Is your Daddy in your life, or is he an ‘absentee Dad’, like many seem to be these days?  There are men that would push back against this statement but the reality is even some of the ones who live in the same house are emotionally or physically absent for their kids.

A Dad is the man in his child’s life who protects, provides, nurtures, is emotionally, spiritually and physically there for them, and loves them with words and actions!

A ‘sperm-donor father’, on the other hand, is a man who has sex with a woman and then when she delivers his baby, walks away from taking on the role of a responsible, loving Dad!

What kind of example are you in your kid’s life when it comes to being a good Dad? When we understand the Heavenly Father’s care for us it will help us a lot!

Are you teaching your kids that God is their Creator, and although He is fully available as their Father and lovingly calls them into relationship with Him, it is their choice to live in that relationship or not? There is a verse in the Bible that says:

“As many as received Him and believed in His name TO THEM He gave the right to be called His children”

and

“If we confess with our mouth that we want Jesus to be our leader and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved”

We are all His creation but we cannot call the Father our DADDY until we ask Him to be the ‘Forgiver of our sins’ and the ‘Leader of our life’.

Our children know that they do wrong things (sin) and so it is makes it easier for them to understand that the reason Jesus died on the cross was to take away those sins and give them a new life!…invite them to allow God to be the Dad He wants to be in their lives.

Love, Karen

Have you ever heard a parent say something to a child that totally shocked you? Sometimes I think we forget how much our words hurt and affect our kids.

Here are some actual quotes from parents to their children:

“You are a girl; you won’t ‘be’ anything”

“You are going to end up in jail someday”

If we followed God’s word and said things “…to edify and build others up” it would be a good guide as to what comes out of our mouths. In Proverbs it says “Let the words of my mouth…be acceptable in your sight, oh Lord”.

Let’s make it our aim to follow God’s directions in what we say to our kids, so we don’t continue to be ‘epic failures’ with our words!

Have a great week!

Love,

Karen

With the economy the way it is at present, many people have great concerns about being in debt financially. But when it comes to the ‘debt’ they owe their kids, it sometimes gets put on the back burner until it is too late.
Here are a few things that we, as Dad and Mom, ‘owe’ our kids:

1. We owe it to them to teach them what responsibility means.
2. We need to teach them basic living skills-cooking, cleaning, managing money, personal hygiene etc.. before they leave home.  Or, how about things like taking the time to teach them how to ride a bike, throw/kick a ball, swim, or learn a sport that they enjoy?
3. Teach them to pursue who God made them to be, not what we want them to be.
4. They deserve to be taught at a young age where their value comes from…not from their looks, size, intelligence, athletic ability or money but from who God has made them to be.
5. The mindset that says “Our kids are our ‘slaves’” is so wrong…we need to teach them to serve by our example.
6. Above all, we owe it to them to present Jesus Christ to them in such a way that they are drawn to Him by our lives. We can do our best to do this by living our lives trusting Him completely, praying with them and for them and passionately pursuing the life He has planned for us and them!

Romans 13:8 sums it up well!:
“Don’t run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other…”

Love your kids by trying to live debt-free with them…you will not regret this choice!

Love,
Karen

The Bible teaches us that “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil”…I agree totally! But for kids, who aren’t really much into loving money yet, there is something else that seems to be at the root of their ‘evil’ ways, and that is boredom!

Bored kids are often badly behaved kids. If you have ever been a teacher or involved with groups of children for a period of time you will have observed that the kids who are bored tend to be the instigators of unruly behavior!

When our son was young, he did very well in school and would finish his work before the other kids did. Then he’d begin to distract the others and get into trouble. The teachers were very wise and partnered him with a boy who needed extra help.  As much as Jay did not like this much at the time, according to the boy’s Mom, it made a huge impact on her sons’ life, not only scholastically but also in building his confidence significantly! It also helped Jay to stay focused and get into less trouble in classroom.

I understand that some parents push their kids to become involved in too many activities, but it is good to keep them busy as much as possible without overdoing it.

Are your kids misbehaving regularly?  Then maybe you need to consider regularly giving them a simple chore to do at home and an activity to involve them in that they would enjoy and would avoid the ‘boredom=bad behavior’ phase of their lives!

Love,

Karen