Family by God&#039;s Design

The Philosophy of Tortoise

We live in a world that creates in us a “need for speed.” We want our food fast, our goals achieved fast, and our problems solved even faster. As a result, when a problem arises, the default mode is to “attack” it with speed so we can “get it done.” But speed is not always...

Celebration

development parenting relationship slow down time

September 29, 2025

A Must-Have for Your Marriage

Many actions build a healthy, happy marriage: good communication, time spent together, conflict resolution, forgiveness, giving voice to our admiration and gratitude, continually learning about our spouse…all these and more play a crucial role in building and maintaining a healthy marriage. However, we often overlook one fun action that promotes a healthy marriage. This action...

Celebration

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September 29, 2025

An Environment for Growing

Life is filled with distractions, but not all distractions are the same. Distractions come from different sources and in all sizes. In general, distractions impact our children’s ability to focus and sustain their attention as well as their ability to grow and learn. A study published in Behavior Research Methods suggests that upsetting or unpleasant...

Celebration Family Shepherds

distraction healthy development learning parenting routines

September 22, 2025

When Teaching Children, There’s Efficiency in Inefficiency

Parents want their children to learn…and in this age of rush and hurry, we often seek out efficient means of helping our children grow in knowledge and skills. In fact, we can find apps, games, toys, devices, and shows that tutor our children in everything from math to reading to sports to music. That way...

Family Shepherds

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September 20, 2025

Brain Rewiring Words

We often communicate with one another by using words. Words, however, do much more than simply express our thoughts and share information. Words shape the way we think; and, spoken at the right times, words rewire our brains. For instance, positive feedback activates the reward centers in the brain and creates positive emotions, increasing the...

Family Shepherds Honor

acknowledgement brain encouragement power of words praise

September 15, 2025

Alcohol Abuse, Romance, & Genetics

I recently read that a person’s genetic makeup accounts for approximately 50% of their risk for some type of alcohol abuse disorder. Notice, it accounts for the “risk” of alcohol abuse, not the actual abuse of alcohol itself. Other factors play a role when it comes to a person actually abusing alcohol. One factor that...

Celebration Honor

alcohol emotional management marriage

September 13, 2025

One Way to Increase Your Child’s Honesty

Children lie. I know it comes as no surprise to parents, but, nonetheless, children lie. (In reality, so do adults, but that’s a different blog.) Even though children lie, parents list honesty as a top priority in building their children’s character, with responsibility and respect coming in second and third (see Parent Survey). This begs...

Family Shepherds

honesty moral development parent child relationship parenting

September 8, 2025

Your Brain on Forgiveness

Forgiveness is one of the necessary ingredients for a healthy marriage. It is also a hallmark of a healthy parent-child relationship and a crucial component of any healthy community. A lack of forgiveness, on the other hand, devastates relationships and it ripples out to impact so much more than just the relationship between the offended...

Grace

brain emotional health forgiveness

September 6, 2025

A Family with Purpose

We had another wonderful Family Camp at Camp Christian this year. The main speaker, Jeff Bush from the MVA Church of Christ, shared important principles for families, including the importance of love, respect, honor, and accepting influence (also known as mutual submission). Although the messages and the music were wonderful, that is not what makes...