Family by God&#039;s Design

2-Week Family Challenge: Only Honor

An interesting study published in 2002 revealed that ruminating or venting about an offense increased feelings of anger and aggression. Distraction, on the other hand, led to decreased anger and aggression. In terms of family, rumination and venting about family frustrations will interfere with a healthy, happy family life. With this in mind, I want...

Celebration Honor

family intimacy family relationships intimacy

June 20, 2022

2 Components of Lasting Family Memories

Family memories build health and happiness. Memories of camping, swimming, reading, singing, or playing fill in the gap of our family identities. Memories of being loved and cared for, celebrated on birthdays, witnessed in activities, or encouraged in pursuing interests contribute to individual identity as well as family identity. Perhaps that explains why we all...

Celebration

family identity family intimacy memories

June 18, 2022

A Parenting Practice that Increases Children’s IQ

This parenting practice can increase your child’s IQ. I know it sounds too good to be true, but research supports the claim. A study involving over 1,600 children, followed from birth to their teenage years and raised in environments in which they faced a great deal of adversity, showed that this parenting practice contributed to...

Family Shepherds Honor

availability involvement parenting reading responsiveness

June 13, 2022

Your Child’s Learning Curve on Criticism

Children learn through naturally occurring rewards and losses, natural consequences. Behaviors that bring a natural reward tend to increase while behaviors that result in a loss decrease. In other words, children learn from experience. Parents, however, can interfere with this learning in a subtle way, often without even knowing it. Fortunately, you can avoid interfering...

Family Shepherds Honor

consequences criticism learning parent child relationship parenting

June 11, 2022

Even If Your Spouse Doesn’t Know…

A study published in 2017 asked 175 newlywed couples to keep a two-week diary recording when they acted compassionately toward their spouse—when they voluntarily cared for their spouse, when they focused on understanding and genuine acceptance of their spouse’s needs and wishes, and when they warmly expressed a willingness to put their spouse’s goals ahead...

Grace

compassion kindness marriage

June 6, 2022

“She Made Me A Better Man”

I was only in my late twenties, and he had been married over 40 years. We stood together talking in the church vestibule. His wife had died several weeks ago. His tears of grief flowed freely as he spoke of her. One sentence in particular stood out for me as he spoke: “I’m a better...

Celebration

character growth marriage

May 30, 2022

What Spit Teaches Toddlers About a Safe Home

One of the most important skills a baby or toddler must learn is how social relationships work—who is reliable, who helps who, who can be trusted. A study from MIT identified a signal babies and toddlers use to determine if two people have a strong relationship and a commitment to help and support one another....