Today [Wednesday, ADF] was a special day. For the first time since Lyssabeth, a new baby was born into our family. Jeremiah’s niece, Lauryn, and her husband Chayce, welcomed little Grady to the world today. It is so fun to see those 10 perfect toes and sweet little lips and cheeks! And, we are thankful for modern medicine as Grady has had to have a little help keeping his oxygen up today. If you know me personally or read my posts, you know that my mind tends to spiral quickly. I was thinking about the joy of Grady’s coming and then the thought hit me of what a hypocritical world…

Recently, I was asked to speak on the following topic: Rearing Boys to be Men As I prepared the presentation, I thought that it might be a good idea to define some terms. One of the words that, obviously, was pertinent to the discussion is the word “man.” It seems to me that we have let our society define that word in ways that are, in no way, helpful. It is my contention that, in particular, the entertainment and sports community have fed us a lot of lies about what a “real man” is.   As part of my research (and as a part of the presentation), I considered a couple of…

I know many of you are thinking that I have messed up two well-known, and related phrases about raising children. The adage says “There are two gifts we should give our children. One is roots. The other is wings.” As you may have realized by now, the Tatum household is about to change. Our oldest is headed to college this weekend so we are doing a lot of reflecting on the short 18 years we have been blessed to have him in our home. He is the first of his generation to leave the nest and, as with many firsts, there is a lot of trepidation. Granted, we are sending…

A couple of weeks ago a brother with whom I worship handed me the information I am reproducing below. He said that I might have already seen it, but that he thought it was good. He was correct on both counts. I have seen it before. In fact, I’ve seen it a number of times before. It is also my opinion that it is good – and needed. I’m not in the habit of presenting material here that is not original, but I am making an exception in this case. The fact that this material has “made the rounds” for quite a while indicates that it deals with a subject that, sadly, seems perpetually relevant.…

Deuteronomy 6 has been nicknamed “the great parenting chapter” of the Bible. Although it was addressed to the Israelite nation as a whole, the clear implication was that much of what was being said in order to raise up future generations who believed in God was to be done in the context of the family. Moses gave the great commandment, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and will all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). After that, he famously said, And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and…

In today’s world, we can purchase a variety of different kinds of detectors for our houses. We invest in them in the hope that some sort of alarm or notification will alert us to potential and/or actual damage or danger. We purchase these things because we do not want to lose the investment we have made in our house and all of its contents. We want the people we love to be safe, secure, and healthy.  If – or when – an alarm is sounded or we receive a notification, we take whatever action is necessary in order to protect those who inhabit our house. Unfortunately, while some of us go to…