As a change of pace this week, you get to watch a video instead of reading a blog post! Pastor Nathan Breithaupt of The Refuge Church in Walla Walla, Washington interviewed me last month on "Parenting during a Pandemic." Click this link to view the video on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com It's 35 minutes long, so check out a few points of interest at these minute marks: 4:25 – A little about my story and how God’s plans for us and our families are bigger than our little dreams. 8:00 – Who is responsible for your child’s intellectual formation –their teachers, or Continue Reading
Don’t waste your stay in the worldwide waiting room
“We’re doing okay,” said the woman on the phone. “Everyone is well, but we are SO ready to get back to normal.” Making phone calls on behalf of my church to check in on people during the stay-at-home order, I'm hearing the same thing again and again: We just want this to be over. I get that. I want it to be over, too. It’s hard to face uncertainty day after day. It’s disconcerting to be thrown out of our routines. It’s difficult to stay away from people we love. We may be disgruntled about the choices we don’t have right now, but we can decide one thing. We can decide how we Continue Reading
How your family can thrive as a result of this pandemic
Once upon a time, the happy mother of three active, young boys planned out her personal dream. I’ll send them off to school and write best-selling books while they're out of my hair, she thought. Then when they come home, I’ll serve them milk and cookies and ask how their day went. I’ll be their hero, plus I’ll accomplish my goals! The young mom’s lovely notion turned out to be a fantasy. What really happened was fourteen years of home schooling. Fourteen years of studying curriculum instead of attending writers’ conferences. Fourteen years of teaching and grading and Continue Reading
One counter-intuitive but effective way to overcome anxiety
What’s the first thing that pops into your mind when someone tells you, “Don’t think about pink elephants!” Right...pink elephants. That’s why, when you try hard to not feel anxious, you enter a vicious cycle. Dealing with anxiety is like dealing with insomnia. You can’t try your way into a good night of sleep—and you can’t try your way out of worry. What you need is a change of focus. According to Dr. Earl Henslin in This is Your Brain on Joy, your brain contains one neural pathway on which the emotions of either joy or anxiety can travel. There’s literally not room enough for Continue Reading