I have so many drafts ready to push out right now, part 1s, 2s and 3s from previous topics; even a “last year of my 30’s, a decade of takeaways” - all on standby because of what’s been going on in our home the past 3 months… and honestly, we love you guys so we want to share our learnings, failings and breakthroughs in real time. Some who know us well might guess it’s the latest addition to our family-baby #12 Benny Mae-as amazing and transformative as that is and she is, that’s not it! We...
18 days ago • 4 min read
Being parents of 11 children (12 come August), we get this question from time to time: “HOW DO YOU DO IT?!” And while it’s not totally clear what’s in the heart of the person asking, we can infer what they mean… How do you keep up?How do you “watch” all of them (keep them safe/alive)?!How do you stay sane (with the rejoinder; ‘I’m having a hard time with 1 or 2!’)? And man, we get it! We know how we look! We certainly know how many kids we have and how craaaazy it seems to our neighbors and...
5 months ago • 3 min read
In this series of posts we’re talking about passing the baton of faith to our children. Two posts ago we talked about “discipleship in the home;” last post we covered the vital relationship between the “church & the home;“ today we’re talking about “how to impart a biblical worldview” to the next generation. Everyday we wake up in “Babylon”… the “formation machine” (Dallas Willard)… the “idol factory” (John Calvin) that is the world and if we think that our kids are gonna catch faith like...
6 months ago • 3 min read
In this series of posts we are talking about passing the baton of faith to our children. Last week we talked about “discipleship in the home;” this week we are covering the vital relationship between the “church & the home;“ and next week we’ll be talking about “how to impart a biblical worldview” to the next generation. And we have to remember that each of these are impossibly hard to do… every family will face the incredible gale force winds of the cultural “formation machine” (Dallas...
7 months ago • 3 min read
Growing up as a Christin college kid, eventually you’re gonna be asked to “share your testimony” and when that moment comes, you better hope you have something dramatic to report! Like how you had an addiction or negligent parents or were suicidally depressed and God came along and radically saved you… I don’t know call it our fixation with the Hollywood story “arc” (good guy>bad guy>conflict>resolution), but for some reason when its your turn to share and you pipe up saying how you were,...
8 months ago • 5 min read
Friends, It only took us a couple months (sorry for the radio silence!) but our parenting with grit and grace podcast is finally here. If you haven’t already checked it out (through our various social channels), we encourage you to do so here: Please feel free to comment there on YouTube with your questions and even topics you’d like us to cover! For audio-only check these out: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/parenting-with-grit-grace/id1806438127?i=1000702108020 Ep 1 | This Is Us Apr 3...
8 months ago • 1 min read
Don’t Say “Maybe!” It’s Saturday when your kid pipes up from the back seat, asking for a play date later, a trip for ice cream or In and Out Burger; you’re thinking ‘who knows! We have a relatively open docket, anything’s possible!’ And so you respond with a hopeful, ‘maybe!’ Do you know what they hear? Not only did they hear that as a, ‘yes’ it’s now a bona fide guarantee, it’s a deep fried Oreo ‘yes’ and it’s even been boiled in beef tallow! Because now maybe it will be a surprise,...
11 months ago • 3 min read
A Rule of Life New Year’s resolutions, SMART goals, systems, and “bingo cards”… We’ve heard of them all at the end of the year and no matter what you call them, we want to argue that there most definitely is a place for habit-forming new beginnings in the New Year. Before we get into our version of New Year’s resolutions, it feels like it’s something we have to convince you of, well maybe some of you… Ask an audience of 100 people if they do resolutions and what do you think you find? Maybe...
11 months ago • 4 min read
HOW TO FIX THE “CHRISTMAS KRANKS” I love Christmastime, I love the lights, the shopping, the cooking, the weather! I love just staring at the Christmas tree in our study while I work early in the morning. I love staring at the lights and the lopsided ornament array (when you have small children who are prone to constantly ripping them down, their haphazard pattern begins midway and travels up from there). Yes I truly love all that warm and fuzzy stuff… But this morning, staring at that tree,...
12 months ago • 5 min read