You’re Joking Me: BOOK REVIEW


You’re Joking Me —  A Book of Jokes for Kids by a Kid You’re Joking Me is a charming book with more than four-hundred one-liners, puns, riddles, and knock knock jokes that are sure to please any crowd. It’s a perfect gift for the budding comedian in your family.  Question: What kind of cheese do […]

Fairytale Endings


Fairytale endings without hardship are just endings.           There is no cause for victory without a battle to fight.                     Without hardship, there is no dream, just a destination. Without hardship, happy endings are nothing more than the natural progression of an […]

Four Ways to Prepare Your Children for School and Nurture their Spiritual Health


It is back to school time; and, if you’re like me, you feel both excitement and dread. Excitement, that we made it through the summer with the children at home, bored, arguing, tracking in on my freshly mopped floor, eating a week’s worth of groceries in a day, and constantly there and underfoot. Then the […]

Three Ways to Help Children Navigate Change


Change is difficult no matter your age. For children, change, especially involving divorce, can manifest feelings of insecurity and spur bouts of acting out. Since there is little else they can control in the situation, behavior often becomes a tool to express their opposition. One way children express opposition is through rejection. Rejecting the new […]

What’s so Important about Family Traditions


Over the years, my husband and I have established a few traditions with our family. Some were cultivated from our favorite childhood traditions and some have been established through new routines with our children. Things like opening one gift on Christmas Eve, Friday night family nights with games, movies, popcorn, and fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies […]

Cookie Cutter Evangelism


One of the most challenging and often intimidating concepts to teach to children is what it means to be reborn after the pattern of Christ. One Sunday morning in the middle of my lesson, God gave me a revelation to use play-doh and cookie cutters. This illustration has proven to be very useful for every […]

Group invitation mishaps and how to avoid them


“I shared the gospel with my class; but when it came to the invitation, several kids raised their hands who don’t really seem to be ready. How do I handle this?” Group invitations for salvation can be tricky. Especially if you ask them to publicly indicate their decision. Here is what I typically end up […]

The Battle for a Foster Child’s Heart


The number of children entering foster care each year is astounding. “On any given day, there are nearly 438,000 children in foster care in the United States.” (childrensrights). In the small state of WV alone (my state), there are 6,600 children in foster care as of August 2018 (WVKVC). And, as much as each child […]

How the Everyone Gets a Trophy Culture Conditions People to Reject the Gospel


Why the “Everyone Gets a Trophy” Manta is not ok. I want everyone to feel valued, especially kids, and nothing makes a kid feel more valued that receiving a trophy.  Win or lose…show up or just signed up… everyone gets a trophy no matter how they played or even if they tried; but, everyone is […]

The Danger of Growing Up in Church


As a mom and former children’s ministry director, I know the joy of seeing kids excited about Jesus. I’ve also been at it long enough to know the heartbreak of seeing former students walk away entirely as they got older.  Mark Batterson, a mega church pastor in DC, said this in his book, All In, […]