Parenting
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My Favorite Lads to Leaders Event
It may seem like an odd time to post something about Lads to Leaders, since the national convention was just a couple of weeks ago and the vast majority of folks do not think about starting for the next year for several months. But I want to share with you something today that will, hopefully, challenge families and youth groups to work on one event. It is my favorite event of the entire program, even if it is one that does not get the “buzz” some others do. What is it? Centurion of Scripture. If you are unfamiliar, Centurion of Scripture requires students to memorize 100 verses of the Bible…
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Parents, Who Wins?
For almost 10 years, I was a youth minister. I have also been blessed wherever I have preached to be at congregations that wanted me to have an active part in the youth ministry. And, of course, I am a parent, so I have a vested interest in the health of young people. For all those years, there has been something that I have never understood about many Christian parents, and it has to do with their children’s attendance at worship, Bible classes, and youth activities. When their kids miss things, parents often give an excuse, but, if they would just think through what they are saying, their speech could…
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A Year of Milestones
Forgive me for being quite personal with today’s post, but I think that, by the end, you’ll see why I wanted to share this. The year 2024 is one that our family has thought about for a while. As with so many other things in life, you realize something will happen in a few years and, then, it seems like it will never get there. Until it does. And, for our family, here we are. In a period of about 10 weeks, our family will have two milestones, Lord willing. And they are two things that remind us of some valuable lessons for marriage. First, on June 5, Leah and…
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Parents, This Christmas…
My post today is really simple and short. It is just a reminder to parents, including the one writing this article. This time of year, we feel pressure to make everything perfect for our kids. We think our house has to look like a New York City storefront. We try to bake perfect cookies. We want to go to dozens of events and watch 5 Christmas movies per day. We will search long and hard for gifts (some of which we can’t even afford). Stop it…and just spend time with your kids. If the lights on the tree go out, who cares? Make it a laughing memory. If the cookies…
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Our 2023 Thankful List [Video]
So, a number of months ago, we paused recording our podcast. However, today, we bring back one of the yearly features, and we do so for two reasons. First, we love sharing our “thankful list,” and so we have that for you in video form. That’s the main reason, and we hope this encourages you to think of things for which you are thankful this year. But also, we are sharing this in video form because…we have our own YouTube channel! The Faughn Family of Four will begin releasing more videos in January (maybe a couple will be sprinkled in before then), so we ask you to subscribe and let…
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Those Kids Need to be There…Always
Recently, I watched a sermon by a friend of mine who is a wonderful Gospel preacher. It was a sermon from a couple of years ago that I was interested in hearing all of, but, as often happens, there was one little statement that was made that just stuck in my mind. In this part of the sermon, he was talking about decisions that elders had to make during the early-to-earlyish days of the pandemic. As elderships were trying to think of the best ways to proceed, they had to balance all sorts of things. He mentioned the eldership where he attends talking through those issues, as I know our…
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The Night Pronouns Mattered
Teens in the Word has become a real highlight for Central’s Youth Group. Each year, the group studies something different and the atmosphere is like nothing else this group does. For awhile, I was the “main” teacher (thankfully, Noah has taken that over and is doing a great job!) and came up with the theme for each year. So, for one year, we decided to handle some very tough subjects, but ones that these young people are facing from day-to-day. Among those subjects was transgenderism. We looked at it from a Biblical perspective as well as a practical, how-do-we-deal-with-it, perspective. At the end of the study, we built a list…
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Add This to “If It Bleeds, It Leads”
For many years, the phrase “If it bleeds, it leads” has been used to describe what gets the main coverage in the news. The idea is that disasters garner the most attention, so the main headline or “tonight’s top story” is nearly always tragic. Murders, natural disasters, and fires are quite often what lead the news. However, with the proliferation of news outlets and the length of time they are available, there might need to be another statement to add to that one. It started with 24-hour news channels that had to fill, well, 24 hours. But with the growth of podcasts, YouTube channels, and more all sharing news, there…
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And Their Voices Prevailed
If you have a copy of God’s Word handy, you may want to read the twenty-third chapter of Luke before you read the rest of this post. In that chapter, we can read Luke’s inspired account of some of the events concerning the arrest, interrogation, condemnation, and crucifixion of Jesus. Other details are in the other gospels, but we will focus our comments to those recorded by Luke – along with a few details gleaned from the other gospel accounts. I find the words that are used as the title of this post to be extremely interesting and informative. They play a major role in the narrative that follows. A…
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Taking Away Their Humanity
It is one of the most haunting things I have read in a long time. It is also the polar opposite of what our culture tells us is the truth. I’ll share what it is in a minute. As we come to the end of so-called “Pride Month,” we are exhausted by the unceasing messaging of all the sins that are being promoted. We are tired of seeing rainbows (with an ever-expanding array of colors) everywhere and we are ready for something else to dominate the news. But we cannot ever leave this issue until it is shown to be what it is: sin. Today, though, I want to share…
