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All Articles for Foundations
Does Raising Children with a Concept of Sin...
One woman says her upbringing was based in fear and shame because of the concept of sin. God was a megaphone in my head: “You’re bad, you’re bad!”
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One Dollar = One Taco: Easy Money Lessons Ov...
In a first world country, our kids know that everything they could ever want to buy is accessible. How do we teach them the value of things and money?
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Why I Decided to Foster a College Student
For one couple, becoming foster parents happened in a really unexpected way.
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You Might Be a ‘Snowplow Parent’...
Many parents fall into the well-meaning mishap of clearing an easy path for their kids, regardless of the cost. Have you?
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Teaching Our Kids Not to Be Bystanders to Bu...
Most kids on today’s campuses probably fall into the category of “bystander.” They know they should probably do something, but they don’t.
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Helping Your Children in the Discovery of Th...
From a FamilyLife Today
®
broadcast, a list of ideas to help your kids think missionally about life.
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Let’s Turn the Helpless Into Heroes
I’ve always believed that’s what birth mothers really are—heroes.
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Helping Your Family Understand Racial Reconc...
We cannot live redemptive lives and hate our neighbor. Diversity in relationships not only shows unity to the world but also builds in our own hearts a love for others.
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Asking Forgiveness From My Kids … Agai...
My kids need to grow up with the knowledge that I require a Savior just as much as they do.
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8 Suggestions for Talking to Your Kids About...
Talking to my kids about shootings doesn’t come easily—how do I answer questions about things I don’t understand myself?
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Gender-Neutral Parenting Isn’t for Me
My husband and I are raising our daughters to identify with who God designed them to be, embrace the characteristics He gave them, and develop confidence in the goodness of their Maker.
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Why Your Relationship With Your Child Matter...
You have the privilege of growing a child who knows the love of God personally and knows how to love people well.
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Would You Say Yes to Becoming an “Inst...
Is foster care messy? Of course. Is it worth it? Absolutely.
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Investing Time With Your Children: The Chall...
The time we have with our children before they enter into adulthood is limited. We have a responsibility to use it well, with a heart of wisdom.
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Your Most Important Job as a Parent
Teachable moments are opportunities for us to imprint God’s values on the next generation.
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What I Wish Drew Brees Had Whispered to His...
I want more for Drew Brees and his sons than just what they can earn. And Jesus offers more.
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God Used a Parakeet to Love Our Daughter
Of all the stories about raising six children we’ve told over the years, this is probably our favorite.
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My Son Was Addicted to a Smartphone
The patterns I saw in my child’s behavior opened my eyes to the damage my phone had done.
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I Want My Child to Be an ‘Alien’
Helping a child understand this world is not our home.
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Parenting Is Not About Raising Well-Behaved...
If you view your kids as sinners who need salvation, you’ll see parenting as a rescue mission.
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50 Things You Can Say to Make Your Child Fee...
A list for parents who want their children to know their love and God’s love.
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Verses From The Book Of Proverbs To Teach Yo...
These verses can become the centerpiece of kitchen table discussions and a tour guide for difficult conversations.
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A Surprising Antidote for Sibling Rivalry
Teaching your children to help others is a lifetime gift to them and to everyone they encounter.
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Q&A: How do I stop my child from cursing...
Don't ever think that training your child's language is in vain.
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3 Truths We Need to Teach Our Kids About Bei...
Filling our hearts and minds with the things of God will quench the hunger that the world cannot.
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Talking to Your Kids About Transgender Issue...
Your kids will encounter this issue someday. How will you handle their questions?
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5 Reasons to Make Family Worship a Priority
The practice of family worship is a crucial discipline for spiritually healthy families.
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5 Ways My Parents Shaped My Spiritual Life
My parents showed me how to walk as a believer and honor Christ in all things.
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Teaching Children About Having A Heart That...
Here’s a ‘game’ I developed to help my kids understand spiritual priorities as they begin to face the pressures and temptations of their world.
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Training Our Children to Pray
Rather than only teaching them simple prayers they can memorize and recite, we need to intentionally educate our children about what prayer should look like.
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4 Reasons You Should Intentionally Disciple...
If you don’t shape your children, with God’s help, the world will.
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Helping Your Children Put Their Trust in Chr...
Your calling as a parent is to model a faith that is authentic and strong.
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Keeping Your Family Stable in an Unstable Wo...
Four practical suggestions for facing uncertain times with faith and courage.
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Raising Kids in an ‘Anything Goes̵...
In the minds of most teenagers, there is no universal standard for sexual morality of absolutes beyond a person’s own view as to what makes sexual activity right or wrong.
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A Safe House Begins With You
Your love for your child should define your relationship—just as God’s love defines His relationship with us as His children.
