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The fascinating case of young David Vetter, makes for a vivid illustration. Vetter was born in 1971 with a condition ominiously called Severe Combined Immunodeficiency. What that meant was that his little body had no natural ability to fight off any disease. The mildest form [...]

“How much does a kid cost?” This is a common question asked by young couples contemplating the expansion of their tribe. If your answer is a specific amount in currency, adjusted for inflation, it would be an obstacle so intimidating that anyone who could do [...]

You know how much I like Kevin De Young, and how giddy I am that he will be preaching at our church in April next year. (If you missed that headline, check out the post titled, Kevin De Young, Restless, & Reformed). Here’s an excellent and [...]

In our mini-series on common mistakes parents make, we have learned that there a plethora of inappropriate arm-twisting manipulations to achieve obedience. But none is as blatant as bribery. Appealing to covetousness. “Johnny, if you can control yourself while we are at Aunt Mildred’s house, [...]

We have been tripping over Ted Tripp’s parenting advice. Trip wire #1 was training your kid to disobey you until you get worked up enough to threaten them. This leads to unhappy homes with lots of shouting, threats, and general malcontent. Trip wire #2 was [...]

We continue our careful side-stepping of parenting trip wires, graciously supplied by Ted Tripp at the Shepherd’s Conference earlier this year. Yesterday we looked at the common snare of training your child to wait for a “signal of seriousness” from their parents before they will [...]