Skip to content ↓

Explore parenting

See all →

  • Afraid of the Teenage Years

    Who’s Afraid of the Teenage Years?

    Many people cautioned me about the teenage years. Many people warned that the joys of parenting little ones would eventually give way to the grind of parenting bigger ones. They told me horror stories based on their own experiences, then assured me that I should prepare myself for all kinds of difficulties and all kinds…

  • If Satan Wrote a Book on Parenting

    If Satan Wrote a Book on Parenting

    Some time ago I read an advice column that responded to a woman who had become disillusioned with her husband and enamored with someone else. And as I read it I thought to myself, “I’m pretty sure that’s exactly how Satan would counsel if he was asked.” That got me thinking about how Satan might…

  • The Holy Sexuality Project

    The Holy Sexuality Project

    I’m sure it has always been difficult for parents to speak with their children about matters related to sex and sexuality. I’m not just talking about the birds and the bees, but about the wider issues that may be unique to every time and culture. I expect parents in the New Testament era needed to…

  • Daddy I Need You

    Daddy, I Need You

    I have been building an ongoing relationship with a person who adheres to a very different religion than my own. He is as committed to his faith as I am to mine and is as eager to speak to me as I am to him. It makes for some engaging and enjoyable conversation. I recently…

  • On Letting Your Kids Go

    On Letting Your Kids Go

    I won’t ever forget the day we dropped Nick at college. We had driven him down to Louisville, Kentucky where he had enrolled in pre-seminary studies at Boyce College. We had helped get his little dorm room all set up. We had dropped by the bookstore and picked up the last of his textbooks. We…

  • Two Years Later: What Aileen Is Thankful For

    I have said a lot about Nick over the past two years. I have written a lot of articles and done quite a number of interviews and even published a book. And I have been aware all the while that I can only speak to a small part of our loss, for there were many…

  • A Christian Fathers Last Will and Testament

    A Christian Father’s Last Will and Testament

    In the name of God, I, being of sound mind and body, bequeath to my children the small store of wealth and the few possessions I have been able to accumulate over a lifetime of labor. I divide these equally among my children and ask them to accept it all with my blessings—to keep it…

  • Purposeful and Persistent Parenting

    Purposeful and Persistent Parenting

    I’ve come to the conclusion that Aileen and I parent weirdly. But I’ve also come to the conclusion that so does everyone else. When each of us looks at other parents, there are almost invariably some components of their parenting we would love to imitate, but others that strike us as, well, a little bit…

  • Children Who Bloom in an Instant

    Children Who Bloom in an Instant

    Those who explore the vast boreal forests of Canada are rarely far from a bunchberry dogwood, a plant so common that some have suggested it ought to be Canada’s national plant. The cornus canadensis is a little shrub that often carpets the floors of the great fir and spruce forests. A perennial, its shoots rise…

  • Irreversible Damage

    The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters

    When historians look back on the twenty-first century Western world, surely few things will strike them as being more deranged and more sinister than its insistence that biology has no bearing on an individual’s gender. While society has long acknowledged the rare existence of gender dysphoria, a psychological condition marked by discomfort with one’s biological…

  • Children

    We Are Praying For Our Children

    As a father, I try to make it a habit to pray for my children each day before they even crawl out of bed. Before they’ve begun their day, I want to have already asked the Lord to bless, keep, and prosper them. Praying for my children was on my mind as I read this…

  • Parents To Join Social Media Is To Witness Death

    Parents: To Join Social Media Is To Witness Death

    Social media was still in its infancy when it showed me a death for the first time. All these years later the details remain vivid in my mind. A colleague said, “Tim, check this out.” He turned his screen toward me to show a blindfolded man kneeling before his captors. They spoke a few words…

  • When Parents Feel Like We Are Mostly Failing Most of the Time

    When Parents Feel Like We Are Mostly Failing Most of the Time

    I am sure parenting has always been a complicated business. I’m sure each generation of parents has had to deal with issues specific to their unique time and context. I rather suspect, though, that parents who raise children at the cusp of a technological transformation face a special kind of challenge. It falls to them…

  • Leave in Peace

    How To Turn A Retired Bible Into A Precious Family Heirloom

    I do not often run guest articles on this site. But every now and again I do make an exception—usually for my friend Paul Carter. In this case, he is going to suggest a great way to turn a retired Bible into a precious family heirloom. What follows is from Paul… If you are a…

  • The Friendship Between Parents and Children

    God Gave Me Three Children (and Three Friends)

    Children owe honor to their parents. Parents have the right to expect and demand honor and even to extend discipline to children who fail to give it, for God himself commands “Honor your father and your mother.” When children are young, this honor is shown especially in obedience—they are to submit to the authority of…

  • Two Habits of Successful Parents

    Two Habits of Successful Parents

    Chap Bettis recently wrote about a phenomenon he has observed in today’s young parents—one Aileen and I have often discussed as well. “Many parents are reluctant and even resistant to asking advice about their parenting. While others can see blind spots, the parents themselves remain… blind to them.” That is one side of the equation—young…

  • The Glory of Children Is Their Fathers

    The Glory of Children Is Their Fathers

    Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a father who is evil, who is notorious for his terrible deeds? You, as the child, would feel the humiliation of it. There would be a residual shame where you, as that man’s child, would be embarrassed to be related to him. You’d be…

  • Parent Love and Grandparent Love

    Parent Love and Grandparent Love

    It’s probably a reflection of my age and stage of life that I find myself thinking more and more about grandparents and grandparenting. In as much as I can read the future, I’m not particularly close to being one myself, but I’m the kind of person who likes to be prepared—to think about future realities…

  • When My Children Grow Strong and I Grow Weak

    When My Children Grow Strong and I Grow Weak

    Multiculturalism has a fascinating way of messing with our presuppositions. We find to our surprise that what is normal to one person is foreign to another, that what is good within one culture is evil within another. We find that much of what we believe to be objectively good and true has actually been filtered…

  • family

    The Benefits and Drawbacks of Following a Parenting Method

    Some parents embark on the great task of raising a child already convinced of a particular parenting method. They’ve done the research, read the books, scoured the forums, and have made up their minds. Other parents embark on the great task of raising a child without having put any substantial thought into methodology. They haven’t…