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2 Simple Ways to Teach Respect to Young Chil...
Training preschoolers can be overwhelming, but starting small will build a strong foundation for more lessons to come.
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Pointing Your Children to God When They Fall
As much as we hate it, our children lose control, make poor choices, and deal with shame, grief, and remorse. That’s when they need you the most.
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10 Ideas to Challenge Your Teenage Son to Ma...
Here are a few steps you can take to create the right environment for your son to grow in his faith while he’s still living in your home.
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Who’s Running Things Around Here?
The undeniable fact is that God expects parents to lead the family.
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Making Your Home a Hub of Faith
Ideas for creating a gravitational pull that brings family members closer to each other and to God.
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Teaching Toddlers to Do Chores
As parents we can grow accustomed to doing everything for our young children and lose the opportunity to teach them responsibility.
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3 Ways to Bring Your Children to Jesus
While we should strive to be a godly example by the way we live, we must be proactive in teaching our children about God.
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5 Important Scriptures for My Family
My desire is to incorporate these truths into the fabric of my family’s values.
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Lessons From a Basketball Coach: The Value o...
How the high school coach of NBA star LeBron James teaches his players about the value of serving others.
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Teaching Kids the Difference Between Discern...
We need to help our kids carefully discern good from evil without developing hearts that condemn others.
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Why Do So Many Kids Leave the Church?
Too many kids grow up seeing their parents endorsing one thing and living out another.
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Faking Faith … for 18 Years
Jessica Thompson learned that being a good kid doesn’t equal being a Christian.
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31 Questions to Help You Be a Better Parent
Answer these questions with honesty, humility, and dependence on God's power.
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Books to Read to Your Family
Here are a few Bibles and works of Christian literature that my family enjoys reading together.
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Helping Your Children Know Their Gifts
Your job is to help your children grow into the adults God intended them to be.
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Capturing the Memories and Lessons of Your F...
I lost my dad recently. He was the first really close person that I had lost, and the emotions of it all continue to be excruciating. I’ve gone through cycles of grief and sadness, feeling alone as I lost one of my biggest cheerleaders. Standing beside a casket gives an incredible sense of finality—no more […]
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Teaching Your Children to Be Good Conversati...
Training our kids to be good conversationalists is an example of living out the second great commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
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Are You Blessing Your Children?
A parent can influence children to become who God created them to be—not by manipulation or force but by watering the seeds God has planted.
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How to Leave a Legacy in Your Home
It all begins with a foundation of God's Word.
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If You Want to Tame Your Child’s Tongu...
One of the greatest gifts we can give our children is disciplined speech.
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Murray Family Code
Karis Kimmel Murray describes the “Murray Family Code.” She and her husband developed these rules to emphasize practical and biblical expectations for how family members will live and treat each other.
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Giving Our Children a Clearer Picture of God
God’s grace serves as the self-healing mechanism for our inadequate lenses when we fail at love, forgiveness, and grace itself.
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Parenting Is a Mission of Mercy
You are God’s first responders, called to run in with help when your child is in danger because of burning desire or an attack of temptation.
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Teaching Children to Value All People
Christians share a common identity in Christ, which takes precedence over ethnicity and every other difference that tends to divide us.
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What Makes a Child Truly Great?
When we scutilize our parenting priorities, we often find that, although we are followers of Christ, we are also products of a compelling Western mindset.
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7 Priorities for Great Parenting
If we had only 30 minutes to talk with you, here's the advice we would pass on.
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It’s Up to Parents to Teach God’...
Accepting the responsibility of teaching the Bible in your home will equip your kids to live by it when they are grown.
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Will Your Kids Be Ready for the Real World?
Youth entitlement seems to have reached epidemic proportions in both my family and society as a whole.
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Teaching Your Teen to Treat the Opposite Sex...
A few specifics that teenagers need to learn about the opposite sex.
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The Myth of Successful Parenting
No matter how skillful you are, only God is sovereign over your children.
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Stop Overindulging Your Children
Advice on how to meet all their needs, but not all their wants.
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Spiritual development
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Godly legacy
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Born on Valentine’s Day With a Broken...
Stephen and Jill Kendrick's story of adopting Mia
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Five Essentials to Leaving a Legacy that Wil...
Learn how to leave your children a heritage, not just an inheritance.
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An Orphan’s Plea
What happened when a 15-year-old boy appeared in a Florida church, asking for a family.
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Their Greatest Legacy Is 60 Years of Marriag...
My parents’ commitment is a source of strength for their children and grandchildren.
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She Had Nobody
When Laura and Steve Byers traveled 5,000 miles to Ukraine, they didn’t know the name of the little girl they would adopt. They had no idea what she would look like, or how old she would be. And they couldn’t comprehend how much she would change their lives. “How will we know it’s her?” Laura […]
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Determining Your Core Values
A worksheet to help you determine what you believe in.
