: Life is hard. God is good. We need each other.
You can tell a lot about a person based on what makes them cry. I don’t mean crying when you get hurt, or when someone you love dies. Everyone cries then.
I mean when something happens, and for some reason you may not even be able to explain, you start to tear up.
A number of years ago, I began noticing and paying attention to this. These teary moments are clues into our hearts.
So that’s why, when I found myself weeping in the theater watching Wonder Woman, I knew something was up.
I made a huge mistake with my son’s graduation party. I forgot to take pictures! This shames me, not only as a mother, but as a blogger. Before the party started, I took a few. The weirdest thing is, that at one point during the party, I looked out the back window and thought, “I love seeing all of these people enjoying each other’s company.” And I actually went out and took a few pictures.
But did it cross my mind at that point to take other pics? Noooooo. No standard picture of my son with his cake (doughnuts, in this case). No pictures of my son at all.
Here’s what I attribute it to: I lost my mind temporarily due to outlets.
But the party was great! Let me tell you about it.
The craziness of our society has been filling my newsfeeds this week, so let’s just lump all of these together. (We’re ending with something encouraging, so take heart!) Have you heard about these goings-on? I feel it’s important to share stuff like this because I think that a lot of us would prefer to live in our little bubble of like-minded folks. (Not slamming the bubble…I love my bubble). But the truth is, from inside our bubble it can be hard to really believe that society is becoming what it is becoming.
Here’s what I’ve been reading:
Parenting changes so much when your kids become teens. But that doesn’t mean you have to abandon them to figure it all out on their own. Apprenticing our teens into adulthood is the real goal. Be sure to scroll to the bottom to catch the link to my interview on this topic!
Listen to my interview with Vicki Tillman on the Homeschool High School Podcast on this topic.
Did you see the article going around recently about parenting teens? It implored parents to stop doing things for their teen in order to grow independence and maturity. Maybe you even shared or ‘liked’ it. It made some valid points.
But it also kind of broke my heart.
Don’t wake your kids up. Don’t pack their lunch. Don’t bring them things they’ve forgotten or fill out paperwork for them. Don’t ‘meddle’ in their academics.
Here’s the thing, parents… as our sweet babies grow into smelly, sassy teens, we do need to change the way we parent. We need to be intentional about developing that independence and maturity. And that can mean hard lessons, consequences, and ‘tough love’. But there are a few major problems I see with advising parents to stop doing these things for their kids altogether.
Scripture printables remind you of God’s word when you feel overwhelmed. And they can be the best way to encourage a friend who is struggling.
Do you ever feel helpless when a friend is struggling? You’ve hugged, visited, shared a meal, and encouraged. But you can’t be there every minute.
The ladies class I’m a part of on Wednesday nights has been trying to actively encourage a friend who is in the hospital. One of the things we decided to do was to flood her room with the truths of God’s word. I created these Scripture printables. We each wrote an encouraging note around the edges, to remind her of our love, and hung them all around her room.
How do you celebrate Mother’s Day? We used to go out to a brunch buffet after church. But as our families grew, it started getting pretty expensive. We also realized that we didn’t spend much time enjoying each other’s company in the busy restaurant. So several years ago we began having brunch back at our home. (My sisters and I decided that my parent’s house wasn’t an option, as my mom would stress about things getting done).