Civilization

Review: The Vanishing American Adult
The Vanishing American Adult by Ben Sasse (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2017) - 306 pp I rarely read a book that leaves me thinking, “I agreed with every single point he raised.” This one comes awfully close. Before he was elected to the U.S. Senate, Ben Sasse was president of Midland University, a small…
The Well-Read List
One of our sons has severe dyslexia and didn't read well until he was eleven. Once he got to high school, he realized he'd missed reading a lot of the books his brothers had read. He asked his adult brothers to make a list of the books they thought someone ought to read to be truly…
Don’t Laugh. You Just Need to Understand Southerners and Snow…
We travel all over the continent speaking, so we have friends from Manitoba to Miami. Practically all of them that live north of the Mason-Dixon Line love to laugh at how we Southerners react to snow. We admit, it is a bit humorous. Hal used to work for the power company. If he stopped at the grocery store…
Why Luther is Important for My Kids
Our family makes a point this time of year to talk about the courage of Martin Luther, but there are reasons beyond a spirit of “Yaaaay, TEAM! Go, Protestants, go!” There are some serious lessons that we want our children to absorb from Luther’s life, and they’re not Protestant-vs-Catholic talking points – they apply to…
Fifty Shades Darker in Christian Marriage
Warning: Adult subject matter, may be disturbing to abuse victims. Adrienne* shook with heavy, harsh sobs. Then her eyes flashed with anger, "I couldn't believe he would do that to me!" She described haltingly how her husband had forced her into a sexual act that she was ashamed to even talk about. Then she began to…
Unpleasant People at Thanksgiving?
Welcome to our podcast listeners! While the web wizards sort out a technical problem at the Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network, we wanted to go ahead and share some timely ideas to our listeners. We'll be back on our usual channels soon, but in the meantime, here's the current edition of Making Biblical Family Life Practical:…
Q&A: “What Time Is Curfew at Your House?”
Several readers and audience members have asked us something like this: What time is curfew at your house? When do you require your kids to be home? Is it different for teens and twenties? It's not an uncommon question but our answer may be unexpected--because we don't have a formal curfew at our house.  …
Q&A: My 11yo Has Horrible Manners!
A reader asks, "I have been struggling with something that I'm not sure how to fix it our 11 year old boy is very very stubborn. I almost feel like he does it for the attention or he just doesn't care. At the dinner table he will eat with his hands burp without saying excuse…
Hope in a Grim Election Year
This morning my Facebook feed blew up with grief and anxiety that the choices we'll face in the November election seem to be reduced to two people with little or no regard for the Constitution, no concern for anything other than personal power, and very questionable character. It's pretty easy to feel despair today, but…
How Do You Sort Out Conflicting Stories?
One of our webinar participants asked a simple but significant question: When two children have an argument, how do you determine the truth when the two disagree? What do you do when you get two different stories? "Mama, would you please lower the boom on somebody?" Often when the kids have a disagreement, we only…