Question: How do you say I love you to your 14 year old son?
Answer: Ask him how his day went.
This is how the text exchange went . . . Read more…
I’ve been reading Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive. One of their suggestions is that encouraging people with small steps can be helpful in influencing them to take bigger steps (and they cite a study to support that claim). The idea is to make a small request first, and a larger request later. The smaller request prepares people for the larger one and increases the positive response rate for the larger request.
Then they apply that principle to children. Read what they say, see my experience with it, and see what you think:
Would you do this? Most strangers are quite upset about it. I would think there are better ways than what this mom did, but I confess that I have felt similar urges on occasion. Fortunately, I have not acted on them. What’s your preferred method?
When you had children, what did you expect to happen to your marriage? That it would get better, or worse? What actually happened? Now go and read this and compare your answers to the authors – and note the importance of agreement between the two parents…
(HT: Jesus Creed – I love Saturdays on the Jesus Creed blog!)
Chuck Colson writes a brief and insightful commentary on Twilight: Conversations with Your Daughter.
Colson points out that the clandestine negative influence Twilight may have on teenage girls may be more corrosive to biblical values then parents realize.
We’ve been working through A Case for Kids (from CCEF) in one of our Adult Christian Education Classes on Sunday mornings at Grand Ledge Baptist, and all involved have found the content very helpful. I am pleased to point out that you can view much of the same quality teaching here. These videos move parents past dealing with behavior alone and help us deal with the heart issues of our children.
Good Stuff!
Here’s a breakdown of the sessions (with session by session viewing): Read more…
It is not at all uncommon to speak of “teenagers” and “sex” in the same sentence. Let’s be honest: it’s on their minds and it is on the minds of everyone who parents a teenager! Well, if your teen is an evangelical Christian you will be happy to know that the great majority of evangelical teens believing in abstaining from sex until marriage. This is good news, but it is where the good news ends…
Let me brag on my Dad a bit (and give thanks to the Lord) by remembering some of the key moments in my life as his son and some of the important things he taught me. Read more…
Make sure you pray for the Chapman family as they grieve. Here’s a brief report on the memorial service.
HT: Chris Brauns
