Being a parent is one of the most important jobs in the world. I think we can all agree on that. One thing that may differ, is what is the most important aspect of our parental “job description.” If I polled you right now, I’d probably get a different answer from almost everybody. So how can we be effective and successful as parents if we don’t know our most important role?
The day we get married we make some promises to our spouses, in the form of our wedding vows. We promise that through a myriad of circumstances we will love them through it all and ultimately never leave them. If the studies are true, only about 50% of us keep those promises.
I’m certain we all have good intentions. We want to honor those promises. We want to love our spouses like the days we were dating and courting. But somewhere along the lines those promises are forgotten, or at least aren’t at the top of our minds.
We’ve been homeschooling one or all of our kids for over eight years. Our boys first and only school experience was via homeschooling. That is until last Fall when we made a big shift and sent our boys to “regular” school.
It was at one of their school’s periodic Saturday School Seminars that an educator shared with us the right, or best, way to parent our boys, and what we were doing was not it.
“Daddy, who are we praying for today? And can we start praying together at the table again?” Those are the words our 7-year-old said the other day. We were five or six days into 21 Days of Prayer with our church, and we’d missed a couple days because our 11-year-old had surgery.
What he said was just a small window into the truth my pastor spoke to me the first time we went through 21 Days of Prayer with our kids. He said, “Your kids will never recover from this.” I’ve witnessed this firsthand. Prayer has changed our family and prayer with our kids has wrecked their lives…for good.
My email inbox, as well as my Facebook messages box, gets filled from time to time with messages from people asking for help in their marriage. I’m always willing to help, as I believe God has equipped me to do just that. But sometimes there isn’t much I can do to help.
It’s not that the problem is too big to fix, it’s the perception of the problem. Many times the spouse reaching out for help is not really reaching out for help. They’re reaching out to vent about what they believe to be the source of all their problems — their spouse!
I have been reading some of the books from the Dave Ramsey team lately. In Dave Ramsey’s book, “EntreLeadership,” and Jon Acuff’s book, “Quitter,” the topic of employee stealing is discussed. As I read it and realized I have been one of those thieving employees, it was a nice gut punch. But even worse, an effective gut punch combo, was the realization I’ve been stealing from my wife and kids just as much, if not more.
For the past few mornings, my wife has allowed me to wake up next to her and my friend Joy. Although my wife doesn’t really know Joy, she has no problems with our relationship. In fact, I would say she wants me to get to know Joy even more. My hope is they develop a strong friendship themselves. This would make my life, my wife’s life, and our family life better.
New technology has created a new norm for today’s modern family. We have things at our fingertips that we’ve never had before. But we also have challenges that we’ve never had before. Is technology beneficial in bringing your family together? Or is it actually pushing your family apart?
Merry Christmas from our family to yours!
I’m in the middle of my annual ritual of last-minute Christmas shopping. For someone who doesn’t like shopping when the stores aren’t packed, you’d think I’d do all I can to avoid shopping when the stores are jam-packed with Christmas shoppers!
But, nope, here I am still trying to get it done! By the crowds at the mall yesterday, I’m not the only one. You might be in the same boat. So, I’ve put together a list of last-minute gifts that you don’t have to go outside of your house and are guaranteed to arrive on time.