say these words? Are children truly thankful for what they are about to eat? Do they really know what it means to be thankful? Depending upon a child’s age, he or she may or may not know the meaning […]

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Is College Worth It?

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, 40 percent of collegiate students never graduate. If they graduate, 13.5 will not be able to find work. If they manage to graduate and find work, 44 percent will work jobs that do not require college degrees. Nevertheless, even if they graduate, escape unemployment, and find meaningful jobs, then they will most likely be paying off debt (the average student accrues $35,000 in college-related debt, according to CNN Money). After factoring the rising cost of college tuition and the dismal future of the economy, many are understandably left wondering what the value of a college diploma […]

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A Tale of Two Lunches

Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book One Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace for an Exhausted World (David C. Cook, October 2013) I was sixteen when my parents kicked me out of the house. What started out as run-of-the-mill adolescent rebellion in my early teens had, over the course of a few short years, blossomed into a black hole of disrespect and self-centeredness that was consuming the entire family. I would lie when I didn’t have to, push every envelope, pick fights with my siblings, carry on, and sneak around—at first in innocent ways; later in not-so-innocent ways. If someone […]

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9 Million Dollar Wedding

  Facebook’s first president, Sean Parker, who was also the co-founder of NAPSTER, recently got married in Big Sur, California. The 300-guest wedding cost about $9 million. That is astounding. I was driving through Big Sur recently on vacation. (We just happened to have a mini-family vacation there). We stopped for gas, and I was pumping away before I looked at the price. It was more than $6.00 a gallon! That is high even for California. I stopped immediately – when I noticed the cost. At least it was a nice view. Writing for the Telegraph in the U.K. (6/3/13), […]

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Spending Quality Time with Your Kids

Every person knows that the actions of their parents or caretakers shaped the adult they grew into , impacting them either positively or negatively forever. Summer is a wonderful opportunity to spend time with your children – encouraging, mentoring and loving them. Are you looking for fun new ways to spend quality time with your kids? Continue reading for creative ways to share life with your children. Reading The importance of encouraging your child to read is a crucial factor in determining their success in school and beyond. Instilling a need to read, both for pleasure and educational purposes, is […]

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Summer Priorities for Parents

The heat is on! Which means that summer has arrived. As parents, you are now faced with the daunting task of figuring out what to do with your kids during what will seem like endless days for you and fast paced days for the kids. Now that the kids are out of school, it is no easy task trying to figure out how to fill their time and keep them busy without destroying the house, trashing the back yard and hanging the cat upside down from the tree while you are at work. Are there enough activities during the day, […]

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Engaging Your Teens

“Who is to blame for the inception of slavery, class?” asked my European teacher one day in class. “The Bible!” exclaimed one of the students. Much to my disbelief, the teacher cheerfully agreed: “Of course, it’s always the Bible.” For months now I had been told by both my peers and teachers that Christians were to blame for the world’s environmental problems, delayed scientific achievements, wars, ignorance, and now social injustices. Although all of these negative connotations of Christianity had been implied throughout my years of public schooling, only in the past year did I realize that people were now […]

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Who’s Really Training Your Children?

Should the Lord tarry, this time in history might come to be known by future generations as “The Darker Ages.” Especially over the last 50 years, there has been an ever-increasing influence of the antichrist spirit in our society as evidenced by how the majority of our prevailing institutions posture themselves against God. These “vain philosophies” are an amalgamation of the “politically correct” positions of the educational system, the healthcare (disease care) and food industries, the liberal news media, the government and the entertainment industry. All of these institutions have adopted anti-God worldviews, and scripture warns us against yoking ourselves […]

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Love Says “No”

Much of life is about balance – finding a balance between work and play or maintaining a balanced budget. In the “Parenting on Purpose” process, nothing is more important than the balance between relationship and discipline. The right disciplinary program gives a child the ability to eventually discipline himself. A right parent-child relationship gives the child the secure foundation to learn the motivation to say no, and even learn to seek balance in his own life. A positive relationship also makes the child feel secure even when he hears no from his parents. Discipline without relationship teaches a child to […]

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What Daddies Do Best

Laura Numeroff’s What Daddies Do Best is a beloved, whimsical board book with delightful illustrations. A favorite for bedtime reading, young boys and girls cuddle up with this best-selling book and celebrate all the things dad is good at; like playing in the park, reading books and giving piggyback rides. “Daddies can teach you how to ride a bicycle, make a snowman with you, and bake a delicious cake for your birthday,” begins the story. Daddy hippo teaches his son how to ride a bike. Daddy billy goat helps his daughter plant a garden and takes care of her when […]

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