Family

A mix of personal reflections and cultural commentary about family in A mix of personal reflections and cultural commentary about family in America

Happy Birthday, Small Talk Lots of exciting news about my book this week, but the best was a note from my son.
Happy Birthday, Small Talk
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In my limited experience, the day a book launches often proves to be pretty much the same as any other day. Except for feeling kind of silly because it's supposed to be a special day. My newest book, Small Talk: Learning From My Children About What Matters Most, released on Tuesday, and the best ...

Why We Still Go To ChurchIt's inconvenient and inefficient and sometimes doesn't even feel spiritual. But I'm glad we keep showing up.
Why We Still Go To Church
Image: pdbreen

According to a 2010 Gallup poll in 2010, 32 percent of people in the state of Connecticut attend church weekly or nearly every week. The numbers look similar for the rest of New England. In our small Connecticut town, about 60 people show up to church on a typical Sunday, representing close to 2 ...

8 Books for Parents Who Need to Know They're Not AloneFor moms, dads, single parents, and married ones.
8 Books for Parents Who Need to Know They're Not Alone
Image: Chris_Parfitt

When I was working on Small Talk:Learning From My Children About What Matters Most, my husband asked, "What's the one-minute takeaway from this book?" Without thinking too much about it, I said, "You are not alone." I later elaborated on that thought in the introduction to ...

Identical Twin Sisters Growing Up Thousands of Miles ApartA new PBS film premieres tonight and raises questions about family, fate, and culture.
Identical Twin Sisters Growing Up Thousands of Miles Apart
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Twin Sisters, a short documentary film about twin sisters raised on different sides of the globe, premiers tonight on PBS at 10:00pm EST. (Click here for a preview.) This film tells a simple story of twin girls abandoned in China and adopted by two very different families—one from Sacramento, ...

How Godparenting Brought Me Into the Family of GodA Small Talk guest post by Katelyn Beaty.
How Godparenting Brought Me Into the Family of God
Image: Ceyla de Wilka/wiki commons

This Friday "Small Talk" series is an opportunity to consider the ways God uses children as "vehicles of grace" in the lives of adults. The idea comes from my new book, Small Talk: Learning From My Children About What Matters Most. In the second post of the series, Katelyn Beaty ...

"You Was a Jerk Mommy?"What to do when your two-year old convicts you. An excerpt from my new book, Small Talk.
"You Was a Jerk Mommy?"
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The following excerpt comes from my new book, Small Talk: Learning From My Children About What Matters Most (Zondervan):

It snowed yesterday. The view outside the kitchen window is idyllic—trees hand-painted with delicate white strokes, sunshine glinting off the crystal expanse, a landscape ...

What I Learned When My Children Fell Apart In Front of MeAdoption, brokenness, and grace. A "Small Talk" guest post by Sara Hagerty.
What I Learned When My Children Fell Apart In Front of Me
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For the past two years, I've been working on a book called Small Talk: Learning From My Children About What Matters Most. I'll be sharing lots more information about the book on this blog in the next few weeks (pre-order sale starts Monday), but one of the most exciting parts of announcing its ...

Why Men Should Read Sheryl Sandberg's Lean InChange depends upon women and men working together to transform the social structures of work and family life.
Why Men Should Read Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In
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When the COO of Facebook writes a book about women and leadership, the world takes notice. Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, turned heads when it came out in March of 2013, and it sparked heavy criticism (see, for example, the Washington Post’s Recline, don’t ...

How to Steward the Power of MarriageWhat family breakdown and spiritual friendship have taught me about the family of God.
How to Steward the Power of Marriage
Image: Angelrays/Flickr

I am a happily married mother. Most days, I wake up before the sun, and even with all three kids in school I spend the majority of my waking hours on tasks related to their needs. I pack lunches and help with homework and arrange playdates and drive to soccer practice and clip fingernails and toenails ...

Lessons from the Parenting Sweet SpotWhat three kids in between diapers and puberty has taught me about holding on and letting go.
Lessons from the Parenting Sweet Spot
Image: Niko Kähkönen

I’ve been waiting for nine years for this parenting moment to arrive. With children aged eight, six, and three (and no plans for an infant), I have hit a sweet spot. The past summer held the experiences I expected as a mom in the summertime—tennis lessons, skinned knees, popsicles, ice ...

