May the peace and joy that Jesus brought that first Christmas morning be the defining marks on your holiday this year. Santa is not watching. But your children are. Let them hear you count the blessings. Let them see the peace you have amidst the chaos. God floods our lives with blessings, but we must pause long enough to reflect on them.

As summer draws near and the full swing of ball season looms on the horizon, the busyness of life can become overwhelming. In this blog, I offer a few thoughts on stepping up to the plate in life and staying in the batter’s box as parents.

“Do you even love me, mom?” The question stopped me in my tracks. My momma heart twisted. How could he question my love for him? We all strive to make our children to feel secure in our love, but if we aren’t speaking their language they may not be comprehending the depth of our love. In this blog, I discuss the language barrier that often causes turmoil in our relationships and ways to overcome that barrier.

Worry and anxiety may have been present in our lives before children, but this spiritual battle grips our heart in a new way as parents. In my latest blog, I discuss the Biblical antidote to worry given to us by the apostle Paul.

The little red gnome had been a side-show Christmas gift, picked up on an impulse buy that sparked a clever word-play in my mind, “Jesus loves you ‘gnome’ matter what.” Instead of merely a cute reminder of the true Christmas spirit I had intended it to be, however, the little shelf-sitter decoration quickly rose to the top ranks of my son’s snuggle time objects. It wasn’t long before Gnomie was tattered and torn and being tenderly handed over to me with the pleading, “Mommy, can you fix him?”

Wondering how a gnome can point us to Jesus? Read my Christmas blog to find out!

(We’ve all been tattered and torn in life. Sometimes by our poor choices. Sometimes by the poor choices others have made. This Christmas season, let us be reminded that Jesus came to heal His children in this broken world. He could have merely replaced us. But instead, He chose to restore us. Take a moment to read my Christmas blog and remember that Christmas is about the greatest gift ever given to men… Jesus and His great love for us.)

We all have times where we feel like the chaos of kids is going to send us into the looney bin. In the moments of frustration that morning, the mess shrouded my consciousness. It became all I could see. But God sees differently than we do. In those moments, he used the remnants of the chaos to remind me of His blessings.

Naturally, our temptation as parents is just to remove the possibility of danger in order to protect them. We typically do this in one of two ways… by clearing the path from dangers or preventing them from traveling it. In this blog, we take a deeper look at these tactics to determine if they’re the best ones to use.

Our faith walk can be compared to a kayaking adventure. Sometimes the float is smooth and easy, but other times the boulders and downed trees present obstacles that threaten to capsize us. Often, we bump into boulders submerged just below the surface, unnoticed until our kayak is tipping and the water pouring in.

When it comes to our faith, bad ideas and false theology often present like the submerged boulders. We fail to recognize the danger until we have been capsized by it. We must train ourselves to recognize the lies before they become a slippery slope into a life of compromise. And furthermore, we must teach our children to do the same!

Look up. Grizzly Gulch, Keystone, South Dakota

Develop a Habit of Chatting with your Children

Build a bridge of communication with your child!

My kid went to the principal’s office. What do I do? (Part 2)

My kid went to the principal’s office. What do I do?