Raising Joyful Children In An Angry World

A young boy during VBS spoke some important words for parents and teachers as to our expectations in teaching our children the Bible. This recap of the Bible I hope to help you understand the reality we work in with our kids. 

Is Vacation Bible School an inoculation to the influence of "AI" artificial intelligence on smart phones. Monitoring and regulating has limits, you kids need wisdom. Biblical education informs our epistemology, and informs our experience, logic and testing methods, to know what is true, good and beautiful. What brings joy and what brings self-destruction. 

Parents raising kids in the modern evangelical traditions appear to be anxious about kids continuing in the faith as the reach adulthood. Barna Group and others report a huge decline of young adults raised in evangelical homes, leaving the church at college age.  This week I want to suggest that the emphasis on individual faith in which we place more importance on what we agree to instead of what...

This week I look at the latest parenting description the Beta Mom.  Why the Tiger Mom or Beta Mom is not the question, when it comes to the soul of your children.

Validation your children seek must be delivered with care and balanced with helping see their value in Christ more than performance. 

This week I want to share my confession that baby boomers who grew up in churched America, a country that most people attended church, was not as effective as we boomers would like to believe. This message should serve as a reminder to parents that church is not enough, your kids need to know the dramatic stories of scripture that teach them about God and their mission in the kingdom. 

I had a debate with my grandsons about Poke Mon vs The Ninja Turtles. It taught me a great deal about the what these stories teach and how advanced our kids are in picking up the story lines. I learned that Biblical themes are often copied, that kids learn faster than we think, and they need us to help them see the great stories of the Bible. So many people in children's literature reject the...

Kids as young as middle school being encouraged to walk out of school is a joy wrecking activity. This week we cover what Isaiah says about justice and conspiracy. 

The world of film and novels is loaded with realm stories, everyone wants to be the next Tolkien or Rowlings. The Bible offers realm stories of kings and thrones with a more comprehensive view of our humanity, kings and God. This episode encourages parents to read these stories to their children, so they will have discernment. 

Peer pressure starts young and the young see the world as everything important is right now. This part of our nature leads us to decisions that trip up our kids. This week I want to suggest the basic bible principles our kids need and where to find a multi dose of wisdom. 

Many parents get the kids through the church check list and leave it to the professionals. I believe if you want your kids to have deeper faith walk you need to get beyond the church checklist. This week I make a couple suggestions from studying the kings of the Bible. 

The prince of this world offers many memberships   to our kids, in an attempt to rob their Christian identity. The most common is seeing yourself as belonging to a unique generation that is superior to past generations. The benefit of this club is you don't have to follow the boundaries or values held in the past. At best you ignore your citizenship in the kingdom, at worst you deny it.  

The voice of God is tied to understanding the child's voice, God's voice and belief of the heart. God's word gives us an explanation as to how children can hear the voice of God.

The topic of manhood is being discussed in the framework of criticizing feminism, and the removal of masculinity in the culture. This podcast I want to avoid the accusation culture and provide what Genesis the first book of the Bible tells us about boys becoming men in the real world. How do boys become productive, sexually responsible and competitive members of society. Anthropology points us to...

This week I discuss the necessity of reading the bible correctly, in order to rightly raise boys to become men. Too many of the worlds experts on this topic are creating false narratives that are biblically backwards. Boys must be taught to trust God's promises and gifts to become the man God built them to be. 

Schools are placing tremendous efforts on test scores parents can get too caught up on scores and miss opportunities in the formation of faith. The Christian family has an opportunity when children struggle with a subject to build their faith with divine confidence. 

In Psalm 8 King David informs us that God has ordained the mouths of babes, and children with strength and power, in order to silence the enemies and avengers of our faith. It is an incredible statement. Yet when look at the best selling books on parenting kids, we see pragmatic advise on succeeding in world, how to advice on fixing flaws, and admiration of pagan cultures.  King David connects the...

The recent sports story surrounding Arch Manning reveals our society'd desire for shortcuts, and denial that Arch like most QB's needs playing time.  Our kids and we as parents have the same issue as the media had in this story. We want short cuts, we want the fun and we hate the grind of making kids practice the basics. We deny Thomas Aquinas ontological reality that God made us, God ga...

Teddy Roosevelt preached the doctrine of the strenuous life as the way to win the ultimate triumphs in life. We need stories and balance to help our kids see the value as we raise them. In a world of over affirmation and helicopter parents and institution that remove every difficulty, our kids ability to strive is out of balance. 

How kids can learn what the stories of the Bible mean is helped by what Luther called the rules of faith. When we use the Ten Commandments, The Lords Prayer and the Apostles Creed, we have the frame work to understand the stories and statements of the Bible. 

The hardest thing to teach a child is contentment. We don't want to kill their curiosity, but a failure to learn contentment is destructive. We are living in a world that tries to lure our discontentment into dissent, and if left unchecked it destroys us. Today we discuss the issue of contentment and peace and the how understanding Jesus, and ourself is required to building a heart of gratitu...

The story of Peter's two fishing stories takes him from declaring himself unclean to  be with Jesus, to being able to love the Son of God. This recap of this years VBS with my granddaughter Schaefer helps demonstrate God's stories help them understand the greatest truths in the world. 

This week I want to look at the power of story and why this podcast is changing the focus and title in the weeks to come. 

I want to clear up by example and scripture as to how trusting God to do the unseen work in the heart is the path the less guilt and anxiety in parenting. 

The culture and the world has taught parents to believe in the axioms of sports, academics and the arts as the path of parenting. Set goals, build processes, reach outcomes. Our over emphasis on reason and the rational capacity of our kids is what is driving your mom guilt and fatherly frustration. This episode I try to explain why we do it, and how trusting the unseen works of God as the cure.