We could probably all list a few parenting moments we wished we could forget. But rather than ignore them, what is the healthiest way to respond? In this episode we talk about common “fail” traps and what to do when we fall into them.
First, common “biggest parenting fail” pitfalls:
- Demanding without Explaining. “Because I said so” is not good parenting.
- Controlling rather than Leading. Are you trying to get what you want or guide towards what is the best for everyone?
- Dismissing rather than Listening. Lots of issues cause us to not listen well – margin, pride, frustration. Taking time to listen can diffuse a situation and gain trust and compliance.
- Avoiding rather than Addressing. We must remember our goal of training and leading our family to better spiritual health. Sometimes that takes hard conversations and tense moments. Be courageous; it’s worth it!
When we do fall in to one of these traps, we need to admit it, correct it, evaluate how to not do it in the future, and look for the opportunities to make this fail a win. (We cover some of these ideas more fully in Episode 15) Those corrective conversations can be a great place to remind of what our family goals are and the value of forgiveness. Take some time this week to do those evaluations and have those conversations. Until next time, Be Abnormal!
Dealing with unmet expectations, crossing of boundaries, and disobedience are some of the most challenging and least fun parts of parenting. In today’s episode we explore some ways to make that situation a lot better along with presenting a concept that might help more clearly communicate with your children.
When we don’t know what is expected of us or when people don’t meet our expectations, it can be extremely frustrating. One way we’ve found to alleviate that is to decide ahead of time what those boundaries, expectations, and consequences will be. One tool parents can use to achieve that is a family contract.
Here’s a link to a template for a family contract. Some of the key elements are:
- Parent agreements. Start with what kind of resources, support, and encouragements you are going to provide.
- Outline children’s agreements. Make sure these go all the way down to heart and character issues. You need to include some of the specific household mechanics, but also include things like respect and honesty.
- Define wins. We want to catch our children doing what is good, so make sure you let them know what meeting the expectation looks like.
- Lay out consequences and rewards. We want to both reward compliance and give appropriate consequences for different levels of noncompliance.
- Include special sections for different age groups and technology. We need to make sure that we take into account the needs and challenges of different stages of development.
So take a look at the contract. Look for other resources. We recommend Walker Moore’s book You Want to Pierce What? which also covers some of these matters. (We discussed this book in Episode 0008 – Drinking Coffee and Rites of Passage) Start brainstorming and craft a plan for how to best communicate your expectations and the appropriate consequences for not meeting them. Until next week, Be Abnormal.
Each summer thousands of teenagers converge on college campuses all over the country to experience Christ In Youth’s MOVE Summer Conference. We have been taking students to these events for over twenty years. This year, however, things are very different, but the mission and message of CIY MOVE continues!
In our interview with CIY MOVE director Lane Moss, we hear about their journey to retool what they do. “We have always said ‘we are not an events organization; we are a calling-students-to-Kingdom-work organization.'” Moss defines Kingdom work as a biblical concept that is “simply using whatever you have to point people to Jesus’ kingdom and not your own.”
Our students, along with many others around the country, will be participating this week in MOVE/AT – the do-it-on-your-own version of CIY’s program. We encourage you to pray for those students, their leaders, and Christ In Youth. If you would like to know more about Christ In Youth, visit their website at www.ciy.com.
If you are a parent of a student at MOVE/AT, Lane gave some great questions for you to ask when they get home:
- What did you talk about?
- What did you learn about the Holy Spirit?
- Did you feel like something needs to be revived?
- Did you open a Kingdom worker card?
Enjoy listening to what God did in your students’ lives this week! And remember, Be Abnormal!
In today’s episode we interview Brandon Mankey about the nearly decade long journey his family took that culminated in a recent adoption. As we celebrate that event, we also talk about what led them to that decision and why we as Christians must be concerned about fostering and adoption.
Brandon discussed some of the “why’s” that led them to their decision:
- It is VITAL. In 2019, there were 440,000 children in foster care, which include 30,000 youths who will age out of the system never having been adopted.
- It is BIBLICAL. In James 1:27 it shares, “Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…”
- It is DIFFICULT. While it was a challenging and long road that Brandon’s family went through, he reflects that most things in life worth doing are hard.
- It is WORTH IT. The value of investing in lives is incalculable.
Brandon also reflects that while everyone’s involvement won’t look like theirs, we should ask ourselves how to be involved in caring for widows and orphans. Here’s some steps he suggested:
- Prayer together as a family in regards to what God would want you to do.
- Seek unity with your spouse in this decision.
- Talk to a foster parent or someone who has adopted to get their perspective. While fostering or adopting may not be in your future, you can come alongside these parents in prayer and support.
- Contact a licensed case worker with the Children’s Division in your county to find out more. You can also visit the Missouri Children’s Division website for more info.
Until next week, Be Abnormal.
In today’s episode, we discuss an unexpected drop-in to a friend’s house that ended two hours later with leaving with hot sauce and a jawbone. And we learned some lessons about being “in the moment” with our family too.
As we navigate life, often the “to-do” lists, expectations, and responsibilities begin crowding in on our ability to stop and enjoy the moment we are in. Today we gleaned some principles to help us resist that tendency:
- Follow Jesus’ example of being relaxed. Jesus shows us over and over again that he was not worried or anxious in the face of storms, crowds, obstacles, or even death. We need to follow His example of remembering what is important and who is in control.
