As a fierce advocate of women and children, I’ve followed the sexual abuse scandal in the Southern Baptist Convention for years. One of my first articles investigated John MacArthur, a reformed Baptist, who told Beth Moore to “go home” after speaking at her church on Mother’s Day. Moore, a three-decade member of the SBC until 2021, had been a […]

In this episode of CHRISTIAN PARENT/CRAZY WORLD, I conclude an uplifting series on the power of our words by pulling the lens way back to show how our words water the seeds of legacy in our kids’ lives. Take a trip with me to the future, to a place where all our hard parenting work […]

Words can change the course of a life. They can build dreams, or they can break them. Proverbs 18:21 says, “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” We want our words to produce healthy fruit in the lives of our children. But how can […]

Words are weighty. Seriously, they can shape the course of an entire life. Consider these real life examples of lives that were changed by a few simple words: A little boy whose dreams of being a writer were dashed by a teacher who scoffed, “That will never happen.” A young man whose aspirations were ignited by the encouragement of […]

Let’s be honest—sometimes Scripture does say what we want it to say. And sometimes it deals with some really tough topics. Tamar’s rape by her half-brother, Amnon. The brutal  murder of the Levite concubine. The issue of slavery. What’s the point of these passages? Seriously, parts of Scripture are hard to digest much less comprehend. I add all these issues in the episode 35 of  CHRISTIAN PARENT/CRAZY WORLD. Why? Because topics like these frequently come up when discussing the Christian faith with unbelievers and with our kids. They wonder how we can overlook such things. We shouldn’t. […]

God gets a pretty bad rap in our culture, doesn’t he? People love to cherry-pick portions of the Bible to paint a very bad picture of our God. How can we help our kids understand who God is? Well, there are two aspects of God’s character that are especially misunderstood: his mercy and his justice. These attributes are opposite ends of the divine pendulum. If we don’t understand them, we don’t understand who God is. And neither do are kids. We must properly comprehend these parts of God’s character […]

Has anyone ever given you a description of God that isn’t anything like the God you know? That’s happened to me.  Check out this description of God from renowned atheist Richard Dawkins: OUCH! How do you really feel, Richard? Don’t beat around the bush. How do we prepare our kids for this type of attack on God and our faith? Well, we need to be talking about the tough parts of Scripture with our kids, which is exactly what I have been doing in the latest series […]

Have you ever gotten to one of those difficult sections in the Bible with your kids and thought “What in the world?” I sure have. Seriously, some parts of the Bible are tough! How do we address these sections of Scripture with our kids? Well, I answer that question in the episode 32 of CHRISTIAN PARENT/CRAZY WORLD, which is part of my new series on dealing with the difficult parts of Scripture. In this episode, I apply the practical guidelines I gave in episode 31 (“Why Does the Bible Say… Fill in the Blank?) to a difficult story from the Bible that led a young college […]

Let’s face it… there is some stuff in the Bible that is hard to understand and difficult to explain. And too often, the first time many Christian kids encounter these difficult parts of the Bible is when an atheist professor brings them up in a class, or a friend who is a secular humanist challenges […]

A lot of people think that the Christian faith requires blind allegiance, that you have to close your eyes and ears to the doubts and criticism and just keep believing. And, sadly, a lot of Christians do just that. Given the number of youth who are leaving the faith these days, I don’t think this plan is working out very well. […]