Dad, have you ever felt like a failure for skipping your family’s devotions – for a week? A month? A year? If you are like me, you get excited about a great new devotional book or plan and sprint out of the starting gate. Remember, all the horses in a derby run together for the first ten lengths. But, as the race goes on, the jockeys in the back give up trying to win. That’s what happened to me. I’d jump in with both feet, but then the busyness of my schedule or simple forgetfulness would slice … [Read more...]
Is There a Trojan Horse on Your Child’s Bookshelf? (Part 3)
Nowhere is the deception of a Trojan Children’s Book more pronounced than with the book, A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo. This book masquerades as a third book in the Marlon Bundo Series of picture books but is written by a completely different author. The original Marlon Bundo books are written by Charlotte Pence, the daughter of Vice President Mike Pence and tell the story of the second families pet rabbit Marlon Bundo. The original books teach helpful civics lessons as the reader follows … [Read more...]
Is There a Trojan Horse on Your Child’s Bookshelf? (Part 2)
In part one of this article, we examined how authors are importing challenging topics into our children’s picture books. But, chapter books for young audiences present an even greater challenge. It takes more time to review them. Michael’s 4th-grade daughter brought home a “Scholastic Gold” chapter book entitled George from her school library. Scholastic reserves their “gold” designation for books that have received, “extensive praise.”[1] The cover looked innocent enough. The designer … [Read more...]
Is There a Trojan Horse on Your Child’s Bookshelf? (Part 1)
During the Trojan War, the Greeks constructed a huge horse and hid a select group of soldiers inside. After placing it outside the walls of Troy as a gift they returned to their ship and sailed away. When the Greek ship was out of sight, the Trojans opened their gates and pulled the large horse inside. That night, while the Trojans were sleeping, the Greek soldiers exited the structure and opened the gates for the returning Greek army and Troy was defeated. Today, anything that parades as … [Read more...]
It’s Not My Fault! Helping Your Kids Own Their Sin
Blame-shifting is one of the oldest sins in the book, and one of the first strategies our kids deploy to avoid responsibility for their mistakes. Blame-shifting made its debut when Adam blamed Eve for his sin. After Adam blamed Eve, she blamed the serpent, and we’ve been following in their footsteps ever since. No one taught Adam how to shift the blame for his first sin, nor does anyone need to teach our kids. We are all born with the instinct to blame-shift; it’s part of our sinful nature. … [Read more...]
Do Not Grow Weary of Doing Good
“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9 ESV) There are few more reassuring words for a parent than the encouragement found in Galatians 6:9 that we will reap a harvest. While this is not a passage specifically about parenting, the principle of trusting God and not growing weary is directly applicable to that calling. Still, as we walk through serious parenting challenges, the best of us forget Paul’s promise and struggle … [Read more...]