“Kids delight to fear good Dads,” a sermon by John Piper. It has long been established that children feel safer with boundaries whether they consciously like them or not, but enjoying fear? Anxiety and delight don’t generally work well together. Piper makes attempts to balance “fear” and safety but the tone is troublesome. It is clear he believes the problem is there is not enough fear in parenting. Image Source: Public Domain His thesis is as follows: “Dads, help your children... Read more
Of course, parents love their kids. But are viral rants, memes and jokes about their return to school really appropriate? Read more
I’m in a tiny, sleepy Indiana town. It’s 1984. It’s where I was born, where my family attends a Missionary church, where many residents farm in addition to whatever other jobs they may do. Our stocky, kindly, elderly next door neighbor sometimes lets me look at the squirrels he catches in live traps in his yard, but I’m not thinking about the squirrels now. Instead, with the summer foliage hanging heavily overhead in the Indiana humidity, I’m sitting with Dad... Read more
Not everyone who grew up in fundamentalism become indoctrinated. Some are natural born dissenters, pushing against any agenda until they finally grow into legal autonomy. When I speak to people like this, I am often envious because that is not my story. My rebellion came much later in life, requiring me to shed an identity that is already woven into the fabric of my being. Sometimes I shame my child self. Why was I so stupid—I bought into it, hook,... Read more
This morning, I drove my children to their bus stop wearing my Wonder Woman headband. I also wear it around the house, doing dishes and at my computer. My daughter wears it sometimes. Oh, and my son dons the band, even my husband tried it on. Because a strong female superhero is for our whole family to respect. My husband cooks and I have a career outside the home. We don’t ever do gendered activities (no Daddy Daughter dates in... Read more
“Did you always know that you wanted to be a parent?” A few weeks ago while recording an episode for our podcast Kindreds, my co-host asked. We talked at length but in short, the answer was, no. When I was young and single, the idea of having a kid was something that seemed like an eventual, yet distant given for my life. But when the question of whether or not to parent became less abstract, I found myself growing increasingly ambivalent... Read more
“When you read the Bible, you are wondering how in the (expletive) am I supposed to explain this to my children?” “You have parents, inlays, or family members who are worried about your salvation and the future of their grandkids.” “You feel like you are on a slippery slope and not sure if you’ll survive the landing.” “You dread hearing what your kids might have learned in their Sunday School class.” If you answered yes to the above, you are... Read more
If you grew up Christian, or even outside of Christian subculture, you may have heard these terms wielded against you as parenting wisdom. Some parents hold them as golden nuggets of truth lifted from the Bible when what that really means is that it is intuitive to the parenting sensibilities of their time. This is why sometimes Biblical Parenting is Horrible Parenting. The Bible can be a source of parenting wisdom, but it is not meant to be a parenting... Read more
Stacy asks: Help! My 9 year old daughter was “saved” at a VBS tonight that she attended with her friend…I do not believe in the concept of “being saved” and really wasn’t prepared when she walked through the door happily proclaiming her new status. She could tell I was a bit thrown off, and she shared the story of feeling like she needed “more of Jesus in her heart,” because she doesn’t think of him enough. She said that it... Read more
“What will happen to the faith of the next generation if we criticize and interrogate religiosity?” “If we keep calling out everything church does wrong and reject spiritual practices because they are triggering, are we being bad parents? It’s already happening, statistics show young people identifying less and less as religious.” “We cannot deconstruct and discard religiosity while expecting our children to still value faith.” “If we continue on this path, our children are all going to end up ATHEISTS.”... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In