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“Don’t Sin, Dad”
It's time to start considering how the sin we tolerate in our lives is impacting future generations.
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The Power of a Lasting Marriage
"I am grateful for proof that two people can love each other for an entire lifetime."
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Q&A: Teaching Children How to Resolve Co...
Three suggestions for modeling conflict resolution to your kids.
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Q&A: Financial Planning, Kid Style
What are some ways to teach my children about money?
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Raising Responsible Kids
Help your children take responsibility for their actions.
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Forgiveness Is a Gift of Love
A champion gymnast learns that healing for her troubled relationship with her father takes more than hard work and determination. An excerpt from a new book, Growing Together in Forgiveness.
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The Power of a Parent
By building your child's character, you can help shape the future.
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Three Powerful Dynamics of a Mission Minded...
God will help you focus your family toward making a strong impact for His kingdom.
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Q&A: Teaching Children to Apologize
We need to realize that we are not just asking for an apology, but we are also training their consciences.
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What a Life, What a Legacy
A tribute to J.T. Walker, a man who was passionate about his God, his family, and his church.
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What Does God Think About Children?
It's time for a heart-check about children in the Christian community. Do we truly have God's heart for children? Do we really believe children are a blessing?
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We Thought Adoption Would Mess Up Our Family...
September 2006 Like many Christians I know, my wife, Erin, and I had discussed whether adoption is something we would ever do. We liked to think that we would. The topic never really came up more than a handful of times. Then some friends of ours who had adopted invited us to an “If You […]
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Doing What God Wants Me to Do
They thought their "baby days" were over, but they didn't know what the Lord would do next.
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Fathers Fanning the Flames of Faith
Building a simple fire pit in the backyard was key in building up the spiritual condition of our children.
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I’m Not Alone in Parenting
Listening to FamilyLife Today has given me the encouragement to persevere.
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Dressed for Service Not Success
A few ideas on how parents can start cultivating an attitude of service in simple ways, by weaving threads of humility, consideration, and an "others-first" attitude into the fabric of everyday life.
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Equipping Our Children With a Map for Life
In the battle for the hearts and minds of our children, we need to recognize that they need our intentional guidance in countering the deceptions of life.
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Helping Your Children Understand Natural Dis...
Explaining natural disasters and help children work through the issues.
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Parental Love and Acceptance
Parental love is the first love a child experiences and the first love he (she) understands.
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Parenting Advice in a Pleasure Seeking World
How can Christian parents encourage their children to become followers of Jesus Christ?
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Peace at Home
The second requirement of teaching children to be peacemakers is to help them understand the root cause of their conflicts.
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Q&A: Who Leads the Family Devotions?
Dividing responsibilities between Dad and Mom.
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Shaping Your Child’s Destiny
Helping children understand that significance is found in fulfilling God’s purpose for their lives.
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Should Children Be Exposed to a Relatives Li...
What kind of exposure should my children have to a relative who is in an inappropriate or ungodly lifestyle?
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Teaching Your Children to Study the Bible
What's a parent's number one need?
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Considering Adoption in the Face of Infertil...
Encouragement for those who have doubts about adopting.
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How to Develop a Bond with an Adopted Child
It begins with the process of attachment—the deep sense of belonging to each other.
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Orphans … Who Cares?
If you spend much time studying God and His priorities and passions, you will learn why caring for orphans matters to Him.
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Cody’s Lesson
When we got out of the car, I could tell I had picked a bad day to bring a little kid to the mall.
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Don’t Let Your Kids Get Away With Lyin...
Lying, no matter how small, is a big deal. If our children are going to develop the discipline to always embrace the truth, it will be with our help.
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Exposing Deceit in Your Teen
These steps will help you keep track of the truth.
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Guiding Your Teen Away From the Deceit Trap
As we shape our children’s convictions we need to be careful to give them God’s perspective of lies, false appearances, and misrepresentations of the truth.
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How Well Is Your Child Avoiding the Deceit T...
Here are some ways to test how well your child is handling the deceit trap.
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Modeling a Commitment to Excellence for Your...
We need to model and teach a commitment to excellence.
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Modeling Integrity to Your Child
A life of integrity is a life you can trust.
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Q&A: Getting Kids to Do Their Chores
Using chores to teach responsibility.
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Q&A: Helping Your Homesick Campers
This can be a time in your child’s life when she can begin to wean herself from her parents and begin to form her own identity.
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Q&A: Lying and Deceitfulness in Teenager...
The child who is developing more complex thinking abilities now has a better set of tools to use in being deceitful.
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Sleepover Dilemmas
Do your children know what you expect of them when they spend the night with a friend?
