Let God make the change
Do you get frustrated at the “ugly” side of yourself that parenting always seems to bring out?
Kelly Balarie of PurposefulFaith.com encourages us to let God change us from the inside out:
I feel convicted. It is easy to read God’s word and to say, “Yep, that thing right there is what I need to do…”. Yet it is quite another thing to do it. It is easy to develop a three-step plan for improvement, but it is hard to see it through. It is easy to remind yourself of all the ways you really need to change. And then to never find change.
Read the rest here.
Blessings, parents!
~DVC~
Promoting a Positive Environment for Youth Development: Traditional Sports vs. Martial Arts
by Jake M.
Sport and recreation have served as tools to aid in youth development for many years. Particularly, team sports are most often chosen for children by their parents to engage them in physical activity that promotes social development through teamwork and build confidence in their physical abilities. However, I believe that martial arts can offer even greater youth development when compared with traditional sports due to the climate of respect that goes along with training in various combat sports.
It has been my experience in several team sports that I was not always given the opportunities to develop specific skills in positions on the team that I was interested in. For example, my first couple of years playing baseball, I had really wanted to be a pitcher, but because the team already had several other skilled pitchers, I was not given the time to develop my own skills…
View original post 407 more words
11 Promises for the Single Mom
Today’s post is a two-part series by my friend, Samantha Ferguson. She’s an amazing single mama and photographer in Birmingham, Alabama. If you are looking for someone to take some great family photos, make sure you check out His Hands Photography.
I was researching a few months ago about encouraging things to say to a single mom and I came across a blog post from Huffington Post. It was sweet, perfect, and FUNNY!
From Huffington Post, 7 things to say to a single mom:
- Your kid is going to be so proud of you.
- Of course it’s OK to leave him/her with a babysitter!
- It’s also totally OK if you didn’t reeeeeally miss your baby too much.
- A family is a family, no matter who the major players are.
- Your hair looks great!
- You are enough.
- You’re doing awesome.
I have been a single mom…
View original post 1,290 more words
A Message to Single Parents Who Raise Children Alone
A message to single parents…
for raising children alone is hard to do.
But as we look back upon the years…
we can see how God has helped us through.
For we seldom choose to raise children alone…
but as we look back over the years…
we can see how God has blessed us…
through all our brokenness and tears.
And as we celebrate today…
View original post 145 more words
High-Achieving and Religious Students At-Risk Youth For Substance Abuse?
New research shows high-achieving kids are more likely to drink and use drugs during their teen years and develop addictions by adulthood.
DO YOU ASSUME THAT since your kid gets good grades and goes to a good school that they’re not drinking or doing drugs? Think again. That’s the takeaway from two new studies suggesting that academically gifted youths are more likely to abuse substances, both as teens and adults. One surveyed 6,000 London students over nine years. Those with the highest test scores at age 11 were more likely to drink alcohol and smoke marijuana in adolescence – and were twice as likely to do so “persistently by age 20.”
Notably, a study taken by Arizona State University (ASU) study found that high school students who were more afraid their parents would punish them were less likely to drink or get high as adults. One professor, Luthar, said her…
View original post 1,338 more words
The life of a single parent
You know what does it take to be a parent? And then a working parent? And then a single working parent?
Lets just say.. in short.. “a lot”!
My heart feels overwhelmed when I see the lives of some parents around me. And I do not feel like this on why their lives are difficult, I feel this for the strength that they display despite of it.
It could be their choices or destiny that landed them where they are. One could judge, advice, or criticize them.. but one can never match the sheer courage they show in every single moment of their lives; as they bear double the burden of parenting while also relentlessly trying to hide that from the child, who incidentally, is the very reason for that.
Single parenting is difficult for anybody. I do not believe in anything that stereotypes us on the basis our…
View original post 465 more words
Reflections on Single Parenting
Guest article by Dena Johnson ~
September 1, 2017.
The day is coming quickly, the day I will stand before God and pledge my love and my life to the one God has chosen for me.
It’s also the day I turn in the title “single mom,” a title I have worn for well over eight years. I have to admit that it’s difficult to let someone else into this part of my life, to step back and let someone help me with the chauffeuring and supporting and disciplining and everything else that goes into single parenting. I’m so used to doing it all, I sometimes struggle with allowing him to help me.
As we embark on this new chapter of attempting to blend two very different families—complete with five teenagers and all kinds of hormones and chaos—I find myself reflecting on the last decade. Single parenting is hard—really hard. But I hope my kids have…
View original post 972 more words
The Life of a Single Parent
I well remember those exhausting days! Like this author, I raised three kids virtually by myself. But seeing what fine young men my sons have turned out to be, I wouldn’t trade those nail-biting, exhausting years for anything.
#Exhausted
If I were to describe my life, my emotional state, over the last few months, exhausted would be the most appropriate word. With three teenagers, a new position in my company, a ministry, my days and evenings are full. I collapse into bed at the end of the day, struggling to get up the next morning.
Add to that a fiancé, a wedding to plan, his two children, trying to find a place to live that will hold five teenagers, and some significant health issues in his family, and I often wonder how we are still standing.
So many days I have awakened, gone outside for a prayer walk, and all I can say to God is, “I’m so tired. Renew my strength.”
And yet I just keep going, wondering when I can take some time to step away, take a deep breath, take time to recharge.
I know…
View original post 912 more words
Dawn V. Cahill - Hot Topic Christian Fiction 