8 stress-reducing steps to a happier family

May 29, 2014 | Michael Foust | Posted in Parents of infants, Parents of toddlers, Parents of young children | Tagged Children, Christ, families, family stress, God, Parents, reducing stress, stress, toddlers

When you’re at the hospital preparing to take home that 7-pound bundle of joy, the nurses don’t provide any advice on dealing with stress. They don’t even hand you a book.

I was thinking about stress recently when my wife called me at work and said, in a tone of voice that matched the circumstance: “There’s water in our basement!”

We already had a garbage disposal that wasn’t working, a dishwasher that was leaking and a clothes drier that wasn’t drying. With three small children, clean clothes and dishes are a necessity. Things weren’t looking good, but God soon provided. The basement leak slowed, and we pinpointed the problem. We fixed the drier (lint blockage) and then discovered that the dishwasher leak was linked to the broken garbage disposal.

Through it all, we told one another: Don’t stress out, this is small potatoes. In other words: Keep things in perspective.
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4 tips for telling kids the Easter story

April 16, 2014 | Michael Foust | Posted in Parents of infants, Parents of toddlers, Parents of young children | Tagged Children, christ's death, Easter, easter story, Jesus' death, kids, parenting, teaching children about Christ's death, teaching children about Easter

I won’t ever forget the first time I told my oldest son about Christ’s death and resurrection. It was right after he spit up on my shoulder, and just a few minutes before I placed him gently in his crib. I don’t think he understood much at all that evening. He certainly didn’t ask any questions. In fact, I’m pretty sure he already was asleep.

He was an infant, about six months old.

I’ve repeated that routine most nights since then, and have now incorporated it into a bedtime song. For his twin brother and sister, I began telling them the Gospel message much earlier, right after birth.

With the Easter celebration upon us, parents often wonder: What’s the “right time” to talk to a child about such a concept as death — specifically, Jesus’ death? May I suggest the answer is now?

We tell our children every day that we love them, so why should we wait until they’re older to share with them a much greater message about love? That is, that the God of the universe loves them even more — so much so that He died on a cross for them.

For some parents, though, this can be a difficult subject. Here, then, are four suggestions to make it easier.

1. Be positive. Talking about Jesus’ death on the cross is easy because it has an ending far greater than anything Disney ever will produce. Sure, if the story only were about death, it would be difficult, even awful. But Jesus rose from the grave and is alive! When I tell the Gospel to my children at night, I never stop at Jesus’ death. If we’re reading the chapter about the cross and the tomb, we don’t end there. I want them to go to bed knowing that the God of the universe conquered sin and death and couldn’t be kept in the grave — and because of that, they can have eternal life. It’s called “Good News” for a reason. Continue reading →

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:
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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 →

4 great winter science experiments for awesome family fun (with videos)

March 9, 2014 | Michael Foust | Posted in Parents of toddlers, Parents of young children | Tagged boiling water, Children, family fun, freezes, glory of god, God, Mississippi river, Parents, science experiments, winter, winter science experiments

Scripture tells us that all of creation declares the glory of God, but many of us scratch our head and wonder, “Does that mean, winter, too?”

Of course it does. God was wise to give us variety in creation because it helps in our worship of Him.

For instance, we all enjoy scenic pictures of mountains and beaches, but what if the entire world was one big beach or one huge mountain range? As much as we think we’d enjoy it, we really wouldn’t. We’d soon grow bored and our sinful nature would lead us to say, “Is this all there really is in the world – one monotonous stretch of white sand?”

Consider the 24-hour day cycle. What if that wondrous starry night never ended or that beautiful sunny day went on and on? We’d rebel and start pouting, “God, I can’t sleep with all that sunshine!”

It would be the same with a week’s worth of steak suppers or lobster meals, and it’s the same with the seasons. Variety in creation is good for us. We see God’s glory on display in different ways, and about the time we grow tired of beautiful buttercups or red maple tree leaves or a stellar snowy landscape, God changes the scene and gives us a different reminder of His greatness. Winter makes us long for spring, and summer makes us long for fall, and on and on. Continue reading →