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Motivate. Don’t Manipulate Your Kids.
Once again, his room isn’t clean, not by any standard. Her backpack, jacket, and shoes are scattered about the floor of the hall, again. His grades are sub-par in math, again. She is making the family late to school, again. He seems to be nonchalant about his music audition this weekend. She isn’t running enough…
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Living in Crisis
Our family is in crisis. It’s not the first time, and it won’t be the last. Three weeks ago, our severely disabled 13-year-old daughter, Kathryn, had a full spinal fusion surgery. According to the “pain team” of anesthesiologists and neurologists, it is the second most painful surgery to recover from. (It’s second only to…
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Storm Preparation
A Creeping Crisis Some crises develop gradually. Some are excruciatingly slow. Perhaps it is the approaching death of a parent with terminal cancer. Or it is the military dad/son/husband who will be deployed to an overseas conflict. Or it may be a huge financial crisis, which will likely take away the family’s savings and home.…
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Avoiding a Mid-Life Crisis
If you are growing old well, then you are likely to help a child grow up well. 40 is not old, but it’s certainly not young either. It’s the start of mid-life, and it has a well-earned, dangerous reputation. It’s when so many people have an inner crisis, even if life is sailing along smoothly…
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Healthy Adults, Healthy Kids
Being healthy as an adult will yield both direct and indirect benefits for the kids in your care. Take care of yourself, for their sake. This video is thought-provoking and interesting, even if you think you know everything about being healthy. Here’s proof that we need help in this area: Super-Fatty Menu Items
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Finding Significance
I’ve had the blues for a few weeks now. It’s not a full-blown depression. It’s just a nagging funk that doesn’t seem to have a good reason for its existence and doesn’t seem to have an end. I get it once or twice a year, often on the backside of winter. Since I haven’t been…
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Counting Blessings
Why can’t we be thankful? Why is having an attitude of gratitude so difficult? Even the most optimistic people have many days in which everything seems to be going badly, when nothing seems right. Indeed, there are awful things we have experienced, are experiencing, or will experience. Nobody is immune from trouble. In time, every…
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Just Believe in Yourself
“Just believe in yourself, and you can achieve anything.” “Pursue your dream, and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it.” “If you dream it, you can be it.” Countless movies, songs, TV shows, and motivational speakers have preached this message. And countless teachers, coaches, and counselors preach the same message. Parents teach…
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Slowing Down for Kids’ Sake
On the way home from soccer practice last night, my son asked if he could join a track and field team. This is right after an evening in which his mother spent 30 minutes shuttling him from his school to my workplace, where he worked very hard for 60 minutes on his homework, before we…