comĀ·muĀ·niĀ·ty /kÉĖmyunÉŖti / Ā [kuh-myoo-ni-tee] noun -Ā a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists (usually preceded by the): the business community; the community of scholars. We recently had the opportunity to share with a [...]
Category: Parenting
May I Have a Compromise? [updated]
When people hear our kids ask, "May I have a compromise?" they tend to look at us a bit funny. They seem completely confused when we respond to our kids as if requesting a compromise is normal. But at our house it is very normal. In fact, itās a question we hear no less than [...]
What’s the Impact?
Someone told me recently that she and her husband want to foster when their biological kids are older. She told me they have a heart for foster kids and a background in counseling, so they think fostering would be a great ministry. But they don't want foster kids to negatively affect their children. This is [...]
The Wounds You Don’t See [updated]
I recently read a study that highlighted the difference between our ability to recall images versus words. There were two control groups. The first was shown a picture of a circle. The word ācircleā was written down for the second group. The groups were re-convened 72 hours later and asked what they were shown. The [...]
5 Things my Kids Taught me in 2013
Every day is a new adventure and there certainly is much truth to that especially when you have six little adventures living in your home. But days are more than just adventures for us parents, they are educational as well and since we just closed the books on 2013 I thought Iād share what I [...]
A New Hope
Another Christmas has come and gone because as Brooklyn reminded us on Thursday, ālast Christmas was yesterday.ā But now that Christmas 2013 is in the books it seems like a time of reflection is in order. Do you remember a movie from 2006 titled Children of Men? Itās set in 2027 where women have somehow [...]
Great and Other Expectations
One of the greatest sources of conflict for any of us is unmet expectations. So many of the low moments in my life are when people didn't behave the way I thought they should or hoped they would. At the same time there are an equal amount (if not more) of moments where others are [...]
What are we Teaching our Kids?
The ice started to come down here in Dallas/Fort Worth last Thursday afternoon and it didnāt stop until 24 hours later. Icemageddon was upon us and except for about an hour Sunday afternoon we were barricaded in our home from Thursday night to Tuesday morning. We have six kids. Cabin fever doesnāt begin to describe [...]
Who Has the Greater Responsibility?
One of the biggest struggles I've had as a parent is a pretty common one. And that is requiring better behavior from my children than I require from other adults or even myself. One of the ways I usually justify the higher standard for my kids is that I am teaching them and training them [...]
The Tale of Two Thanksgivings
Thanksgiving 2013 has come and gone without serious incident at our house. That statement is enough reason to rejoice because there is always the potential that something could go wrong every year. I won't get into it here but let's just say experience has made me wise. Fortunately this year nothing went wrong. We had [...]