The young mother-to-be listened to her friend "Courtney" with growing dismay as she listed a long litany of complaints about the difficulties of parenting. "Get ready for lack of sleep," Courtney warned. "Get ready for temper tantrums. Just wait until they can talk back." Finally, Courtney concluded, "Oh, but I wouldn't trade having kids for anything." The other young woman wondered, Are you sure? Because parenting sounds pretty miserable! If you find yourself experiencing far more stress and hardship than joy in raising children, here's a little secret: It doesn’t have to be Continue Reading
Why There’s Good News even when you don’t “Crush it”
The young woman offering us customer service was pleasant and upbeat. She assured us that our billing issues with her company would be promptly resolved. Image by James Chan from Pixabay When I noticed the following month that our bill continued to climb, I contacted her again. She assured me once again that, of course, she would take care of the problem right away. It's been three months’ worth of attempts now, and the problem still hasn’t been resolved. I noticed something interesting in my interactions with this young woman. Her confident, positive, can-do attitude is typical Continue Reading
One Fun, Doable Way to Teach Kids Faith and Gratitude
A gentle breeze ruffled the surface of the lake as I wandered along the shore line, eyes to the ground. Oh, there’s a good one! I picked up a smooth, round, grey stone and put it in a container. By the time I was done collecting rocks, I had a small bucketful. I’m not a rock hound, nor did I need more stones for the landscaping in our yard. So why was I collecting rocks on a mountain lake shore during our summer vacation? I wanted to work on developing gratitude in my life—and you can use this same method for your whole family. My “gratitude craft” involved the rocks I’d Continue Reading
4 Reasons to Stop Suppressing Your Tears
On Memorial Day weekend years ago, our family watched a special TV show, a moving tribute to American war veterans. I don’t remember many details about what was said, but I remember seeing my husband weep—and I remember noticing how our teenage sons took their cues from their father’s response. They heard a powerful, unspoken message that day. Real men cry. I felt kind of heartless for not weeping myself that day, but I’ve been guilty of suppressing tears lots of times. I’ll bet you have been, too. That’s because our culture tells us a lot of nonsense about emotions, Continue Reading