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Finding the Mother Inside

May 9, 2013

I’m a step-parent so Mother’s Day always holds some bittersweet moments for me. I’ve learned through 36 years how to step back, step-aside, step-away and even step-up to support my husband and to honor the mother of his children as well. Mothering didn’t appear the way I had always imagined it would — as a Hallmark Card.  It’s been more like the cards that make you laugh or even tear up with the honesty of sentiment. My step-children have always remembered me on mother’s day often giving me the greatest gift which is to share their father with me through the years.

Dorothea Dix, a social reformer of the 19th Century was never a mother nor was she a step-mother. Her own mother may well have been mentally ill. At least she was "unavailable."  Dorothea tried desperately to adopt a [ … ]

Failing

May 8, 2013

As parents, we don’t like to see our kids fail—even if failure might provide just the reality check they need. I’m no scientist, but I think we’re biologically programmed to try to protect our children from the hurt and pain that failure brings, even if it means pushing them to persevere in something that lies outside their strengths and long-term interests. We make the tone-deaf kid practice piano. We book time at the batting cages for a child who’s better suited to the library than the ball field. We insist on the advanced-placement class, thinking it will aid on college applications, even though the pressure makes the child (and therefore the whole family) miserable all year.

Factor in the reality that we somehow think a child’s failure is a reflection on us—What will people think of me if my child [ … ]

Leaning In

May 7, 2013

As women, most of us need an example like Mary’s [the mother of Jesus] to help us believe God can use us in any significant way. We have no trouble believing God can use others, but when we look at ourselves, all we can see is our inadequacies and inabilities. So, clinging white-knuckled to our comfort zones, we tend to stick with what comes naturally. We shrink back from God’s upward call and find ourselves reluctant to say, “Yes, Lord! I’m Your servant. Use me as You please!”

I’ll be the first to admit that’s often been true of me. I find it easy to believe God can use my husband. When we started Gateway Church, for instance, I had no doubt God would bless it. My excitement soared, and my faith roared into action as I stood on the [ … ]

Ryan, Josh & Kerry Shook on “Family Talk”

May 6, 2013

 Ryan and Josh Shook, authors of Firsthand: Ditching Secondhand Religion for a Faith of  Your Own, are guests along with their father Pastor Kerry Shook on “Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk” radio broadcast on Monday, May 6 and Tuesday, May 7.  The Shook family discusses the difficulty young adults are having as they tranisition to a personal faith and not that of their parents or others.  Ryan and Josh advise parents and peers to ask the hard questions and to go directly to God with their doubts.

To hear more, click here:  http://www.drjamesdobson.org/Broadcasts/Archive

 

 

 

Praying for our children

May 6, 2013

As Christians, we’re called to take the lead when hard times hit. To stand and be counted among those who place their confidence in a God who is completely good, even when life feels bad. Yes, life is rough. At times, brutal. But it’s also amazingly, achingly beautiful. Full of hope and potential and possibility. And if we want to raise children whose faith can thrive in difficult circumstances—children who live in a loving, wholly trusting relationship with their God, who are able to see the beauty even in the midst of the fire and smoke, who remain alert for signs of hope amid the rubble—we have to model that kind of relationship with our God. Come what may. As parents, we want to equip our children to be strong and courageous disciples. But we can only teach them what [ … ]

SNEAK PEEK: Ripples Along the Shore by Mona Hodgson

May 3, 2013

Can a War Widow Escape Her Grief—and Find God’s Promise—on a Wagon Train West?

Click here to download chapter one of Ripples Along the Shore.

When Caroline Milburn steps off the boat and back into her hometown of St. Charles, MO, part of her wishes she could step right back on board and sail away. St. Charles, though home to her beloved friends and quilting circle, hasn’t felt like home since the death of her husband. And living with her sister, Jewell’s family hasn’t provided much balm for her grieving heart. Caroline knows something needs to change—but for now she’s stuck sharing her sister’s home, and enduring the anger and bitterness of her brother-in-law.

Click [ … ]

Mary’s Faith

May 3, 2013

Most of us have heard Mary’s story so many times we take it for granted. We sang about it at Christmastime standing on risers, dressed as white-robed preschool choir cherubs. We acted it out in nativity plays at church. We heard over and over again about the angel who came to tell Mary of God’s plan and how she responded with a statement so simple and full of faith that it’s echoed through the ages ever since: “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.”

As children, we didn’t grasp the gravity of the statement. To us it was just a line from a Christmas pageant. Even as adults, we sometimes think of it that way. But Mary never did. For her it was a momentous declaration of faith that forever changed [ … ]

Be Fruitful

May 2, 2013

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:10

What an incredible thought! You and I have been created for the purpose of doing good works. God designed you, He gifted you, and He placed you in the world so that the fruit of your life would have an everlasting impact. He even prepared those activities for you before you were born.

Out of all the centuries in time, this is the generation into which God chose to place you. Of course, you had nothing to do with the country in which you were born or the family you were born into. But clearly God placed you in His world at this particular time so that you could do something special. [ … ]