Gospel.com Blog

Military families are all too familiar with the emotional pain and difficulty that comes from extended separation. Over the last several years, thousands of families have had to soldier on while a mother or father was deployed overseas to Iraq, Afghanistan, or elsewhere.

In their “Hope for Homefront Heroes” article series, Officers’ Christian Fellowship is talking about the different issues faced by the spouses of deployed soldiers. In their latest article, Cindy Wesley talks about how she and her children handled the pain of separation from her husband while he was in Iraq. She shares the lessons she learned raising kids alone during those periods of separation, and offers advice for other parents who find themselves in the same situation.

The OCF site has many more articles about this and related topics. If you’re the spouse of a deployed soldier or know somebody who’s struggling to get by during a deployment, take a look at the support OCF can provide.

Do you feel like your relationship with your kids is defined by continual conflict and clashes of will? In a recent article at the Al Menconi Ministries website, Al uses a lighthearted illustration from his own life to demonstrate that parents sometimes need to ‘choose their battles’ with their kids—while expecting obedience from your children is obviously important, choosing to make a mountain over an issue that should be a molehill can do more harm than good.

That’s just one of several articles about parent-child communication that Al’s written over the last several weeks. If you feel like there’s a disconnect between you and your kids, these essays might help:

• Are you nagging or communicating? There’s a fine (but important) line between healthy communication and plain old nagging.
• Are you just the chore-giver? Are you a loving, communicative parent, or just the person who assigns chores around the house?
• A quick fix or a real solution? If you’re like most parents, you’ve found that your kids sometimes make entertainment choices that frustrate or upset you. When this happens, do you go for the “quick fix” or do you take the time to really understand your child’s behavior?

There are hundreds more articles at the AMM website covering topics ranging from parenting to video games to music. Take some time to explore what AMM has to say about raising a healthy family!

It’s Father’s Day—a special day set aside for showing some appreciation for good ol’ dad. Fathers have a unique and critical role to play in raising their kids and helping their families keep on track spiritually. Take a few minutes today to reflect on the ways that your father has contributed to your life (and if your relationship with dad is less than perfect, there’s no better time to take steps to mend it!). And if you’re a father, today you get to bask in your families’ praise… but it’s also a good opportunity to think hard about your role in the family and how you can do an even better job of being a father.

We’ve gathered a few Father’s Day links to inspire you today:

• Over at Revive Our Hearts Radio, Nancy Leigh DeMoss has a moving broadcast about the importance of honoring your father, from a daughter’s perspective in particular.
• Dads, no matter how good (or bad) a job you’ve done at fatherhood so far, there’s always room for improvement. Winning at Home has a number of great articles and resources about fatherhood: ask yourself the Three Questions for Fathers and see how you’re doing. See also A Wise Dad’s Big Tent, about what to do when you commit a parenting blunder with your kids; and there’s plenty more good parenting and family advice at the Winning at Home Answers section of the site.
• Psychology for Living has numerous articles about cultivating healthy family relationships. As you think on the challenge of parenting, take a look at Ten Ways You Can Shape a Child’s Life and The Emotionally Healthy Family.
• RBC Ministries’s Answers to Tough Questions has a lot of solid advice for encouraging healthy spiritual growth in your family and relationships—see in particular the section on parent-child relationships.

So dads—sit back, relax, and enjoy being the star of the show this Father’s Day… and give some thought about how you’re going to be an even better father this year than you have been in the past. And don’t forget to say thanks to your father!

This Sunday is Mother’s Day in the U.S.—the perfect opportunity for you to tell mom that you appreciate all that she’s done for you. Sure, she always nagged at you to eat your veggies and wash your hands before dinner, but thousands of changed diapers, dozens of trips to the children’s doctor when you got sick, and all the time and money spent raising you gives her the right. Here are a few items to help you think about your mother, and motherhood in general, this Mother’s Day:

• Revive Our Hearts has a five-part radio series about motherhood, much of it discussing the value of motherhood. If you’ve ever been tempted to think of motherhood as a lesser calling for women, be sure to check out No, Not Just a Mother, The Value of Motherhood, and Mother and Wife: Dueling Roles.
• Winning at Home has a lot of good articles and radio shows about parenthood and related family topics, but this Mother’s Day, take a look at Mom’s Big Four, a tribute to moms and the underappreciated advice they were always giving you when you were a kid. On a different note, the essay Dad’s Out of the Picture calls attention to the challenges of single motherhood, and encourages us to notice and lend a hand to the single mothers in our communities.
• Joe Stowell has a great devotional message up today called Thank God for Mothers, in which he encourages us to—you guessed it—give thanks for mom. Be sure to read the discussion points at the end, where Joe challenges us to be thankful even if a broken relationship or grief makes Mother’s Day more painful than joyful.

