Category Archives: Parenting

Teaching the Psalms to our children

Up front, Sola Panel

|

Picture my husband and I sitting side-by-side on the couch in semi-darkness, watching a DVD. There’s the patter of little feet on the floorboards. A plaintive voice says, “Mummy, I’m scared. I can’t sleep!” And as always, there’s the same response: “Do you want me to pray with you?” “Yes.” “Okay, snuggle up and we’ll pray.” (more…)

Ideas for strengthening families (Part 3)

Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel

| | 1 comment

 

Recently I shared two great ideas my wife came up with for strengthening family life. Now I’d like to share a couple of ideas I got from elsewhere that particularly focus on helping parents follow Ephesians 6:4 (“Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord”—NIV).

(more…)

Ideas for strengthening families (Part 1)

Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel

| | 5 comments

 

In marriage preparation, I generally begin with Jesus’ words in Mark 10:6-9 (where he quotes Genesis 1:27 and 2:24). One of the things I tell couples from this passage is that the best gift they can give any children that God gives them is their own strong ‘one flesh’ relationship. After all, the leaving of father and mother indicates that the husband-wife bond takes precedence even over the parent-child bond.

But how often do parents find themselves running around after their children (precious though they are), struggling to find time for each other in their busy lives? That leads me to my wife’s first great idea for strengthening families.

(more…)

Teaching the Psalms to our children

Life, Sola Panel

| | 3 comments

Picture my husband and I sitting side-by-side on the couch in the semi-darkness, watching a DVD. There’s the patter of little feet on the floorboards. A plaintive voice says, “Mummy, I’m scared, I can’t sleep!” And as always, there’s the same response: “Do you want me to pray with you?” (more…)

Apostasy lit, non-lit and not-yet-lit

Everyday Ministry

| | 5 comments

 

Last December I read an article over at Reformation 21 that was (as they say in current affairs TV) “a story no parent can afford to miss”. It was a brilliant and frightening piece that Stephen Nichols had written about a genre of literature that he had christened (or de-christened!) ‘Apostasy Lit’—“a genre, usually taking the form of a memoir, in which the protagonist reflects on and recants her Christian, usually of the fundamentalist variety, upbringing”.

(more…)

Wesley, charms and church planting (Part III)

Everyday Ministry

| | 2 comments

 

Drawing the longest bow yet in this series, I am going to attempt to connect child-raising techniques and the history of word changes in Wesley’s ‘O for a thousand tongues’ in order to talk about contextualizing the gospel. If you’re as interested as I am in how I’m going to do that, read on.

(more…)

Shutting the door

Up front

|

Six months ago, my husband Dave and I changed our morning routine. Previously, we had tried various strategies for daily prayer and Bible reading, fitting them around work and children into the cracks and crevices of the day. For me, this meant doing it when the children were resting, or otherwise occupied, or asleep. Some of these strategies worked better than others. Finally, when none of these cleverer approaches delivered the consistency and quality of time that we needed, we decided to bite the bullet and go back to the old-fashioned, unoriginal approach: we would simply get up early enough to take turns to look after the kids while the other parent shut the bedroom door and spent some decent time alone in Bible reading and prayer. (more…)

Motherhood and humble pie

|

The role of motherhood can often seem like a joyless, thankless task. It’s a vocation that is losing popularity in our society. But, as Lesley Ramsay shows us, motherhood lies at the very heart of God’s rescue plan for humanity. (more…)