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Teaching Your Child Excellence Through House...
Our children have approached their simple household chores with all the enthusiasm normally expressed for a root canal.
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Teaching Your Children to Handle Money
You can use all sorts of methods to teach your children how to earn, save, invest, and spend wisely.
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Values Are Your Most Important Parenting Too...
Your children are watching where you spend your time, money, and resources.
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What I Hope to Accomplish as a Mom
Parenting isn’t just a manual task—it’s the shaping of a life.
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How Do You Want to Be Remembered?
In a FamilyLife Today interview, Dennis Rainey and Bob Lepine say that all of us are called by God to leave something behind—to have an impact on the next generation.
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Why We Need to Teach Our Children About Grat...
Gratitude is not natural; it must be nurtured.
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How UCLA Coach John Wooden Learned About Bui...
The beloved coach was raised by a father who believed in building character.
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Our Children Need Us
Our love will be the stabilizing power that I hope God will use to pull this child through these turbulent times.
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Protecting Your Children From Sexual Predato...
Guidance for teaching your children to be sensitive to potential danger.
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The Toddler Years
Toddlers make mothers feel like they have lost control of the family.
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Calling Your Child to a Commitment to Excell...
Our children need to catch a vision for being an ambassador for Christ.
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Building Friendships With Your Young Childre...
Eight "foundation builders" to help parents as they seek to cultivate strong friendships with their young children.
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Called to Adopt
A day full of frustrating challenges gave me a good laugh years later.
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Age-Appropriate Chores for Children
What chores can children do at specific ages? The following chart gives some ideas of what is possible.
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Are Children Boring?
In most cases I find boredom to be a function of attitude—a result of my own selfishness and lack of vision or initiative or creativity.
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Becoming a Family of Purpose
These ideas won't cure every problem in your home, but they will help you refocus on kingdom purposes.
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Answering the Call of Family Worship
Three steps that will help you spiritually invest in your family.
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Adjustment Issues
A day full of frustrating challenges gave me a good laugh years later.
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Are You Ready to Adopt?
Here are some issues to consider as you consider adding to your family through adoption.
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A Biblical Approach to Manners
Manners were God's idea first.
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A Great Patriarch
God allowed me to spend a few precious hours with a husband, father, and grandfather finishing the race strong and loving his family during his last hours on earth.
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10 Ideas: Living the Gospel in Your Home
If the gospel is central to your life, it also must be central in your family.
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A Treasure to Give Our Children
We can’t take the gospel for granted; instead we need to safeguard it and deliver it unaltered to the next generation.
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A Conversation at Walmart Naming a Birth Mot...
Copyright © 2009 by FamilyLife. All rights reserved.
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Failure Reject Not Worthy to be a Mother
The story of one couple's journey from infertility to adoption.
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40 Lessons We Sought to Teach Our Children
Here's a list of values and character traits that helped us focus on biblical priorities in our parenting.
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How to Ruin Your Kid for Life
Ten ways to ensure that your child will not succeed.
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Surviving a Strong-Willed Child
Four tips for interacting with a stubborn child.
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Taming the Wild Tongues in Your Family
Here's help if you're concerned about how your children talk to you and to each other.
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5 Ways to Help Your Child Develop a Growing...
We used these ideas to help our children on their spiritual journeys.
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Are You Too Concerned With Your Child’s Be...
Many well meaning parents mistakenly focus on a child’s conduct and miss the root cause … the heart.
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Don’t Miss Those Teachable Moments
You never know when God will give you an opportunity to imprint His values on your children.
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Getting to the Heart of Your Child’s B...
Too many parents focus on changing a child's behavior. More important is what's going on in the child's heart.
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Helping Your Child Cling to the One True God
Parents must identify false gods in their children's lives that distract them from the truth.
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10 Ideas for Leaving an Eternal Legacy
Will what you do today make a difference tomorrow?
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The Slave Who Left a Heritage
My great-grandfather Peter continues to influence his family—several generations after his death.
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10 Ideas: Ministering to Orphans
Every Christian can make a difference in caring for orphans and children in foster care.
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The Raineys’ Adoption Story
By giving you a brief glimpse into our story, we pray that we will encourage you to prayerfully consider getting involved in adoption and orphan care.
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10 Ideas: How to Be Your Little Man’s...
Sons need the model of maleness that they can best find in their father.
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The Day Baby Sarah Turned Blue
The story of an orphan who weighed only five pounds at six weeks, yet taught me about God's love and compassion.
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Why My Family Loved the Creation Museum
Here are five reasons my family loved the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter and why you should take your family there, too.
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The Snares and Traps of the Enemy
Forty-six thousand men took a breath as Tom made his way to his son.
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We exist to help you succeed in the three most important relationships in life. God, Spouse, Kids.
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