Christian Living
In this series, we've talked about why a formal "coming of age" ceremony can be useful. We discussed ideas about who to invite, who to have as a presenter, and what sort of presentation to have. Last post, we talked about the role of celebration - what sort of entertainment and fellowship you might include.…
At our sons' coming-of-age ceremonies, we aim to gather the wisdom of significant men in the young man's life and offer encouragement, welcome, and exhortation in a public, family-oriented setting. But it's not all teaching and ritual. Another thing we do is invite our guests to rejoice in this time of growth. Our family's birthday celebrations…
In our family, we believe it's helpful to set a particular time in a young man's life to begin transitioning him to adult roles. We talked about our reasons here, and explained who we involve in that formal time of recognition, here. We want to impress on the young man that these new expectations…
We described the idea of a formal coming-of-age ceremony here. We've done this with all six of our sons, and in a few years we'll consider how to celebrate our eldest daughter! One of the earliest questions to answer is the form the ceremony should take ... and therefore, who to invite? Since we're totally at…
A few months ago, our friend Shirley Solis gave us a copy of her new book, Not Just Tacos: A Journey into the World of Authentic Latin American Cuisine. I have pretty high standards for cookbooks. We have many of them, but just a few that we go to again and again: The Joy of…
We travel a lot. No, really, a LOT. As authors and speakers, we're on the road more months than we're home now. We used to picture speakers as those glamorous people who flew in to the conference, stayed in the nicest rooms, and had everything taken care of. Then we became speakers. We didn't want to…
Young men have a tremendous desire to try their strength and to be tested in return. This is integral to their competitive nature, but let's take a look at how it impacts their interaction with the real world, not the contrived world of competitions. Adults sometimes equate a desire for adventure with immaturity and recklessness.…
This morning a friend asked, "Do you think I should watch Fifty Shades of Grey with my teen and talk about it?" We're not as strict on media as some are. We think there's some value in watching things you don't agree with and analyzing and discussing them with your teens. Sometimes, though, there's more…
The changeover to Obamacare was a tough one for us. Insurance through our small business became impossibly expensive – three times the cost of our mortgage! We checked into alternatives at the Marketplace, but we fell in the gap and healthcare there was impossibly expensive, too. With trepidation, we decided to try one of the Christian healthcare…
It came up on Facebook again today. What do you do when you find your child has been sexting? It's nauseating to even think about it, isn't it? Awhile back, I was shocked when one of my friends told me she'd found a series of explicit texts on her son's phone, but now we're hearing…