Family Life
A friend asked recently: Ok ladies, it's time for me to do some major/drastic behavior boot camp in this house. I am committing to staying home for several days, going nowhere and do nothing but set straight some major behavior issues we have here. I need some advice, though...How do I handle/tackle my 4 and…
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="403"] Schnorr von Carolsfeld, From the Bibel in Bildern, 1860[/caption] This is one of those hymns that we think we all know, but usually only sing the first verse. This is like nibbling on the salad and walking out on the feast. Charles Wesley packed so much Biblical truth into this carol,…
This has been a pretty sobering week for many homeschool families. A very prominent leader and speaker in Christian homeschool circles confessed to an inappropriate relationship with a woman and resigned from his ministry and speaking engagements. As speakers ourselves, we and our children know most of the other families on the speaking circuit, so…
The U.S. Marine Corps has a slogan – Semper Fidelis, “Always Faithful.” More often, people shorten it to “Semper Fi.” In the church, there is a slightly different slogan: Semper Reformanda, which is short for Ecclesia semper reformanda est, “The Church Is Always To Be Reformed.” Why the lesson in military and ecclesiastical Latin? Because…
Lately, I've been noticing a phenomenon among our acquaintances that really concerns me. Single ladies, we don't often address you on these pages, but this one's for you. Most of the young adults we know are very intentional about finding a mate in the right way. They are committed to waiting until they are ready…
The headlines have been everywhere this week. Grand Theft Auto V is out and, to listen to social media, everyone is super-excited. Well, not everyone, but it sold $800 million dollars worth the very first day! And it has over 4.3 million fans on Facebook. We were thinking about this today when we read the…
We are thrilled to announce that we'll be hosting an hourlong weekly streaming radio show on the new Ultimate Radio Network! Our new show, Making Biblical Family Life Practical, will be the Hal & Melanie you guys know and love -- there will be lots of back and forth and humor, but also pointed, principled…
After our first few children learned to read so early and easily, we thought we were some ol’ wonderful homeschoolers. Then came our next child – and humility! It was really tough, but we got through it and he’s now a very successful college student. Here are some things that helped: Don’t despair – and don’t let…
I’ll never forget the call. “We’ve got our daughters back!” It had been a few months earlier that this mom called for the first time. “Can you please talk to me about homeschooling special needs children?” she said. “We’ve got to do something! Our twins used to be such happy little girls, but I realized…
For a couple of days, our personal Facebook feeds have been full of outraged posts and links about Miley Cyrus's reportedly (we didn't watch it) disgusting performance on MTV's VMA Awards. It was curious that the almost universal response among our friends was either shock (What in the world has happened to our world?) or…