Mom on Strike

Mom On Strike - Parenting Like Hannah
Cleaning House by Kay Wills Wyma

Have you ever looked up after a big meal to find everyone in your family had disappeared leaving you with the dishes? Or maybe you are beginning to feel like a short order cook or a maid as you work while everyone else is watching television. Perhaps you have even wondered to yourself how your offspring will ever have clean clothes or nutritious meals once they leave your nest.

I think every mom has had at least fleeting moments when they wonder if they have done enough to prepare their children for the real world. While most moms don’t go as far as doing their children’s schoolwork for them, all of us have probably procrastinated a bit about teaching our children the really important life skills like cleaning toilets or doing laundry.

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Books for Christian Teens Who Want to Change the World

Books for Christian Teens Who Want to Change the World - Parenting Like Hannah
Photo by D. Sharon Pruitt

Do you have a teen who wants to change the world? Thankfully, for all of its issues, our society is encouraging children to become more involved in making a difference in the world. As a Christian though, I want to make sure my daughter understands one very important principle the world does not teach. Souls last longer than bodies.

Serving the felt needs of people without sharing God with them, only helps them temporarily. We have done nothing to make sure they have an opportunity to go to heaven when they die. On the other hand, trying to share the Gospel with someone who is starving or in pain is cruel. How can they hear God’s love, when you aren’t even taking the time to get them some food or medicine so they don’t starve? Serving felt needs and sharing the Gospel should always be done together.

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Parents and Youth Ministry

Parents and Youth Ministry - Parenting Like Hannah
After You Drop Them Off by Jeramy Clark

Having been involved in more than half a dozen different youth ministries in three regions of the country, I was interested to see what Jeramy and Jerusha Clark had to say about youth ministry in their book After You Drop Them Off. After decades of being a teen, becoming a volunteer in youth ministries and now as the parent of a teen, I have noticed a change over the years in teens and their parents.

While some things have remained constant, I believe we will see a major paradigm shift in youth ministry over the coming decade. With parents working long hours, at least one non-present parent becoming more common and some parents who are tired of parenting releasing young teens to their own devices, teens are beginning to parent themselves more than ever.

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Teaching Your Child Christian Resiliency

Teaching Your Child Christian Resiliency - Parenting Like Hannah
Unstoppable by Nick Vujicic

Even if you could be the perfect parent, bad things are going to happen in your child’s life. Not because God is punishing your child, but because we live in a fallen world. As much as we would love to spare our children any pain, we can’t. Your kids will have disappointments, heartbreaks, illnesses, injuries and other painful experiences during their lives. How they handle the pain though, can mean the difference between living a godly, productive life and being stuck in the pain forever.

Having had a tough year personally, I was excited to get a chance to read Nick Vujicic’s latest book, Unstoppable. (Click to read the first chapter for free.) If you are unfamiliar with Nick Vujicic, he is an Australian Christian speaker who was born without any arms and legs. Evidently, his first book told his story in depth. In this book, he chooses to address issues people in pain may face, giving them hope and practical godly advice.

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The Strong Willed Child and God

The Strong Willed Child and God - Parenting Like Hannah
You Can’t Make Me by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias

Parents often say they have a strong willed child. Some children are a little wiser, shall we say, about heeding correction than others. Strong willed children can cause early gray hairs in some parents and moments of counting the days until they leave home for others. Forget trying to dedicate him to God, you are trying to merely survive his childhood!

I believe every child has the potential to be self-willed at any given moment. Remarkably, the behaviors of the self-willed child resemble those of the strong willed child. As parents, we want the “magic” secret for handling those moments when our child has drawn a line in the sand and dares us to cross it. How do we teach them obedience and avoid World War III in the process?

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