Parenting
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Surviving Mid-Wife Crisis
Before you judge your wife for letting herself go, take a good look at the man in your mirror.
Sometimes it's physical--wrinkles and sagging body parts. Other times a raging boredom sets in. Sometimes it's a career that goes awry. Sometimes it's just a simple unhappiness with the way your life is turning out. A man looks at his wife one morning and thinks, Maybe I should trade in my 40 for two 20s.
Forty percent of first marriages eventually end in divorce. Will yours? Many of these dissolutions take place during midlife.
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Know RESPECT
The secret to winning a woman's heart is found in the pages of God's Word.Years ago a couple came to us for marriage counseling who were on the verge of divorce. Why? Because the husband continually failed to lower the toilet seat!
Thankfully, we can report that they are happily married today. Generally speaking, however, men really don't understand women. But why?
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Not Just Fun and Games
Youngsters today are subjected to hours of violence and occultism through video games. Yet Christians in the gaming industry are bringing the gospel into their dark world.
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How to Navigate Your Teen Toward Purity
We live in a sex-saturated culture, and today’s Christian teenagers are soaking in it. Here’s how you can navigate them toward purity. Let’s be honest. Talking to our kids about sex frightens us! But we must do it. Our children are learning more about sex earlier than we did–and they are becoming sexually active earlier. …
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Stressed-Out Kids
Today, American children are exposed to distress at earlier ages than in the past.
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Pioneer Progress
Back in the 1970s, I was a fan of a weekly TV program called "Little House on the Prairie," which depicted the life of author Laura Ingalls Wilder as a child and young woman on the American frontier. The show was schmaltzy at times, I admit, but it was also educational. And it provided a yardstick by which to measure the "progress"--if you can call it that--we had made in our country.In the days when the show aired on prime-time television, there was a stark contrast between the lives of the characters on the program--who were early American pioneers--and the lives of the average modern American. The pioneers lived a hard life, fighting to survive in often harsh conditions.
Modern-day citizens, on the other hand, had every convenience the technological age could provide. By comparison, their lives were easy. Today they are even easier.
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Mom Is Raising Them Alone
Shunned and stigmatized, single mothers are one of the fastest growing demographic groups in the church. How can we respond to their unique needs? Tina was a 16-year-old, all-around athletic high-school student. When she wasn’t cheerleading or hurdling her way through track meets, she was breaking records in volleyball and gymnastics. And like most teenagers …
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When Abortion Hits Home
Crisis pregnancy workers say they minister to nearly as many Christian women considering abortion as unbelievers. When a young girl shows up at the First Life Center for Pregnancy in Orlando, Florida, the director, Sandy Epperson, depends on the Holy Spirit to give her just the right words to say. But when clients request a …
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When You’re Overwhelmed by Your Kids
I know there are days when all of us feel as if we are in over our heads. But when those days arise and courage seems to wilt, remember that God’s grace is on you for these moments. He will strengthen you against all odds. Some of you have always had someone else to rely …
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Come Home to the Father
Many people shy away from intimacy with God because the word ‘father’ conjures up negative feelings. Don’t let painful memories keep you from experiencing His love. I was born with big ears. As a child, I was teased mercilessly, and until I was 40 years old, I could hardly look in a mirror without feeling …
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How to Lead Your Children to Christ
God wants children to experience His power—but parents and ministers sometimes don’t know how to lead youngsters into a deeper encounter with the Holy Spirit. Here are some guidelines. Little hands raised toward the sky, some steady, some shaking. Little feet moving swiftly, dancing, marching. Tearful eyes pressed shut with visions and dreams. Small bodies …
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Kids in His Presence
Parents and children’s ministers often are eager to introduce children to the deeper things of God. Kids will benefit most if they first are given time to become grounded in the gospel. Children who are hungry for God’s presence may seek signs and wonders, but they must first trust Jesus Christ for salvation before entering …
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What Will We Leave Them?
For the sake of our children, it is time to disobey.Our society is increasingly criminalizing our right to stand up for what we believe. The media has encouraged the trend by making it vogue to be tolerant of every kind of perversion and by villainizing Christians who choose a biblical standard for their lives. How far will we allow this trend to go?
The nation I inherited as an adult was different from the one I was born into. Though it was imperfect morally, as Christians we could speak freely.
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6 Principles of Provocative Parenting
These six principles will put you back in the driver’s seat with your son. The Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III of Azusa Christian Church in Boston has never forgotten the advice he once got from a drug kingpin. Rivers wanted to spearhead an effort to clean up his community and help kids whose lives were …
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She Left Me For Another Man
Serendipity means to find something unexpected when we are looking for something else. Perhaps we put on a coat and find money in the pocket from the previous year. For me, it was finding a letter I had written to my wife, Nancy, years ago but had never given to her.
I was going through some files a month after our 54th wedding anniversary when I found it. I had written the letter decades earlier after counseling a couple determined to divorce. After they left my office I considered what it would be like to divorce Nancy and wrote her the following letter:
