Category: Family

How to Raise a Child Whose Faith Is in Jesus and Not in Himself

We’ve talked about why we need to take our children to the cross when we discipline them. We’ve talked about how our children may respond if we fail to give them the hope that is ours through Christ’s death on the cross. Now how do we raise children who are secure in God’s love? How can we help them rest in Christ’s saving work on the cross, secure in His love, even […]

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3 Ways Our Children May Respond to Discipline that Overlooks the Gospel

We need to handle God’s Word with care as we discipline our children. In our last post, we considered the need to give our children the hope of the gospel when we correct them. If we only take them to the Bible to show them how God says to live, we’ve missed our prime opportunity to tell them how they can live that way. They’re not going to obey God by […]

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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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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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Too Fast.

Do you have little children — you know, those charming, unpredictable, exhausting little ones that always lead people to say, “Oh, they grow up so fast. Enjoy these days while you can”? I remember sweet white-haired ladies and elderly gentlemen saying those sorts of things to me while our six young children and I all marched through grocery stores or poured one-by-one out of the van. Those comments were so […]

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Less Is More.

I’ve had a garden every summer for the past thirty-five years. It’s generous to call some years’ efforts a garden. Different years meant different babies newly arrived or still in the works during garden seasons. Babies were born in April, May, June, August, September, October (of different years, obviously 🙂 ). Those years were a bit more challenging. I called the gardens of those years my treasure hunt gardens. Go out and […]

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Feeling Stuck

I hear a child’s frustrated crying in the kitchen. I go to investigate, and I find my 2-year-old son pushing with all his might against a chair, angry that it’s not moving. He has plans, but something has gone wrong. Soon I realize why he’s upset. The back of the chair has run into an open cupboard door and stopped his movement. But his head is down, his brow is […]

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Blessed in His Body

Today the June issue of Portland Bride and Groom came out. Right there in the middle of that slick, picture-laden magazine were photos of our daughter’s wedding! Peter and Susannah kissing in front of the taco booth, Susannah’s rainbow shoes, the donut cake, the game booths, Peter swinging at the pinata. And at the end of the article, a short little list of vendors appears — a short and very inaccurate list. It […]

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A School for Training Parents

(Post by Daniel Forster) “Home life is a school as much for training parents as children” – Andrew Murray This is actually one of the top reasons my wife and I are committed to homeschooling our children. Both of us finished homeschooling a long time ago, took  some college classes, and read hundreds of books, but we’ll never be done learning. I know God has more lessons for us to […]

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To a Thousand Generations

In the past seven days I have visited the grave sites of at least sixteen of my ancestors, in six different cemeteries, and spanning seven generations. After attending the Teach Them Diligently conference in Washington, D.C., my son and I were able to travel to the little village of Singers Glen, Virginia, where at least five generations of my family lived. We sat in the cemetery that overlooks the quiet […]

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