Fall is a transition for everyone, adults and children alike. Those early morning alarms are already a struggle to get up and get everyone ready and out the…

“It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings.” —Ann Landers

I ask one question every year that gives me so much power as a mom. I wonder what it could do for you…

“Mom, it’s happening again! She’s just doing everything I do,” my middle daughter said with a look of frustration in her eyes. Her younger sister was picking out…

In March 2015, Harvard released a study saying that every child who winds up doing well has had at least one stable and committed relationship with a supportive…

Can I tell you one of my favorite things about the Bible? It’s how Jesus responds to people who have failed. I remember as a kid I was…

I am going to choose not to share a personal experience this go around. Instead, I’ll start by saying I hate boasting, but I am well-versed in apologizing…

I LOVE feeding people, especially my family. I DO NOT LOVE, however, a dinner table that feels like a battleground. Can you relate?

Wouldn’t you love to have that same ability to focus…but on the right things?

For me, back to school is a better reset then New Years! Here are 5 routine ideas to start during back to school:

Sometimes I find myself just stopping in my tracks or looking into the mirror and wondering how everything went so off track…and I let myself feel what I need to during those moments. 

I have a rowdy boy who is always playing some sport, even if he makes it up. He’s tossing, hitting, or kicking a ball at any given moment, in any place—even the middle of my living room.

I could tell by the way he walked from the bus to my house that the weight of the world was on my son’s shoulders. We had been navigating some pretty heavy things during this season. Just the stride of his walk set off alarms in my head that it was time to talk, really talk.

Middle school students are a different creature. It’s like they hatched from an alien planet. Your sweet, relatively normal child has morphed into a hormone-filled teenager who can be surly, cranky, full of attitude, and downright crazy.

This is something we all dread as parents: I found something on one of my boys’ phones that really bothered me. As I was jotting down some notes on my phone about how to handle this, I realized my process could be valuable to others.

Raising two boys has caused me to despise the word “good.” It seems as though any question I ask is often answered with that word. How was school? Good. How was church? Good. How was your sleepover? Good. It drives me bonkers! 

In case you haven’t realized it, parenting is one of the hardest jobs in the world. No matter how many parenting books there are, there’s not a “one-size-fits-all” parenting manual. If our parents would have been perfect, then maybe that would help us. But there has not been a perfect parent from the beginning of time—except our heavenly parent, God our Father. So the good news is, our “perfect parent” will help. 

I often find myself watching my son or daughter doing something adorable and think, “You are the most precious thing in the world. How can you be so precious?” Then immediately after that thought leaves my mind, this thought comes racing in, “How much more precious am I to God, than these children are to me?” 

I used to be a 7^th grade school teacher. I know middle schoolers well. For those of you moms who house junior high students, you’d agree these hormone raging humans face many challenges.

So how can you help them navigate through this three-year crucial journey? Here are twenty ideas I suggested to my incoming parents. Hope they help.   

The Lord has taught me many crucial lessons during my time as a parent. One lesson stands out to me the most: honor my child’s preciousness over his performance.