Even if you aren’t able to be with your mother this Sunday for some reason, it’s worth considering these words about motherhood, and the important role that mom played in our lives. So pick up the phone, set aside any lingering grievances you might have for at least one day, give mom a call, and tell her how much she means to you!

It’s difficult to imagine that someone who has been in the entertainment business for nearly fifty years could possibly quality as a “discovery”—but that’s very likely how Donny Osmond will be perceived for his turn as the bigger-than-life college dad Doug in Disney’s latest G-rated release, College Road Trip.

Osmond is, of course, with his sister Marie, one of the more famous faces and voices of the Osmond family, which is just about to embark on a world “50th Anniversary” tour. He has countless hit records, both as a solo act and with his family members, he has headlined hit Broadway shows—and he has raised children. He has been happily married for 28 years.

One of the central themes of College Road Trip is the need that kids have for love and trust, a theme that had “better resonate with every parent,” says Donny Osmond, who plays one of the parents in the film. “I was watching Oprah last night, and Bill Cosby was on. It was such a great episode to wake parents up, because that’s what kids really need from their parents. It was either Bill or the guest host who said, “Parents, wake up!” When you tell your kids that they’re stupid, they’ll believe it. How can they have any respect for themselves when you don’t have any respect for them?”

Read the full interview with Donny Osmond.

posted by Greg Wright of Past the Popcorn

Most Christians understand the importance of prayer. We pray for big issues like world peace and evangelism, and for small issues like personal health and safety. But how often do you pray specifically for the members of your family?

In a series of posts at the Life Action Ministries blog, Byron Paulus is writing about the importance of praying for your spouse and children—not just when they’re sick or have special needs, but as a part of your everyday prayer life. The series begins with a brief introduction, followed by posts about specific things to pray about for your kids: that they’ll develop an active faith in Christ and that they’ll grow up to be men and women of moral integrity. Paulus promises four more posts in the series, so keep an eye on the Life Action blog for more to come!

Stressed out with your family? Need a vacation? Your first thought might not be combine those two. But maybe a secluded week or weekend could revitalize those relationships. Maybe you just need to take a step back from the humdrum or the pell-mell to be with each other.

Perhaps they’re annoying or demanding. Perhaps they’re purposefully antagonistic. But that doesn’t change the fact that they are your family.

I’ll readily admit that I never jumped at the chance to go on family vacation. Upon reflection, however, I really appreciate the effort my parent’s put into them.

In the Gospel.com Community there are a variety of camping, retreat, and conference ministries with many activities and programs for your family. Or if you just need to get the kids out of your hair for a week, some of these ministries would be glad to not only take them, but teach them about God’s plan for their lives.

Check their web sites for more details and dates:

Grace Adventures

Hartland Christian Camp

Forest Glen Christian Camp

Maranatha Bible and Missionary Conference

Mount Hermon

Or search for a camp near you at:

Christian Camp and Conference Center Association

How can your help your children cope with a divorce? How should I confront bad behavior in my kids? What do I do if my spouse doesn’t share my Christian faith?

All difficult questions—but RBC Ministries’ Answers to Tough Questions takes a crack at answering them from a Biblical perspective. There’s a whole section devoted to questions about relationships, including marriage and parenting questions. The questions cover dozens of important issues that crop up in most families—in addition to the questions above, they touch on everyday family issues like family television viewing and the special challenges that stepfamilies face. You might not agree with every answer, but they’ll definitely get you thinking more Biblically about the relationships that define your family.

We’re taking this week to highlight resources from our Gospel.com community on family, and today we’re looking at resources about children. Children are the building blocks of family. When they’re present they drive everything from finances to play. Our heavenly father calls us to raise up those He has entrusted to us in His ways. A task that, hopefully, no one has to take on completely by themselves.

Psychology for Living has published a few articles on kids that parents might find interesting:

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder outlines the types and diagnosis of AD/HD in children.

When Children Lie to You tries to get at why they lie and what to do about it.

Lastly, this is an article about the difference between loving your children and them experiencing it called Why Love Is Not Enough.

Psychology for Living attempts to provide biblical solutions to “human problems through literature, radio, the world-wide web, training seminars and counseling.”
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What does your family look like? For some of you, the word family has happy and positive connotations—loving parents, well-adjusted kids, and a home that serves as a peaceful refuge from the stresses of the world. For others, your family might be nothing like that—maybe your family life is marked instead by anger, frustration, and damaged relationships. Maybe you don’t have much of a family at all.

For most of us, our family life falls somewhere between those extremes. Wherever our family relationships fit along that spectrum, we can all stand to work at improving existing relationships and mending broken ones. God considered healthy family relationships important enough that he mentioned them in the Ten Commandments. This week at Gospel.com we’ll be looking at different ministries and resources aimed at bringing your family life and relationships a bit closer to the ideal that God had in mind for us. And as we look closer at our relationships with other people, we’ll gain a few insights into our relationship with God as well.

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