Parental Ponderings
Parenting can be overwhelming—being a deliberately Christian parent can be even more so. How do we raise our children to love God and neighbour in North American society? How do we shape them to live faithful, intentionally Christ-centred lives? This blog will explore the many struggles, joys, and challenges facing Christian parents today.
Editing our children’s reality
It is inevitable that we as parents will lay the foundation for the world our children are beginning to explore. We teach them what is good or bad, right or wrong, safe or dangerous. We will teach our children their first words—colours, numbers, shapes, and more. Perhaps most importantly of all, though, we as parents have the responsibility for teaching our children about God. Continue reading
Trying to control the vertical and the horizontal
“What did your parents do to keep you guys in church?” was once asked of my wife Rachel and me by a priest who was disappointed to see his children who were about our age not show any interest in maintaining a regular church life. We didn’t really know how to respond. Continue reading
Expectation vs. reality
Parental reality has a way of setting in and crushing even our loftiest of expectations, as we ourselves discovered all too quickly. Continue reading
Everyday Intentions
I like to think of myself as an intentional parent. My husband and I have sought to cultivate in our kids an awareness of larger issues in our culture and we have tried to talk about and act in accordance with the concerns that we see. Our hope is that our kids will approach life in a more nuanced way, that they will be Christians who question the status quo, who will be compassionate to those who struggle, and feel a sense of responsibility to contribute towards alleviating these issues. Continue reading
Eucharist-anchor
The Eucharist has become a kind of anchor for me—a reaffirmation of what my faith ‘boils down to’. Continue reading
Lent
As we enter this season of Lent my prayer is that we will take seriously the opportunity to look inside ourselves and allow God to use this time to prepare us well for Easter – to look with joy towards celebrating God’s redemption through Christ’s death and resurrection. Continue reading
Advent
It’s the most wonderful time of the year . . . sort of. Like many parents I’m sure, I find Christmas to be a bit of a mixed bag. Continue reading
Extraordinary?
What does the word extraordinary mean to me? More specifically, as a Christian, what would it look like to raise extraordinary children? Continue reading
Living Thankfully
I’ve been thinking about the movie The Hobbit lately. Our family rewatched it a couple weeks ago and despite some significant departures from the book we all found it enjoyable. There is a part in it that especially stands out … Continue reading
