Posts with the category “family-discipleship”

from the Parent Cue Talking to my kids about love scares me. Love feels like such a massive, important topic and I’m afraid I’ll mess it up. My kids are eight and three—how can I distill the grand con...  Read More

If you’re like most people, the calm—sometimes too calm—days of summer have rapidly been replaced by the full—sometimes too full—days of school, sports, and normal life. Enter: the seven hacks we al...  Read More

From the Parent Cue. Us parents long to have a deep connection with our kids, but it’s difficult when the majority of their answers to questions are simply, “Fine.” But we can’t let their short respon...  Read More

From The Parent Cue Blog Every family has a rhythm. For some families, morning is crazy.Dinner may happen all together, or you may have one parent who works at night. Or sports or other activities may...  Read More

From The Parent Cue Blog As a kid, do you remember a moment when you realized that grown-ups were real people? Maybe it was standing around the grill with your dad and his friends, or listening to you...  Read More

One of the hardest things you’ll ever have to do in your parenting is learn how to communicate with your kid. Communication in and of itself has never been easy, but add an age gap, youthful angst, an...  Read More

In the immediate timeframe, certain day-to-day parenting decisions may seem insignificant, but what we do in the early years matters. Being intentional, however, requires keeping the long view in mind...  Read More

There are ways to use technology with your kid that enhance meaningful connections instead of replacing them. Here are a few ideas. ...  Read More

From Christian Parents I will never forget holding my precious, beautiful daughter in my arms and tearfully confessing to my friend, “I think I’m a bad mom.” At that moment, I meant it with my entire ...  Read More

From Christian Parenting Like most well-intentioned parents, Dave and I have high hopes for our boys.  We want our sons to grow up to be good men, productive, stable, and successful. So we teach them ...  Read More

We all need better boundaries so that we live in healthy relationships.  That was the big takeaway from my message yesterday.    It is time to break the bad habit of codependent relationships.   The g...  Read More

from The Parent Cue As adults, it can be easy to assume that kids, particularly younger ones, have nothing to fear, worry, or be sad about. After all, childhood is known for being the most innocent an...  Read More

From re|engage I’ve been on staff at Watermark Community Church working with students (grades 6-12) for 18 years. In that time, I have observed hundreds of students navigate adolescence and grow into ...  Read More

From The Parent Cue We live in a digital world. Laptops. Tablets. Smartphones. Smart TVs. There are so many devices that occupy our kids’ attention. Controlling screen time is an ever-present task for...  Read More

From The Parent Cue I remember the first time I became super aware of the way I looked. It was my first middle school dance, and, as an eighth grader, this was a pretty big deal. I had waited my entir...  Read More

One of the phrases that we all grew tired of during the early days of the COVID-19 crisis was the “new normal.”  With all of the changes, cancellations, and closures, some spoke as though things would...  Read More

If you’re anything like me, you often face a classic conundrum when it comes to how you’ll spend your time, asking: “Should I prioritize the important or the urgent?”And, ya know, if you’re like me, u...  Read More

Tuck the story of Christmas deep in your heart and lead your family to do the same by worshiping with us this December and by reading the story of Christmas in the Bible. ...  Read More

From Desiring God After I had my first child, and all the more after I had my second, I wondered if I would be done with ministry until my kids grew up. I wondered how I could possibly fit another tas...  Read More

From the Parent Cue Is your teen or tween behaving more differently than usual? I know, this probably seems like a trick question. The emphasis is on the word more. For example, has your usually uber-...  Read More

One of the hardest things you’ll ever have to do in your parenting is learn how to communicate with your kid. Communication in and of itself has never been easy, but add an age gap, youthful angst, an...  Read More

“Daddy” is my favorite name, and being daddy is the most rewarding position I have in my life. But a little over a year ago, after my wife lost her battle to breast cancer, I became “mommy” as well, a...  Read More

Yes, kids need correcting. But on this day, I began to understand two things: Sometimes the heart needs to hear what it’s doing right. And, correcting is better received in small doses....  Read More

More and more, I’m met with the fact that parenting isn’t a formula, and every kid is very different. I can’t expect my adult children to parent their kids exactly the way I parented them. So, as a gr...  Read More

From the Parent Cue Let me guess. You feel like you really need to de-stress.Of course you do…you’re a parent.Pretty much every parent I talk to is tired. Well, more than just tired. Stressed. Deeply ...  Read More

Put any sixth-grade class up against the latest hit reality show and you’ve got yourself a real contest. Help your preteen tone things down a bit—and maybe even enjoy life a whole lot more—with these ...  Read More

Enter a room full of six- and seven-year-olds and you’re bound to spot one thing right away: the cute little gaps of kids who whistle while they talk. Forget calling it first grade. This is the Missin...  Read More

People of all ages have feelings and we want our kids to respect and honor those feelings. After all, empathy informs how our kids interact with the world at large—especially as they grow. We can beg...  Read More

From the Parent Cue I was 28 when I found out I was going to be a dad.  Back then, I still thought I had what it took to be a rock star, even more so a dad.  (And to be clear, I had absolutely no idea...  Read More

From the Parent Cue Like with most things in parenting, we’re better off if we tackle problems proactively rather than waiting around for them to pop up again. That’s why the first four items we’ll di...  Read More

From the Parent Cue Your kid is going through about a million-and-one changes in the middle school phase. So much is changing about them so quickly that it can seem like nothing is ever the same from ...  Read More

Your teen is all excited. After months of training and meeting all the state requirements, they passed their driver’s license test. After the appropriate social media posts declaring their good news, ...  Read More

From the Parent Cue. I tucked my daughter’s chair under the table for breakfast and encouraged her to say her grace before eating.“God is great . . .” she began the standard prayer.“God is good . . .”...  Read More

As your children grow out of infancy and further into childhood, disagreements will become a normal part of life. When you’re a parent, of course, this can grow quite exhausting! You may find that the...  Read More

From the Parent Cue If you’ve read any blog I’ve ever written about divorce, I always say the same thing at least once—no matter the circumstances surrounding your separation, getting divorced sucks.T...  Read More

From blog.youversion.com Getting children excited about prayer can be challenging. Images of people praying typically show someone standing calmly with their head bowed and eyes closed. That’s hard fo...  Read More

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living…2 TIMOTHY 3:16...  Read More

When you create safe spaces for your kids to play, experiment, ask questions, and most of all — to have fun with you — you build long-term trust and a deeper relationship. Here are some fun, easy acti...  Read More

From the Parent Cue Kids seem to be born confident creatures. They have no problem expressing their needs (sometimes, quite loudly).They’re secure in their appearance (hello, polka dots and stripes).T...  Read More

“If something is changing in my kid’s worlds, I need to personally connect with them and lead them to the next phase.”...  Read More