Is Porn Harmless, or Is It Damaging Lives?
From the UK, a former editor for Britian’s version of Maxim magazine, called “Loaded” discusses his conclusion that pornography is “the most pernicious threat facing children today.” I asked the...
View ArticleWhat Makes Bad Language Bad?
Who decides what the bad words are? Paul Tripp references an occasion where one of his kids asked this question and he made a couple of distinct categories: There are condemning, judgmental, ungodly...
View ArticleBoom, Boom, Boom… Big Thunder Cloud.
I had to apologize to Sari a while back. We were playing UNO as a family and Sari came around the coffee table and wanted to tickle me. She poked her finger in my neck. I really didn’t want to be...
View ArticleLove is the Combination of Both Encouragement and Challenge.
“Jesus looked at him and loved him” (Mark 10:21a) I think the wealthy man who asks Jesus how to inherit eternal life wanted Jesus to pat him on the back for all of his obedience of the commandments. I...
View Article“Calling People Out”
A friend of mine was sharing a story about a time (some 20 years ago) when he was at Lake Hayward Beach area (in Hayward, WI) and a mother was asking her older daughter to get out of the lake because...
View Article“Bulleys” written by my 7-year-old
My daughter Sari, who is 7 years old, wrote the following during her inside recess time at school after her class had talked about bullying. I appreciated the emotion in it! Bulles are horabill. Bull...
View ArticleIt’s Their Hill!
Every winter I create a sledding hill of of the stairs of our deck by clearing the deck of snow and slowly creating a mound higher and higher as the winter months progress. Sari and Macie just love...
View ArticleThe Problem with Adolescents? Other Adolescents!
I was listening to NPR’s All Things Considered and I came across a report called, The Teenage Brain: Spock vs. Captain Kirk. Are adolescents impulsive? Researchers created a scenario to test...
View ArticleRegrets You’ll Never Have Video
When parents are in the thick of life with their children, they often take little time to stand back and reflect on the big picture. The big picture being: engaging with your children in the moments is...
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The Cottonmouth Children’s Book Series
Tim Keller shares an applicable story related to substitutionary atonement (fitting for a children’s book review, right?!): What if you and a friend were walking alongside of a river and your friend...
View ArticleApologizing to My Own Kids is Difficult!
I was tickling my youngest daughter, Macie, on the couch. Boy was she giggling! She was loving it just like both of my girls do. For some reason, for them, tickling is REALLY fun. Not for me, but they...
View ArticleWater Costs Money?!
I walked into the backyard after having been inside for a while. I saw the water hose lying on the ground, which isn’t unusual for us because we leave it out fairly often. What was unusual, however,...
View ArticleToo Many Things at Once!
Sari and I had a rub one morning a while back. We were running late on our mission to get out of the door for school so I was trying to move her along. I told her to get a hat on (because she already...
View ArticleParenting Is Inconvenient
From my journal dated: May 20, 2014 This morning was rushed. The girls slept till 7:50a. School starts at 8a. Sari woke up frustrated that she’d be late to school, but also didn’t want to rush (kinda...
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Dads Need to Wrestle With Their Sons… Everyday
The longer I work with children and then watch them grow up into teenagers and young adults, I believe this to be true about boys: They need to be able to wrestle with their dads. Everyday. They need...
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This Is My Family’s Working Discipleship Plan
I received this email from a children’s pastor a few weeks ago and I’d been thinking about how to respond. Here is the email: Hi Jeremy, I was reading your post at Kidzmatter on Have You Ever Thought...
View ArticleDear Parents: Here’s Some Language You Can Use with Your Children
I just sent this letter to the parents of our Followers students regarding what happened with the story we interacted with this past Monday. Followers is an after-school program that Hayward Wesleyan...
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Initial Family Discipleship Objectives
Six years ago, I wanted to clearly define a path forward in the discussion at Hayward Wesleyan Church regarding family discipleship. In order to do this, I wrote up a one-page document which clearly...
View ArticleDear Parents, “Please Challenge Your Children (and Yourself)”
Dear Parents, I was recently talking to a mother of a 7th grade student who was sharing with me that her son didn’t want to come to Sunday school and Youth group at church. “Every Sunday morning and...
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Stained or Painted with the Gospel?
Article originally appeared @ wesleyankids.org on May 29, 2014 Jared Martin shared an amazing insight a while back. I’ve reordered the question: Are we stained or painted with the gospel? I think for...
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