Category: Encouragement

Our Children Need More than a Mirror

Have you ever looked in the mirror an hour or two after dinner only to discover that a portion of your meal is still stuck in your teeth? You probably took care of the problem as quickly as possible (while reviewing in your mind how many people you had smiled at since you ate). You rinsed your mouth. You brushed your teeth. The mirror helped you see what was wrong […]

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An Eye-opening Experience

Sometimes I take care of the kids for a few hours while my wife goes out. Other times, when she’s sick, I step in to help do some of her work and keep the household running. That’s what I’ve been doing the past few days. How she ever has dinner ready AND the house clean when I come home at night, I don’t know. It never happens when I’m in […]

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Why One Mother Is Glad Her Children Don’t Obey

I’m heading to Florida this weekend for a one-day conference. I fly all day Friday, talk on Saturday, and get back on a plane at 6 a.m. (which will feel like 3 a.m. to me) on Sunday morning to fly back home. 😛 So I’m trying to shift my body from Pacific Time to Eastern Time now, since I won’t have much time to turn my internal clock around while […]

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How I Survived Motherhood

How I Survived Motherhood

I remember some pretty exhausted seasons of parenting. It used to feel like my children were taking shifts. One would challenge us in a particular way, and then, about the time it felt like we were figuring out what to do with that situation, the next child would punch in with a completely different problem. Sometimes their “shifts” were each only a few minutes long and the problems were resolved […]

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My Priorities for the Preschool Years

My Priorities for the Preschool Years

As a dad of four children ages 1 to 5, sometimes I’m tempted to think these early years are unimportant. But I know that’s not true; the way we treat a child from age one to five will have a huge influence on how the rest of his childhood and his life will turn out. These early years of life are likely the most critical and formative ones. Here are […]

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They Say I’m Old . . .

My granddaughters say I’m old. After all, I do have gray hair, and I did turn sixty-two on Tuesday. That might sound old, but I don’t think I’m old — definitely not as old as I thought a sixty-two-year-old would feel when I was in my twenties and thirties . . and forties. . . and fifties. But I am old enough to agree with David when he says, in Psalm 37, “I have been young, and now […]

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How to Be a Wise Steward of the Next Year of Your Life

How to be a wise steward of the next year of your life

I’ll admit right now that I’m a goal-setting junkie. This time of year is always exciting and full of new possibilities! Setting goals has always been an important part of my life. Growing up, I enjoyed reviewing the past year and setting new goals with my parents during our Christmas break each year. Now my wife and I have our own goal-setting tradition, and I can hardly wait for this […]

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All Things

“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom 8:32, ESV) It’s easy to take it for granted — God becoming man. We know the story. It’s what we celebrate every Christmas. But how much thought do we really give to this miracle? Jesus, God’s Son, willingly came to earth. He […]

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Thirty (One) Days in Psalm 103 for Busy, Busy Mamas, Day 31: Remembering His Blessings

We’ve spent a month studying this one amazing psalm. We’ve slowed down to meditate on these blessings that David urges his soul — our ours — to not forget. Many of us have realized in a new way that we really are forgiven, that we really are loved with a steadfast love that is not going to let us go. What can we do to help us not forget? What will help keep us anchored […]

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Thirty Days in Psalm 103 for Busy, Busy Mamas, Day 15: Memorize

  Psalm 103 has 22 verses, just as the Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters. We’ve studied two acrostic passages in past Busy Mamas Bible studies. Proverbs 31, which we studied in July, is an acrostic poem, and Psalm 37, which we studied last March, is also acrostic. Each verse of the passage starts with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, so that the entire alphabet is used by the […]

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