shared from iMom.com, written by contributor, Cyndi Barber
“It can be frustrating to have a sweet cherubic child lie right to your face. When my daughter was twelve, she would lie to me on a regular basis. While I was upset about the behavior, I was more disappointed by the lack of trust between us. I found myself being suspicious of everything she said. I didn’t like being the interrogator when I suspected she was being untruthful. When she was telling me the truth it was hard to believe her without corroborating evidence. I also saw the distance this dynamic was causing to our relationship.
“After getting advice from many sources and mentors on how to stop lying, I decided to try some pretty radical tactics to turn her around and help her become a trustworthy person. It took a lot of patience and tenacity on my part, but eventually, she did turn around and we became deeply connected in the process. I also wanted her to experience real life consequences of lying as an adult. Here’s what worked for me and my daughter.”
Pillow Talk: Ask your kids, “Why do you think people lie?”
Intro below writtenby Teresa Martin:
It was just last year when my son turned 10 that I received a sudden JOLT in parenting. It was my son’s 10th birthday and as I woke him up to get ready for school, I was happy and wishing him a Happy Birthday and had told him that I was planning to come eat lunch with him at school to celebrate. And then it happened…. “Mom, I really don’t want you to come have lunch with me,” he says.
Wait. What? I asked “Why”? Did I do something? Did I embarrass him? While I knew the time would come when my little boy grew into a young man and he would no longer want to always be with “mommy,” I had never expected it to be so abrupt. He just said he didn’t want anyone coming to have lunch with him. Wow. What just happened?
As I said, I knew it was coming, but still… the words stung like a knife to the heart. So I had to pull myself together and realize that this was just a normal phase and I had to come-to-grips with letting go.
As Laura states in her post, “You’re not sure when, and you’re not sure how, but you turned around one day and realized it: you aren’t cool anymore,” and “Before you find yourself in a panic, know that this phase of childhood is common, and you are not alone.”
CLICK HERE to read her 5 tips to parent when parenting isn’t cool…..
Read the blog post to find out how important it is to spend time with God and His word, be the parent, keep communication going and to have a support group of other parents and friends. Take comfort, my friend… you are not alone. And one day, you’ll get the opportunity to be “cool” all over again. 😉
This is a shared post from: Crosswalk.com. Hands-on Faith for Families is from Focus on the Family. We hope you enjoy this quick post on engaging your family. If you would like to see more hands-on devotions like this, please visit Focus on the Family and/or Crosswalk.com. To see this post as originally posted, please click here.
Hands-on Faith for Families– Week of April 3, 2017
Theme: Let God Give You a Cheerful Heart
Thinking Good Thoughts
Scripture: Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8).
Play: Have kids close their eyes and imagine various destinations that you call out, such as a beach, a snow-covered hill, a campfire beneath the stars. Have them describe what’s in their minds — what they smell, feel, taste, hear. Join the imaginary mental journey by adding additional sensory details.
Talk: Directing our thoughts to what’s pleasant can positively affect our feelings and actions. How we think about something often affects what we say or do. That’s why our thoughts are so important — they can cause us to make either good or bad choices. The Bible tells us to focus on ideas and images that are true, pure and lovely (Philippians 4:8). What are some thoughts that would help us make God-pleasing choices?
Pray: Ask God to help you think good thoughts that lead to positive action.
—Terri Foster
#FamilyFridays – Shared blog post from IPHC.org
“Today, we are living in a very fast-paced society. We are being bombarded from every direction with people and things that are placing demands on our time and resources. We have become entangled by our constant need for affirmation. As Christians, this creates a problem in our focus. Most of our time and energy is being invested in temporary things, and very little is being invested into what is eternal. Even as parents, our attention to our children and to the future of their success can cause us to become overcommitted, draining us of valuable time; all for a feeling of accomplishment.”
To continue reading this post from writer Lael LeBlanc Sr. please go to the iphc.org website here.
Today’s share blog post comes from Home Front Magazine...in an article written by: Derick Zeulner who is the Pastor of Communications at South Shores Church in Dana Point, CA. He is husband to Rebecca and the father of four, the last of whom Derick recently had the opportunity to “catch” in an unexpected home-birth. He loves to swim with his family, renovate his home, and “equip the saints for the work of ministry” (Ephesians 4:12 ESV).
from the blog:
“There’s a lot of pressure on dads to be everything and win in every area. Action films (the height of Western thinking) have raised us to believe we’re the hero of our own story and that nothing should stop us. Social media, on the other hand, has left us thinking everyone else is actually doing it.”
and
“Too many Christians, too many dads are walking around doing the same thing, thinking, “Jesus saved me, but somehow I can make it up to Him.” But you can’t. You can’t give enough. Serve enough. Evangelize enough. Be dad enough or work enough to equal Jesus’ sacrifice. And when we try, we trade in our Christian hope for anxiety and pressure.”
Read the full blog post by clicking the link below….
Today’s #FamilyFridays blog post centers on marriage. Couples often get married and think it’s a 50/50 partnership… but realize a short ways in, it really doesn’t work that way. ChristianFamilyLife.com explores the 50/50 deception through what our Needs are, what’s God’s Principle is, and what our Response should be.
Marriage, many believe, is a “fifty-fifty” relationship. That belief sounds good and seems to make sense. There’s just one problem – it doesn’t work. Here’s why: Thinking our spouse must do his or her 50 percent leads us to focus on the other person’s performance… Biblical love, however, is self-less at its core. “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her…” (Ephesians 5:25).