“Attitude” is a shorthand term used to summarize many different feelings, thoughts, and behaviors all at the same time. Various triggers provoke attitudes and simply hearing a word or seeing a signal can change a person’s perspective. All Mom has to do is say Derek?! with that certain voice, for instance, and Derek knows she [...]
Some view their anger as justified because they are right and others are wrong. They believe that being right is the only ticket required to launch into an adult temper tantrum. But saying “He made me angry” implies that external events require emotional intensity. The dad who links the trigger (what “made” him angry) and [...]
Day to day life provides opportunities to teach children about God. It’s the job of parents to frame the picture of world events, to help children understand life from God’s point of view. Teachable moments become available in times of crisis. That doesn’t mean that you preach or lecture. It means that you ask questions [...]
God has placed a conscience inside your child to help your child do four things: Do what’s right, deal with wrongs, be honest, and care about others.
The Bible uses the word conscience 30 times in the New Testament. Twenty of those times by the Apostle Paul, five were written to Timothy to help him understand [...]
The heart contains a number of internal prompters but some of them lead [...]
Isn’t it interesting how kids are drawn to heroes? We think kids love heroes for a reason. Heroes are characterized by four things. They do what’s right, deal with wrongs, are honest, and they care about others. Kids love heroes because God has placed a conscience inside each child that prompts them in the same [...]
Look for ways to coach your children to make their own decisions or to think about how decisions should be made. You may even want to encourage cooperative decision-making when a child comes to ask for something.
Cooperative decision-making teaches children valuable skills of negotiation, compromise, communication, and creating alternatives. Mutual honor is demonstrated in the [...]
We teach families that honor means Treating people as special, doing more than what’s expected, and having a good attitude. That includes seeing what needs to be done and doing it. It means solving problems instead leaving them for others. One family had a sign in their kitchen that read:
If it’s broken, fix it.
If it’s [...]
