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How to Help Your Anxious Child
I remember driving my son to kindergarten and him crying the entire way because he did not want to leave me. When we got to the school, I would have to park because he refused to get out of the vehicle. He would jump back and forth over the seats of the car avoiding me. To others it might have looked quite funny – me chasing this little six-year-old kindergartener all over my car. Once I got him out of the car, he would plant his feet and refuse to walk, forcing me to carry him— as he cried and begged me not to leave him. By the time we…
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Teaching our Children to Love and Share Christ
My mom is the strongest and most generous woman I know. She has always been giving of herself and her time. When we were growing up, I remember us always having friends over to swim, eat, spend the night, make candy, and have shaving cream fights. We were involved in Bluebirds, and Girl Scouts. As we got older, she did countless five-day clubs for the neighborhood sharing the Gospel to so many children. I remember one summer, over 50 children accepted Christ! The surprise on her face as child after child raised their hands was something I will never forget. She was so excited at what God had done.…
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Loneliness- The Universal Silent Killer
I know the pain of loneliness. I truly do. The emptiness of wondering what lies ahead in life and what the future holds. The fear that uncertain times and changes bring as life changes, children grow, people move, and loss happens. I used to think that I was the only one who felt it. But as I have grown older, I have realized that the pain of loneliness is no respecter of age, beauty, profession or lifestyle. It can strike a young child at preschool and it can hit the elderly after the loss of a spouse. It can affect the college student, who is new on campus, the graduate…
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Three Separate Stories of Teen Violence is Three Too Many
Three separate stories of violence; all involving young children and teens—two of the incidents live-streamed on Face Book—all taking place within the same week. When I turned on the news a couple days ago, I heard about a hate crime. Four young friends took a mentally-challenged young man to their home and brutally attacked, and tortured him. They then streamed it live on Face Book for everyone to see. Last night, I heard of a 15-year-old boy who shot and killed a 17 year-old-boy in a Chilies’ parking lot close to where I used to live. This morning when I got to work I heard about a 12-year-old girl, who…
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Teaching Thankfulness to our Children
The clouds begin to roll in. It was looking like it might be a bad storm. A voice thundered across the sky, “Rain shower, be a mighty downpour.” Immediately, the rain started coming down in ‘buckets and sheets’. It was the kind of rain that is referred to as, ‘raining cats and dogs,’ ‘a real frog strangler,’… the kind that flips your umbrella inside out and renders it worthless. Further up north, something very similar happened. The wind was blowing a little, but as it often does, it became stronger whistling about and in-between houses and cars. A whispering voice breathed, “Snow, fall on the earth,” and at that exact…
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Living Life in Light of the Lies, What’s a Parent to Do with this Election?
When my niece was about three years old, my sister and I took her and her older sister and my daughter and their grandma on a shopping trip to a discount jewelry/purse store. This place is like Fort Knox with security. You’re watched on monitors, the door has an alarm as do all the purses and some of the jewelry items. There is even an armed guard at the door. The sales force follows you like you are already a convicted felon, but, they have great jewelry at great prices so we continue to shop there. Being the curious person I am, I have often wondered what would happen…
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Sexting, We Need To Have a Talk
This morning as I turned on the news, I heard a story about a 13-year-old girl being charged with child pornography. The young girl had taken two pictures of herself. One was in her sports bra and the other was without her sports bra – but with her hair covering what the bra had covered. I was struck with sadness—sadness that she felt the need to sexualize herself and send a suggestive picture—sadness that she was growing up so fast and seemingly unknowingly. However, this wasn’t even the worst of the story. This 13-year-old child, not knowing the danger she was putting herself in, was being put into the…
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Hold Your Breath but Don’t Forget to Breathe-How to Harness the Strong-Willed Child
He wasn’t quite two years old when it first happened. I was making dinner and he was playing in the living room with his two older siblings. At first, I heard him start to cry, then as I walked into the room to see what was happening; there wasn’t’ anymore sound. I asked, “What happened,” as I rushed over to him. His brother said, “We just took a toy away that we thought was too small for him to have.” Now frantic, I called his name and cradled him in my arms watching his eyes roll back in his head and his lips turn blue, as he passed clean out.…
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Clown Dog! The Gift of Laughter
Serendipity is the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. I think back to some of the best times in our family or with friends and they were and always will be, shared times of laughter. When my youngest son was about eight years old, he curled up in my daughter’s chair, before she went to bed. He took her stuffed animals that she had arranged in her chair and stacked them back on top of himself. He was stealth, like a little ninja. He did it so quickly before she went to bed that no one knew. Before I walked in to…
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How to Shepherd Your Little Lamb
As many mothers do, I used to sing to my children when they were young while I rocked them to sleep. One hymn my daughter loved was, “I have decided to follow Jesus.” She would sing it all the time. My grandma, my daughter’s great grandma loved it too. She played pat a cake with my daughter, sang and laughed with her. But, after my grandpa passed away, my grandma seemed to develop dementia quite quickly and was eventually diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. When we would go to visit her she often didn’t recognize us. But, my daughter would sing this hymn to her and she would light up. So,…