And before we can teach our kids the tricky business of conflict resolution, we have to learn ourselves, don’t we?
I dare say most of us find conflict easier to avoid than to resolve.
Read More
After several weeks talking about Sibling Rivalry, we’ve turned the discussion to how to handle conflict once it’s already reared its ugly head.
Read More
Like many of you, I grew up in a home filled with good-hearted people who didn’t have a clue how to deal with conflict.
To both of my parents conflict was a naughty word, associated with immense personal pain that had never been faced or healed.
Read More
It’s mid-summer now; routines have been abolished, boredom has set in. It’s too hot to play outside, you’re getting on each other’s nerves; the kids are squabbling.
Now what?
Read More
Have you heard the seemingly tried and true advice given to parents of bickering brothers and sisters? It goes something like this: Don’t intervene! They have to learn how to work things out for themselves. Just let them.
Read More
A few weeks ago I got an email from a woman, asking my advice about the constant conflict in her home between her two daughters. This woman had never had a sister herself, but she’d imagined how satisfying it would be to have a sister with whom she could share all the ups and downs of her life.
Read More
Last week I wrote about… Peacemaking Skill #1: Apply Humility.
I wrote about humility first, even though this skill is listed last in this series of character qualities God urges us to apply in resolving conflict and living at peace with one another.
Read More
Summer is almost here: sunshine, barbeques, swim parties, camping, farmer’s markets— and conflict between the kids.
Read More
Just a couple of months ago our grandson, Duke, got baptized. He’d been talking about it for months, but his parents weren’t sure he was ready. At 7 years old, they knew he stood a possibility of not remembering.
Read More
Do you know what to do when you get angry? Dealing with anger and teaching your kids to do the same is really, really important! James chapter one tells us why:
Read More
My first child was born in 1980. The era of big hair, glitzy jewelry, slinky fashion— excess.
I’d been a follower of Jesus for about 6 years by that time John Marks was born. By then I had it down: I knew what was expected of me and I knew what I wasn’t supposed to do.
Read More
One day the Holy Spirit told Philip to run up and join a man who was traveling along in his “chariot”, or carriage.
As he did, he heard the man reading from a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.
Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
Read More
When a pediatrician assured me that two-year-old John Mark wouldn’t suffer any health effects if I allowed him to choose what and when he wanted to eat, I knew it was time to switch to a wiser doctor.
Read More
I grew up in an era of socialized Christianity. If you were an American you were a Christian. I was a Christian because I wasn’t Buddhist or Muslim or Hindu or anything else.
Read More
As Phil and I were studying and writing and preparing to teach our first Intentional conference, we asked God to give us a simple, memorable means of capturing the essence of the way the Father disciplines us, His children.
And thus The Box was born.
Read More
It’s never too early to talk to your child about Jesus!
"And all the people would get up early in the morning to come to Him in the temple to listen to Him."
Luke 21:28
Read More
Last week I wrote about the gift we can give our children when we teach and train them to obey us at a young age. My conclusion:
When you teach your child to obey you, you give him an increased capacity to obey God.
Read More
Have you ever asked yourself: “Why do I do what I do?” Maybe it’s because you need to make a living, or you want to stay in shape; or maybe you’ve never really stopped to think about it, simply because, “You’ve always done it that way!”
Read More