From the moment we come out of the womb into our mothers’ arms, we immediately make a connection and feel love. As we progress throughout ou

When you look back over your childhood, how would you describe the manner in which your folks parented you? How did other important adults in your life treat you? Did you feel safe with them? Did they take care of your basic needs for nutrition and shelter, for cleanliness, nurture and emotional care? Did they lead you to a knowledge of your Savior? God designed parents and influential adults to meet the needs of young children and to teach them how to become responsible, mor

3 Ways to Guard Your Kids from Poor Influences In part 1 of this blog series, I mentioned that the single greatest influence on your children is their relationships. I would venture that the quality of their relationships will determine how well they will turn out! Our goal as parents is to be their most important relationship (after God), but it takes work and commitment on your part. In part 2, we covered four relationship-building ideas to help you build a good relationshi

In part 1 of this blog series, I mentioned that the single greatest influence on your children is their relationships. I would venture that the quality of their relationships will determine how well they will turn out! Our goal as parents is to be their most important relationship (after God), but it takes work and commitment on your part. Here are four relationship-building ideas to help you build a good relationship with your kids. When applied, these ideas have proven to b

The single greatest influence on your children is their relationships. In fact, I would venture that the quality of their relationships will determine how well they will turn out! If your children are around good influences, they will turn out good. If they are around bad influences, they will turn out bad. So as parents, we must ensure that the influences in our children's lives are good influences as much as possible -- that the influences that become relationships in our c

In my previous article about parenting children with rules and rituals, I said that one of the hidden secrets to wise parenting is to instruct your children through rituals. A ritual is a system that informs us about how we are to behave in certain situations. Everyone lives based upon systems that they picked up from their parents or developed over time. If you have the right system (ritual), then you will be successful at that part of life. Rituals tell us what to do and wh

Today's article on Responsibility will be sent in two parts, otherwise it would be way too long. One of the primary goals of good parenting is for your children to be an independent, responsible, productive young man or young woman. A parent's job is to make them more and more responsible for decisions they'll have to make as they incorporate themselves into the real world. Responsibility says, "I am accountable for all of my choices." It also teaches, "Everything I think, sa