Big Christmas dinners with all the siblings and parents and in-laws. It can be very Norman Rockwell. But it can also be filled with boisterous arguments. Lots of alcohol. Swearing. Political discussions. It can be really uncomfortable. And so, at Christmas, we’re...
A lot of people need to hear this for Christmas! I wrote this a few years ago, and I wanted to revisit it today as we get closer to Christmas. You aren't responsible for other people's feelings! And many of us need to hear that. Are you responsible for making your...
Has gentle parenting been given a bad rap? For good reason? We had an amazing podcast last week with Wendy Snyder from Fresh Start Families, and this Tuesday we're doing a FREE webinar with Wendy to talk about how to parent with both kindness and firmness. It's all...
Talking about sex to your child can be scary. It's awkward. Are you going to say something wrong? And you don't like to feel that they're growing up! Everyday I get questions like this recent one, from a reader:Hi! Your books and podcast have helped me tremendously!...
One of the hardest things to do is to break dysfunctional cycles. Whether it's in our families or in our churches, being a changemaker is hard. But it is so, so necessary. It's the most vital thing that we all need to do. You can be the top politician in the land; you...
Are women responsible for keeping men from lusting? There’s a chilling and glaring error in complementarian theology; men are supposed to lead women and children - both at home and in the church (with many teachers going so far as to say that women cannot even give...
Does spanking help kids obey? Yesterday on the Bare Marriage podcast I had an amazing conversation with David and Amanda Erickson about their new book The Flourishing Family. One thing I especially appreciated about their book is that they brought in the data about...
Christian parenting advice is full of toxic teachings we need to ditch! It's not just marriage and sex where a lot of Christian teachings have gone wrong. It's also with parenting. Instead of teaching parents to connect with their kids and discipline in a way that...
What if the reason you often feel stuck is actually your brain trying to protect you? I seriously loved Dr. Merry Lin’s book Rebecoming, that we talked about on the podcast last week. I was so excited when they sent it to me, because I know so many of you can’t afford...
Does it really matter if a YOUTH PASTOR dates & marries a GIRL in his youth group? After all, an age difference of 23 and 17 isn't that big a deal, right? It's illegal for a youth pastor to have sexual contact with a girl or boy in the youth group. Most of us know...
Spanking your children is not good for them. A huge meta-analysis by Elizabeth Gershoff, done in 2016 of 160,000 children, found that spanking was either a net negative or neutral, but not positive. There are other discipline techniques that work better. In other...
With thanks to Zonderkidz for sponsoring this post. When my girls were small, one of their biggest pet peeves with church was that they always did the same Bible stories. Whenever they went to summer camp, it would inevitably be: Daniel and the Lions’ Den David and...
Swimming in regular clothing increases the risk of drowning. Seriously–it’s not safe. Both my daughters were lifeguards as teens, and I still remember the training exercises they had to do when they jumped into the pool in normal clothing and then had to rescue...
Are girls allowed to say a firm no to a boy? That seems like a ridiculous question, doesn’t it? Of course girls are allowed! But back up the truck, because this doesn’t seem to be what’s being taught to girls in evangelical circles, and I want to explore today WHY...
I grew up believing God was chronically disappointed in me. I knew He loved me, absolutely. But I also pictured God kind of like a self-help magazine cover: 7 Ways You Could be More Disciplined; 4 Ways You Could Be Getting More Things Done; 3 Ways You Could Stop...