Must Read For Christian Tweens and Teens

Must Read for Christian Tweens and Teens - Parenting Like HannahOur family was introduced to the Harris brothers about the time the first edition of this book came out several years ago. Our then young teen daughter loved reading the book and realizing she wasn’t the only kid on the planet who made God, serving others and sharing their faith priorities in their lives.

Do Hard Things (New 5th Anniversary Edition) by Alex and Brett Harris is a must read for all tweens and teens. It does a great job at banishing the myth that the teen years should only be about playing and avoiding responsibility as the way to have fun and enjoy life. Instead, they make a strong case that actually living a life doing the hard things is where real joy and fulfillment are to be found for young people.

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Raising Kids to Be Who God Meant Them To Be

Raising Kids To Be Who God Created Them To Be - Parenting Like HannahOne of my favorite things about New York City is the niche stores you can find everywhere. Want anything, and there is probably a store somewhere in the city that sells every variation of that item ever created. Last week, I found this great store in Chelsea Market that had bins of all types of different spices and teas.

The store took great pains to carefully label each bin with the name of the spice or tea it contained. Some spices look very similar to each other. If you have ever mistakenly substituted cumin for cinnamon in a recipe though, you understand how important it is to know exactly which spice you are buying.

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Kids, Emotions and God

Kids, Emotionas and God - Parenting Like HannahRecently, I witnessed a group of adults telling some teens news they thought was great. From an adult perspective, it was wonderfully exciting news. As the news was shared, I watched as the teens clapped. They probably assumed it was expected, as the adults were cheering. The looks in most of their eyes told a much different story. The news made them uneasy and they doubted that it would indeed be positive for them personally. Yet, the adults around them missed the signals and continued chattering about how exciting it was.

God created people to have emotions. The Bible makes it very clear having and even expressing emotions in godly ways is welcome. Of course, how we act during these emotional states can become sinful, but emotions themselves can help us process and release events that could become harmful to our physical, emotional, mental and even more importantly, spiritual development.

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The Sluggard Christian Parent

The Sluggard Christian Parent - Parenting Like HannahSluggard is one of those great Bible words we don’t use in regular conversation very often. Yet, the Bible actually has quite a bit to say about sluggards. As someone who considers myself a person who accomplishes more than most in the course of an average day, I never thought much about sluggards.

That is until I read a quote by author Leighton McCoy. “I chose to believe that whatever I didn’t do as a parent would be covered by what God would do as the perfect parent and therefore I didn’t really have to worry too terribly much when my children veered off course. I was wrong. I thought this was childlike faith, but now I know it was spiritual laziness.” Ouch!

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Moms As Leaders

Moms As Leaders - Parenting Like HannahForget about Presidents, Queens and CEO’s. The most important leaders in the world are Moms. Think about it for a minute. Mothers often have more influence and impact (good or bad) on the future leaders and “regular” people of the world than almost anyone else.

Whether you realize it or not, you and your spouse are leaders. You have the responsibility for leading your children. If you are a Christian, hopefully you are leading your kids towards worshipping and obeying God, and living the lives He wants them to live.

Yet moms are often ignored when it comes time for leadership training. There is usually no paycheck for being a mom and Mother-of-the-Year awards are few and far between. In fact if they were honest, most people who write leadership books would smirk just a bit at the idea of a mom with three kids under the age of three needing leadership development. And yet, we do.

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