Recently I read an excellent post by my friend, Eliza Jane Huie. Eliza introduced her thoughts with these words: I have learned so much from biblical counseling. It is a meaningful and integral part of my practice. However, I found that we can sometimes hold onto less helpful ideas out of loyalty to a movement, organization, or person. Here are some things I am letting go of and why. Eliza, as a...
There’s a verse that can feel like a promise and a wound at the same time: Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house;your children will be like olive shoots around your table. ~ Psalm 128:3 And if you’re a mother who’s prayed, labored, loved, disciplined, shown up when it’s hard, or stayed when it hurt . . . this verse can feel like it’s describing someone...
When my oldest was two, I set up a playdate with a new friend and her daughter. As we pushed our girls on the swings, she asked: “Where does your little girl go to school?” My daughter was two. Living in an affluent area, my husband and I had noticed that many children started private school by age two. Still, we felt four year-old preschool or kindergarten was a perfectly appropriate time to...
Have you ever considered building your family the way God builds his? Adoption is not only a response to the needs of children who don’t have a family, but also a profound picture of God’s love for all the children he has adopted into his family. In Chosen: Building Your Family the Way God Builds His, Andrew Hopper, an adoptive father of a special needs child, presents a compelling, holistic...
Often when I go and speak with parents on this topic of identity formation, I’ll have dads and moms come up to me afterward and say something like this: “That’s why we’ve got to get back to the good ‘ole days when kids obeyed their parents and did what they were told.” Makes sense, right? Everything in our society would be better if our kids just listened and obeyed us. If they took their...