- Be a part of the process of people. As parents and disciple makers we must remember the goal is progress in being who God called us to be. Every moment is an opportunity for us to invest in that process with the people around us.
- Embrace the biblical concept of whimsy. God often shows His love for us in spontaneous and unexpected ways. We need to learn to do the same for our kids. Take the time to play, offer adventure, and give simple but meaningful gifts.
- See things through a child’s eyes. In Luke 18 we see Jesus rebuke His disciples for keeping the children from coming to Him because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these children. We must remember that kids are soaking up the big world around them and every situation can be a teachable moment to introduce them further to the maker of that world.
So take some time this week. Relax. Play. Live in the moment. And learn more about the Jesus that we follow. Be Abnormal.
In a time of chronic anxiety and social uncertainty, we must learn to help our teenagers and young adults find their feet and persevere through the tough things of life.
In today’s episode, we talk about helping our young people move from a fan to a follower of Jesus and the process it takes to get there. A lot of the ideas we discuss here come from the book Spiritual Grit by Rick Lawrence. There is also a companion devotional for young people called Growing Spiritual Grit.
Here are the big points from today:
- Let your kids face hard things. Jesus didn’t sugar-coat things for the disciples and we shouldn’t for our kids. They must learn to take personal responsibility and learn from hardship and mistakes.
- Focus on building character. This stage of life is a training ground for who our young people are going to become.
- Develop Problem Solving Skills. We need to allow our young people to take some risks, face their fears, and be involved in increasingly important decisions.
- Lead our young people to experience Jesus; not just study Him. This will take wrestling with truth and asking hard questions and us not trying to fix it but to help guide the process.
Let’s not give in to the temptation to over function, but lovingly guide our children to stand firm in their faith and find those eternal goals. Until next time, Be Abnormal.
Music is such a powerful and emotional topic. For young people, they find so much value and independence in their ability to choose and follow “their” music. Today we bring in a parent and music fan – Brett Harrison – to help us discuss how we as parents respond to and utilize music in our relationship with our teenage and young adult children.
If you want to find out what the most popular songs in our culture are right now, the Billboard Hot 100 list will give you a pretty good idea.
Some suggestions we gave today were:
- Be quick to listen and slow to speak. As James reminds us in the Bible, we must seek to listen and understand where someone is coming from before we speak. This is a really good idea when dealing with any topic with our teenage and young adult children. Start with some good questions.
- Set clear boundaries ahead of time and enforce them. This suggestion is for a broad number of issues in regards to music. Boundaries for content, amount, way to listen, who chooses, and when to listen together.
- Be open to understanding why something is important to them. Music is often a way young people try to resolve emotional issues or find identity. As you listen and ask questions, work to discern what the underlying attraction is for them to that particular music.
- Have a Listen Party. Make regular times where you share music with each other. Discuss the value and content of the songs. Make sure to bring Christian and worship music into the mix. If you are looking to explore some Christian music, this site has a lot of great lists and links.
Until next time, Be Abnormal!
Just behind wanting our children to love Jesus is a parent’s desire for their child to marry the right spouse and have a fulfilling future marriage. In today’s episode we talk about some of those issues, give some ideas on talking points and review Voddie Baucham’s book “What He Must Be…If He Wants To Marry My Daughter.”
Here’s some of the highlights from the book:
- He must be a follower of Jesus Christ.
- He must be prepared to lead like Christ.
- He must be committed to children.
- He must practice being a Protector, a Provider, a Priest, and a Prophet.
While this book is aimed at parents of daughters, it easily applies for parents who want to encourage their sons to be the right kind of man.
In the end we want to encourage parent’s to start good conversations with their children about marriage. This decision is too important to not have intentional discussions…and to be daily praying for our children in this area. Start today!
As parents, we want to help our children grow from dependent to independent. But, as the Fuller Youth Institute points out in their book Growing With, we ultimately want to move to a healthy place of interdependence where we still have influence and input into our child’s life decisions – our role just changes.
(We review Growing With, in Episode 3 of our podcast.)
One of those areas of life decision that is enormously important is the realm of relationships. In this EPISODE, we discuss how becoming a safe hub for your child’s peer group can be a great way to continue that path towards independence. Here’s some of the big ideas we covered:
- Say “Yes” when you can.
- Be available but give them space.
- Keep food around. A lot of food!
- Take interest in their friends.
We’d love to hear your comments and questions. Connect with us via the comments on this post or leave us a review on the podcast platform of your choice. Until next time, Be Abnormal!
As we raise our children, we have to realize the REAL goal is getting them to love and serve Jesus as the Lord of their life. To do that, we need to learn how to partner our family with the Good News of Jesus.
In today’s episode, we talked about some practical ways to partner:
- Practice faith-filled prayers.
- Discuss responses to church services we attend.
- Make non-church friends a welcome norm in our homes and lives.
- Make sure your children know and can share the message of salvation.
- Create opportunities to serve as a family.
- Pray together as a family for your children’s future ministry opportunities.
So start those discussions, pick an action step, and Be Abnormal!
