Parenting in the Negative World

In his book Life in the Negative World (2024) Aaron Renn helpfully divides recent history into three periods with regard to the relationship between Christianity and the broader culture: the positive world (1964-1994), the neutral world (1994-2014), and the negative world (2014-present). In the negative world in which we now find ourselves, the broader culture is negative by default toward Christians. Renn helps us to think through a number of implications for life in this new world. In this article I walk through some specific implications for parenting in the negative world.

June 3, 2024

A practical tip for leading your wife

A few months ago my wife and I began meeting weekly so that I could better lead and serve her in her walk with Christ. These times have been incredibly fruitful, and I want to share some of the ways this has helped me to engage, encourage, and equip her, and how you can do the same.

April 30, 2024

What is Your Family’s Normal?

In his book Habits of the Household Justin Whitmel Earley notes, “One of the most significant things about any household is what is considered to be normal.” I would encourage you to set aside some time to reflect on three questions.

April 23, 2024

Children’s Books for Your Christmas List

October 17, 2022

A Simple Morning Liturgy with Small Children

A liturgy is simply a structured form of worship. In church worship services this may look like a time of “responsive reading” or reciting the Apostles Creed together. Many “liturgical” churches have their entire worship service structured in this way. Our family morning liturgy is extremely simple. With a four year old and a seven month old, it has to be! There are only two parts. First we recite the Children’s Creed together, and then I say a simple memorized prayer over our family.

January 10, 2022

How to Choose a Bible for Your Preschooler

Our daughter Lydia was able to follow along with Bible stories around the time she turned two. We owned several children’s bibles, but we quickly learned that not all children’s bibles are created equally. There are some great bibles available today for young children, but there are a lot more that are not worth your time. So how do you choose one? Here are four easy tests to help you choose a good children’s bible to read with your preschooler.

March 17, 2021

Why We're Using a Catechism

My wife and I have started going through a catechism with our three year old daughter Lydia. When we've told people this, we've usually been met with one of two reactions. People who have used a catechism are excited and encouraging. People who haven't used a catechism are confused and maybe concerned. Since most of the Christians in our church contexts aren't familiar with what a catechism is or why it would be useful, I'd like to share why we've decided to use one and how we've found it helpful so far.

March 14, 2021

Family Worship

Our family added a new daily routine at the beginning of 2021: family worship time! If you don’t have this as a daily routine in your home already, I cannot recommend it highly enough. We’ve wanted to do this for a while but weren’t sure what to actually do. And to be honest it just seemed like it would be awkward. But it has come to be our absolute favorite part of each day. I hope that this post will encourage you to add this routine in your own home and provides some tips to get started.

March 5, 2021