Family by God&#039;s Design

Finding Sleep in a Grocery Store

Do you ever struggle to get a good night’s sleep? Do your children? A lack of sleep has many problematic outcomes ranging from a craving for foods higher in fat and sugar to increased suicide in teens. However, a study led by researchers at the University of Chicago Medicine and Columbia University offers a way...

Family Shepherds Honor

diet emotional health mental health sleep

October 20, 2025

Immunize Against Marital Breakdown

John Gottman, PhD, describes four phases a marriage goes through as it falls apart. Each phase reflects a symptom of the disease of marital breakdown. And, fortunately, each phase has a solution, a remedy, an antidote. In the first phase, the couple gets stuck in repeated arguments and conflicts. As many of these repetitive conflicts...

Grace Honor

conflict resolution disagreement intimacy marital satisfaction marriage responsibility

October 18, 2025

Shaping Your Child’s Emotional Brain

Children are born with their own unique personality and temperament. That comes as no surprise to any parent with more than one child. It’s amazing how children born in the same family can have such different temperaments. In general, children often fall into one of three broad categories of temperament. Each of these includes more...

Family Shepherds

observation parent child relationship parenting responsiveness

October 13, 2025

Phrases Every Child Wants to Hear

Your children may never ask you to say it. They may not even realize they want to hear it. But there are several phrases that every child wants to hear. In fact, they may need to hear these phrases as often as possible. And not just once, but multiple times in their childhood. What are...

Family Shepherds

encouragement family relationship parent child relationship parenting power of words

October 11, 2025

A Happier Family for Pennies a Day

Research out of Shenzhen and Peking Universities suggests a way to decrease depressive symptoms and increase positive emotions for just pennies a day. They conducted 3 randomized, controlled trials with a total of 880 participants. These participants all exhibited enough symptoms of depression to reach diagnostic criteria. For the purpose of this study, they were...

Celebration

challenge depression emotional health family generosity

October 7, 2025

To Spank or Not To Spank

Discipline presents a challenge for every parent. Sometimes we resort to corporal punishment such as spanking. I hate to tell you, but spanking is not effective. In fact, decades of research suggest that the more a parent utilizes spanking as a disciplinary tool, the higher the rates of aggression, mental health issues, and cognitive difficulties...

Family Shepherds

attention discipline parent child relationship parenting

October 7, 2025

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

laughter marriage play relationships

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...