3 ways spring can teach your kids about Christ

April 11, 2014 | Michael Foust | Posted in Parents of infants, Parents of toddlers, Parents of young children | Tagged Children, lessons from Easter, parallels, snow, spiritual lessons from spring, spring, spring brings hope, spring brings joy, spring brings life, winter

My 6-year-old son enjoys snow, but even he couldn’t handle what we saw outside our window recently.

We had endured a winter that saw 50 inches of snow, when, finally, spring arrived, melting everything in sight. We played on the grass. We rode bikes down the road. We even started the lawnmower. The temperature was approaching 60 degrees.

Then it happened. We awoke one morning, looked out the window, and just stared in disbelief. The landscape was again covered with snow – about half an inch by my estimation.

During winter, we’re
like the resourceful farm kids
who play ball with a pig bladder.
There’s just got to be
something better, right?

I was amused, knowing the midday sun would take care of it. He, though, was distraught. He ran to his room, jumped in his bed, buried his head under his cover, and started crying. This is the same child who, three months earlier, was telling me how much he loved the snow – how living in a colder climate was “so much fun” because he could sled every day. But even he couldn’t take any more of it.

God gave us the seasons for a reason, and my son was learning that the hard way, even if he didn’t understand fully the theological ramification.

It’s no accident that God raised His Son during the time when much of the world is thawing out. Winter and spring serve as a sort of living illustration of our faith, in several ways. For instance:
Continue reading →

15 people with Down syndrome address future mom in powerful must-watch video

March 19, 2014 | Michael Foust | Posted in Parents of infants, Parents of toddlers, Parents of young children | Tagged 15 people with down syndrome, dear future mom, down syndrome, down syndrome video, gods image, powerful, pregnant mom, video, viral video, YouTube

Can a 150-second video change our society’s perspective on life – specifically, the life of people with Down syndrome?

If so, we now have that video.

Called “Dear Future Mom,” the now viral video shows 15 people of various languages with Down syndrome speaking into the camera, addressing a pregnant mom who is carrying a Down syndrome baby. The mom, we are told at the beginning, is scared and wondering, “What kind of life will my child have?”

So these 15 unique individuals – each created in God’s image – tell her.

“He’ll be able to speak and tell you he loves you,” one smiling girl tells the camera.

“He’ll be able to go to school, like everybody,” another one says. Continue reading →

7 tricks to get your children loving books

March 13, 2014 | Michael Foust | Posted in Parents of infants, Parents of toddlers, Parents of young children | Tagged books, Children, getting children to read, God, kids, Parents, reading, reading books, reading to children

What’s your favorite picture of you as a child? Is it the black-and-white picture of you in 1970s plaid pants, or the ’80s snapshot with you and a big head of hair? (I’m guilty of both.)

I’m not entirely sure what picture of my own children is my favorite, but the leading contender likely is one I snapped several months back, with all three of them—ages 5, 2 and 2—on the couch, each of them looking at a different book.

As a parent, those moments when you see the fruit of your labor are precious, aren’t they? You spend hours and hours teaching them something and think it’s never going to sink in, and then all of a sudden, God gives you a gift that makes it all worthwhile. It’s as if He was telling me, “Keep giving books to your kids.”

Reading, though, isn’t as popular in the U.S. as it once was. The latest data from 2013 shows American teens rank 17^th in the world in reading—a tragic stat because reading forms the core of nearly every other type of learning. Perhaps that failure begins at home: Only one in three parents of children 8 and under read to their kids each night, according to a 2013 survey by Reading is Fundamental and Macy’s.

Looking back on the past few years, I can see what my wife and I did right in raising children who like books—and what we could have done better. Of course, children learn to read at different paces, but even kids who can’t read can enjoy books. Here are seven tips to raising kids who like books: Continue reading →

5 lessons from Proverbs that will make you a better parent

February 10, 2014 | Michael Foust | Posted in Parents of infants, Parents of toddlers, Parents of young children | Tagged Children, Father, God, kids, morals, mother, Parents, Proverbs, solomon, values, wisdom

For most of my life I’ve thought of the book of Proverbs as a collection of “moral nuggets” – a buffet of sorts that has a verse for just about any situation in life.

Proverbs certainly has plenty of wisdom in it, but lately I’ve been looking at its overarching themes. That is, the “lesson behind the lessons.”

Moms and dads can learn a lot from Proverbs. Here are five themes that stick out to me:

1. Be a parent and not a “buddy” or “friend.” That is, a parent has God-given authority over their kids, a role that comes with enormous but wonderful responsibilities. The writer of Proverbs, Solomon, makes this obvious from the start: “Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction, and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.” Think about your best friends in high school. Did you ever give them “instruction” or “teach” them anything? No, you just had fun. Of course, I have lots of fun with my children. We laugh all the time. But even though I playfully call my two sons my “buddy,” my role is to be their father. Continue reading →

The reason boredom is actually good for children

January 7, 2014 | Michael Foust | Posted in Parents & media usage, Parents of infants, Parents of toddlers, Parents of young children | Tagged Archibald hart, Children, digital invasion, focus on the family, Parents, protecting your child, Sylvia hart frejd, video games

As it turns out, “I’m bored, Mom” could be one of the best things a parent can hear.

That’s the conclusion of counselor and author Archibald Hart, who believes that our media-crazed, constantly stimulated culture is harming the creativity and imagination of children. Hart and his daughter, Sylvia Hart Frejd, appeared on Focus on The Family’s radio broadcast recently, and if you have children who play video games or desire to do so, I’d encourage you to listen. And after you do, you just might pick up your child and flee the next time someone hands him or her that Wii controller.

The theme of the broadcast (which is in two parts) is “Protecting Your Child From the Digital Invasion.” They say parents should avoid flocking to media every time their child is looking for something to do. When kids are bored, Hart says, they are forced to use their imagination.

Among their somewhat shocking conclusions: Continue reading →