Parenting
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“Before Your Kids Eyes” : 6 Things Your Kids Need to See You Do Daily
Children learn in every possible way. From the smallest of ages, they are soaking up information from those they love. (Don’t believe me? Take 61 seconds and watch this video from a recent college basketball game.) As they grow, they learn to read, and they take in information from the media, from books, and from peers. But kids will continue to take in information from their parents. Kids really get their worldview from how mom and dad act daily. Knowing that, I challenge every mom and dad to think about what your kids are seeing from you toward each other. I’m not asking you to be hypocritical, but you know…
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The Best Part of Leadership … and Parenting
It starts with little tasks like cleaning a room or sweeping the porch. It continues through more important things, like difficult moral decisions. All the conversations, prayers, and effort come into play in those moments, and they are what a parent waits to see. I don’t know who originally said this, but it is a wonderful quote about leadership: The best part of leadership is watching it happen without you. As I heard those words again recently, my mind immediately went to my role as a parent. From the time our children are quite young, we try to teach them to do certain tasks even when we aren’t around. We…
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Eli’s Warning to Dads
On Wednesday nights, I’m teaching a survey of the Old Testament. This class has proven to be a great boon to my knowledge of that portion of Scripture, and has greatly lifted my faith. Last night, we surveyed First Samuel. In the opening chapters, of course, we spoke of both Samuel and the priest, Eli. While this class is more informational, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to present a word of application, and I wanted to share it with you, as well. Honestly, Eli is one of the most fascinating people in Scripture to me. He was, seemingly, quite concerned with the role of being a priest, and he was…
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8 Parenting Books You Need to Own (and Read)
I read quite a lot. I am one of those oddballs who, when I start a book, I am going to finish it. It doesn’t matter how bad the book is, or how long it takes me to read it, I am going to fight my way through. Each year, I strive to read a large number of books. This year, my goal is 61 (60, plus the Bible). [By the way, if you’d like to follow my progress, follow this Pinterest board.] Over the years, I have come across several parenting books that I really like. While I may not agree with every word in each of these volumes,…
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Dressing Our Daughter for Who We Want Her to Be
She is eight years of age, and probably at least once every day, I call her “precious.” God placed her into our care in a very special way, and it is our job to see that we aim this arrow from our small quiver on a straight trajectory toward heaven. That aiming includes trying to build a work ethic into her. It includes attempting to teach her not only Scripture, but the Author of those words. It includes teaching her healthy boundaries. It includes countless other things that we will try to instill in her. We want to model the right behavior before her each day. We fail often, but…
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The Importance of the Family Table
If there is one word to describe our culture, it’s probably “busy.” Our schedules are packed from morning to night, and for those of us who are Christians, we would say that the activities of the day are important. This post is not written to question whether we are doing good things. But I do want to ask one question: how often does your family gather around your table and eat together? The family table is so important, and our nation has basically forgotten it. Think of a typical house on a typical evening. A regular, middle-class house probably has a dining room, but we consider it a “formal” room,…
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Your Calendar and Your Family
Your calendar says a lot about you. I’ve heard it said that, you can look at someone’s checkbook register (now, I guess that would be their online bank statement) and their calendar and have a good indication of their priorities and goals. It’s hard to say if that’s 100% true or not, but it certainly is a decent indication So, today’s post asks a really simply question: does your calendar show that your family is a priority? How often have you found yourself saying, “We just don’t have time to go on a date anymore?” Have you put it on the calendar? “We would do a family devotional, but there’s…
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To My Son, After a Special Day
Dear Son, You may not long remember what happened Saturday, but I won’t soon forget it. If you do remember it, your mind may go to some of the things that happened that you found a bit unpleasant. I know it was noisy, and the game lasted a long time, but I’m not sure I’ll ever forget our day. I asked you if you wanted to go watch a basketball game, and I know you aren’t really into sports, but you decided to go anyway. Mostly, that was because you found out grampy was going to be there, too, but that’s okay. That’s part of what made it a special…
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Why Your Son Doesn’t Answer: Understanding a Boy’s Brain
Nearly anytime I see a report that trumpets some great discovery about how males and females are different, I have to laugh. Does it really take a scientific study to tell us something that any trip to the park or the mall would make abundantly clear? However, some of the information about why there are differences really is interesting. One of those has to do with the way a boy’s brain is wired. It helps to explain some of the difficulties we as parents might face in raising a young man. To those of us without a medical degree, the brain has “gray” and “white” matter in it. Doctors have very fancy…
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For the Family
I made a phone call this morning that has been discussed in the Faughn household for a long time. It’s one that others will find stupid or pointless, but one we did for our family. What was the call? We cancelled our television service. We didn’t lower our DirecTV package, or switch to local cable. It’s gone. After a long conversation last night (which followed many others), we decided that we were addicted to television, and it was time to end the addiction. I want to share why we did it, and what we hope to do with our time. Why We Ended It 1. Our Spiritual Lives. Please know…