Scientists Agree: Sex, Money, and Power Don't Make Us HappyJesus told us this a long time ago.
Scientists Agree: Sex, Money, and Power Don't Make Us Happy
Image: Dustin Quasar/Flickr

For anyone who lives in New England, the weather this summer has been lovely. The app on my phone keeps predicting relatively low humidity, sunshine, a slight breeze and a chance of a thunderstorm overnight to keep the grass growing and the temperatures lower than usual.

On a more personal level, ...

How Children Change the Immigration DebateDale Hanson Bourke offers a primer on the recent news of tens of thousands of children attempting to cross the US/Mexico border
How Children Change the Immigration Debate
Image: Brian Auer/Flickr

Many of us have a cursory understanding that illegal immigration is a problem in the United States. But it's also an issue that few of us—whether as citizens or as Christians—have taken the time to understand comprehensively in all its complexity. My attention has moved towards this ...

What I'm Teaching My Kids About the Fourth of JulyWhy we celebrate, even in the midst of a complicated history.
What I'm Teaching My Kids About the Fourth of July
Image: Kevin Dooley/Flickr

Our dinner conversation goes something like this:

"Momma, how many days until the fireworks?" three-year old Marilee asks, her eyes big and earnest.

"Two more days, sweetie."

"Yay!" She raises her hands in the air with a huge smile.

I turn to my two older kids. ...

When Summer Vacation is HardDon't worry. Don't beat yourself up. The idyllic memories will come... eventually.
When Summer Vacation is Hard
Image: Moyan_Brenn/Flickr

My memories of summer are filled with bliss. Laughing with my sisters on the raft in the middle of the cove near my grandparent's beach house. Playing card games with three generations around a painted white table past my bedtime. Watching storm clouds roll in, low and fierce yet almost comforting ...

Does Grief Ever Go Away?What if grief could be more like embarking on a sturdy sailboat for a journey and less like capsizing in a tsunami? A guest post by Jonalyn Fincher
Does Grief Ever Go Away?
Image: Luke/Flickr

The word that sticks with me is "still". Are you still upset about that? Are you still hurting? Are you still grieving?

For many of us, yes, we still are. We are still working on what that loss has done to us, living tentatively, with pain right beneath our skin, so near that we work hard to ...

Want a Better Devotional Life? Buy a Bird FeederWhat my grandfather and my son taught me about patience, love, and a gentle spirit.
Want a Better Devotional Life? Buy a Bird Feeder
Image: Gary Simmons/Flickr

I asked my mother for a bird feeder for my birthday. I'm not sure what inspired my request. Unlike her, I've never been much of a naturalist. My one attempt at a vegetable garden failed. I often need someone else to point out the beauty around me because I find myself lost in an abstract ...

Four Ways to Help Your Child Love ReadingReading is in decline among adolescents. Parents can help.
Four Ways to Help Your Child Love Reading
Image: ThomasLife/Flickr

If you were conducting a poll and asked me if I read regularly to my children, I would say yes. I can name chapter books we have enjoyed with our older two: James and the Giant Peach, Pippi Longstocking, The Trumpet of the Swan, among others. I can point to our youngest child's favorite book ...

We Can't Care About Everyone All the TimeWhen I didn't feel upset about horrific news reports, I wondered if something was wrong with me.
We Can't Care About Everyone All the Time
Image: See Li/Flickr

I have only paid cursory attention to the hundreds of girls kidnapped recently by a militant group in Nigeria. And even when I have stopped to listen to an NPR update on the situation, I haven't registered any emotional response. I could have tried to get my heart to go there—I knew in ...

Raising Wholehearted--Not Perfect--KidsAn interview with Jeannie Cunnion about Parenting the Whole Hearted Child
Raising Wholehearted--Not Perfect--Kids
Image: Darrel Birkett/Flickr

I had a chance to read an advanced reader copy of Jeannie Cunnion's new book, Parenting the Wholehearted Child: Captivating Your Child's Heart with God's Extravagant Grace, and I not only learned from her story but I also immediately applied some of her advice. Every time we sit down to ...

The Story of my Broken, Redeemed BodyHow giving birth made my broken body strong and beautiful. A guest post by Ellen Painter Dollar
The Story of my Broken, Redeemed Body
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Eight years ago, when my three children were still very young, we traveled to Omaha for an Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) Foundation conference. Both I and my oldest daughter have OI, a genetic collagen disorder that causes brittle bones, short stature, and other symptoms. As we were checking in at ...

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