The bride-to-be was clearly excited about her upcoming wedding day. “Only two more weeks,” she announced on social media, “and the curtain comes down!” This young woman thought of herself as a Christian. Although she already shared a home with her fiancée, they had agreed to wait until their wedding night before they became sexually intimate. Thus the announcement of the curtain coming down. This was not the first time I’d seen such an announcement. As always, I had mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, at least this young couple appeared to be making an effort to obey Continue Reading
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The Best Parent Ever (and Why You Should Copy Him)
As usual, when I dropped off my ten-month-old at the church nursery, he cried. After a while, he settled down and busied himself with toys. Then when I returned later, he completely fell apart. This scenario played itself out multiple times when my children were young. Small children manifest their need for attachment with reactions like crying, anxiety, eventual adjustment, and then coming unglued when their parents return. Ever find yourself responding to God this way? I have. When Scott and I were young parents, we were stretched financially to the point where I couldn’t Continue Reading
Why Being a “Cool” Parent is a Horrible Idea
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