You’ve seen it all over social media. Another tragic school shooting. More lives lost. More outcries about gun control. Among all the typical political yelling matches, one voice in the fray caught my attention. Middle school teacher Kelly Guthrie Raley made some profoundly sensible remarks in a now-viral Facebook post following the mass shooting in Florida. Raley bravely tackled issues such as: Lack of discipline in the home Lack of parental support of teachers Defensiveness and blame-shifting on the part of parents (making students' poor behavior the teachers’ Continue Reading
What You Don’t Need to Know about Hard Times (And What You Do)
It was going to be an exciting conference, one the youth group had been looking forward to for weeks. Our church had been praying for their spiritual breakthrough. No one expected what happened. At about one p.m. the day of the trip, passengers in the second vehicle watched in horror as the van carrying ten students and their youth leader careened off the highway's shoulder, flipped, and rolled. In an instant, joyful anticipation was eclipsed by terror and trauma. The human heart frames a question whenever hard things happen: Why? Why did God allow this awful thing to Continue Reading
Why Every Christian Parent Needs to Know Apologetics (which is not about Apologizing)
"Oh, Mama," said my then four-year-old son joyfully, "I love Jesus, and you love Jesus, and ... oh, everyone loves Jesus!" Ever have a similarly sweet-yet-challenging parenting moment? "Well, Jed," I explained, "Umm ... not everyone loves Jesus." Eyes wide and hands on hips, Jed demanded, "Who doesn't love Jesus?" I figured my preschooler needed a simple, concrete example. "You know Mikey across the street? I don't think his parents have ever told him about ... hold on, Jed, wait! Come back!" I'm not sure how Jed planned to set Mikey straight, but I thought we'd better have Continue Reading
3 Effective Ways to Show Kindness to a Grieving Friend
Fidgeting with her hair, the nervous teen told me her parents would “kill her” if they found out she was pregnant. Her boyfriend didn’t want a baby. They’d broken up the night before. I expressed sympathy. The girl burst into tears. Then she said what most people say when they cry in front of others. “I’m sorry!” We’re not very good at grief and sorrow in our culture. We’re embarrassed at our tears. We apologize for allowing our feelings to show. Somehow, we’ve adopted a strange paradigm: it’s not okay to hurt --it’s only okay to be okay. So we hide our feelings and except Continue Reading