I recently discovered that more people click on my blog Instilling Maturity in Children than any other. That tells me we need to take another look at the topic. In the first blog I talked about learning to do hard things, respecting another’s “no,” dealing with disappointment and seeking forgiveness. This time let’s talk about […]
Grace for Muddy Carpets–‘by’ Ryan Patterson, Age 5
Last week, Mommy and I went to visit Nana so Nana could cut Mommy’s hair. Before Mommy picked me up from school she bought me a set of garden tools. I was so excited. There was a yellow shovel, a blue rake and a red hoe. I especially liked the hoe. These tools were big, […]
Christmas Memories of God’s Faithfulness
This morning I was thinking about past Christmases when my children were young. I remembered how often I had to trust God to provide presents for the four kids. We were in a faith ministry and our income was solely from donations that were sporadic and interesting, to say the least. I was learning to […]
Greg’s Story–Sequel to "Learning Authentic Love"
As I promised, here are Greg’s own words about his short adventure with incarceration. Written in 2006 for my parenting book, Handbook to Joy-Filled Parenting, Greg’s courage to make his story public has already helped parents rearing teens. I hope it will continue to help many–as we all grow in our journey of learning unconditional love. […]
Learning Authentic/Unconditional Love
I love Jesus. I love to read. Also, I love chocolate. And I love my family and friends. Jesus, my family and my friends love me. People loving each other is supposed to be more like God’s kind of love, very different from loving to read and loving chocolate. I wanted to love people the […]
Instilling Maturity in Children
Most conscientious parents desire to help their children grow into maturity. I would like to suggest some topics that may help parents see this issue more specifically. I will take a short compilation of ideas on maturity from my book, Handbook to Joy-Filled Parenting. We are not raising children, we are raising adults I learned […]