The summer that I was nine, I begged my parents to let me attend our church’s residential camp. The requirement for a discounted rate was to read The New Testament by a certain date, so I committed to do it. I procrastinated for weeks and […]
9 Things Children Will Benefit From Knowing
1. THEY ARE LOVED, LOVABLE AND LOVING More important than getting our children to make good grades, or to be polite, or to follow our instructions, is to cause them to feel and know that their natural state is to be loved, loving and lovable. […]
Marathon Communicating With Our Children
Many cultures use rituals during the adolescence and teen years to mark the time when children transition to becoming responsible for themselves. When my son turned thirteen, I asked two-dozen of our friends who had known him throughout his life to write their memories and encouraging […]
15 Keys For Achieving Our Goals
We get what we want by focusing on what and why, rather than how and when. Albert Einstein said, “The world that we have created is a product of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking. Getting what we want requires feelings […]
Love And Jealousy Can’t Coexist
One of my friends has a husband who adores her, and he’s loyal to his core. But she feels jealous and tries to control him. So he behaves cautiously. He avoids being alone with women and avoids talking to them in her presence. But because […]
Why Do We Experience Conflict?
If we’re on our second marriage – and it’s working well, and we’ve grown wiser, and we’re living a rich experience – we’re not likely to look back and wish that we’d made it work with our first partner. But we are likely to look […]
What Language Is My Child Speaking?
As a mother of three sons, I would sometimes ask them during their adolescent years, “Are you practicing to be ventriloquists? Is that why you don’t open your mouths when you speak?” Eventually, I understood that, since teenagers are often expected to stop saying what […]
When People’s Problems Spill Over Into Our Lives
One time, I needed a ride home, 150 miles away. And one of my friends, who was moving some things in his old car, offered to give me a ride. When he arrived to pick me up, the backseat was filled with household items, including […]
How Our Kids Teach Us Unconditional Acceptance
We never outgrow the basic need we had as children for love, expressed through concentrated attention, affection and unconditional acceptance. And we’re all walking around looking for it, all the time. Loving people without conditions means accepting them exactly as they are. “Even if you […]
We Teach People How To Treat Us
We’re constantly training people in how to treat us. When we show them that a certain word or look from them will get a consistent reaction from us, we’re training them to use that word or look whenever they want that reaction. And when we’ve […]
10 Keys For Managing Beliefs
Life will be as wonderful or as terrible as we believe it is. Our daily lives are the result of what we tell ourselves. Our attitudes develop out of the thoughts we choose. Beliefs are just thoughts we repeat until they seem true. If we […]
5 Steps For Disciplining Children So They Feel Good At The End
What does a perfect child look like? Well-behaved, truthful and thoughtful? Never dirty, unkind or grumpy? A perfect child is joyous, mischievous, rude, stubborn, curious, lazy, courteous, rebellious, reckless, funny, helpful and adorable, because perfect children are experimenting with whatever’s possible. KIDS AREN’T BORN KNOWING […]
Grace de Rond 