We simply must talk more about how spanking affects children long term. The biggest group of people who still support spanking are evangelical Christians, yet the research about spanking being harmful for kids is overwhelming. I'm not going to rehash that today,...
Every now and then my grandkids give me a picture of God’s love for us. Or rather, their parents do. I don’t share about my grandkids very often, but last week, on a private Instagram page, Rebecca posted a series of pictures of my 3-year-old grandson Alex and his dad...
I am so grateful to all of you who show up in this community, engage on this blog and on social media. I’m so grateful to those of you who listen to the podcast, send me messages, and let me know we’re making a difference! And I know that so many of you have said that...
I'm baaaaccckkkk!! Hello! It's Sheila back on the blog today, after returning from our trip of a lifetime for our 30th anniversary and 50th birthday (both belated because of COVID). Many thanks to Rebecca and Connor for holding down the fort while we were gone! Tammy...
When I was speaking back in the early 2000s, I remember asking women if they were a better wife or a better mother. Almost everyone put their hands up to "better mother." And I remember saying, why don't we realize that what kids really need is a strong marriage? Why...
This has been a strange week on the blog and social media, with a bunch of new male commenters flooding this space complaining about women. The complaints were prompted by two things: our continued discussion about the Psychology Today article and the fact that women...
What if there's something super simple you could do that could improve your mood and your marriage? I talked on Monday about rhythms in our lives--how to honor our bodies' rhythms, with the need for work and rest; for feasting and fasting. And I thought today we could...
Adult children can seriously take advantage of their parents–and seriously be moochers. Sheila here! A few weeks ago I started rerunning an important series I wrote six years ago about handling family dynamics as parents age and require care. We're moving the...
Did you know that 45,000 receive an email from me every Friday with a round-up of things from the blog and social media that week? To make sure you don't miss anything? And that email is usually written by Rebecca, with an extra insight or thought into where the...
So the wet towels anecdote from Love & Respect has gone big on social media this week. And I wanted to share it with you! As some of you may remember, I've been appalled at what Emerson Eggerichs said in his book Love & Respect (again, the most used marriage...
What if aging parents need help, but only one child lives near them? This week I’ve been rerunning a series I did a few years ago about caring for aging parents. I originally started the conversation by accident, with a little bit of a rant on 3 things parents should...
How do you set boundaries on how much help you can reasonably give to aging parents? This week I'm re-running a series I wrote a few years ago. We started yesterday talking about how parents should really try to help their adult children who will be caring for them...
If you need your adult children to eventually care for you, then that should factor into an equation NOW. I've been thinking about something for a while now that I'd like to just say. It's going to be a bit of a rant, and I may not sound very sympathetic. But I think...
Keith and I have been in the RV for a week and I have made a significant discovery! First, though, I'm not going to have a normal post up today. I'm in vacation mode and couldn't think of anything about marriage to write about. Rebecca, however, has already written...
On the a vacation we took just over a decade ago, I started knitting a blanket. It was what knitters call a "sock yarn blanket", meaning that it's made from all the ends of balls you have after you've finished a pair of socks. For twenty years I've been knitting...