Author: Thereasa Winnett

Thereasa Winnett is the founder of Teach One Reach One and blogger at Parenting Like Hannah. She holds a BA in education from the College of William and Mary. She has served in all areas of ministry to children and teens for more than thirty years and regularly leads workshops for ministries and churches. She has conducted numerous workshops, including sessions at Points of Light’s National Conference on Volunteering and Service, the National Urban Ministry Conference, Pepperdine Bible Lectures, and Lipscomb’s Summer Celebration. Thereasa lives in Atlanta, GA with her husband Greg, where she enjoys reading, knitting, traveling and cooking.

Dads Praying For Their Daughters

Dads often get a bad rap, especially on television. If a dad is even present, he is often portrayed as stupid, uninvolved and totally clueless about his children and their lives. If a television dad should have a daughter, the dad is obviously uncomfortable even talking with her. The idea of being actively involved in her life would never occur to him.

Dads have such an impactful relationship with their daughters. Much of how a girl feels about her appearance, the men she chooses to date and more are often a reflection of her relationship with her father. Many dads are aware of this and spend time cultivating great relationships with their daughters.

Continue reading Dads Praying For Their Daughters

Helping Christian Kids Develop Empathy for the Poor

When you read the letters in the New Testament, it becomes obvious a large part of the work of the early Church was helping those in poverty. The causes of the poverty may have varied, but the message was clear – Christians needed to show God’s love to the poor.

If you live in a city like Atlanta and are middle class, there is a very real chance your child has never really been exposed to poverty in a meaningful way. Even if you occasionally volunteer to help the poor, your child may only have the vaguest idea of what life is like on a daily basis for those living in poverty.

Continue reading Helping Christian Kids Develop Empathy for the Poor

Tips for Raising Disciples

The day your child is baptized is not the end of your journey of dedicating your child to God. In many ways, it is only the beginning. For many Christian parents, the baptism of their child seems to lift the burden of the responsibility to point their child towards God. After all, your child has made the crucial decision, right?

Actually, although baptism is what makes us a Christian, we often forget there is another piece to being Christian. Baptism is definitely about forgiveness of sins, the promise of eternity in Heaven and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Baptism is also about becoming a disciple of Jesus. Yet somehow we often forget to teach our children exactly what that means and how it affects the way they live their lives.

Continue reading Tips for Raising Disciples

Teaching Kids About Discipleship

Teaching Kids About Discipleship - Parenting Like Hannah When our children are old enough to really understand the concept of sin and the impact of sin in their lives, we call that the age of accountability. Scriptures teach us when each of us reaches that age, we have a decision to make. We must decide if we will obey God and be baptized for the forgiveness of our sins, or walk away and live our lives in pursuit of our own desires.

Probably the happiest day for a parent (after the birth of their child), is the day their child is baptized. In many homes, Bibles are searched and studied as the child prepares to make the most important decision of his life. Then the day arrives when your child walks into the baptistry and is immersed for the reemission of her sins. Many parents breathe a sigh of relief. If the child is close to adulthood, the sigh may be huge!

Continue reading Teaching Kids About Discipleship

“Hidden” Rules of Christian Parenting

Recently I read a great paper on educating children in poverty. One of the interesting findings was something I have always suspected. Things a middle class parent would consider “common sense” are really not common sense, but are behaviors and attitudes passed on from middle and upper class parents to their children. Children in generational poverty are never taught these “hidden” rules for success. Unless parents in poverty are actively coached on these rules or have stumbled upon them on their own, they are almost certain to pass the poverty lifestyle on to their children.

Christian parenting also has hidden rules. Actually, they are in the Bible, but many parents don’t catch them or don’t think they are important. They parent with the best of intentions, but are raising children who will leave God and the Church or grow to be lukewarm Christians.

Continue reading “Hidden” Rules of Christian Parenting