As we get ready to start another school year with our families, I want to share a personal and professional encouragement with you on something that can really revolutionize your family life: exercising regularly with your teen. My son started running on the cross country team at his school two Read more…
If you have been following this series, I hope you now have a clear picture of some of the essential tools you can share with your kids and teens to help them live as well as possible – without addiction. The first four skills we examined are about different ways Read more…
As we begin looking at how cultivating a life of service to others guards our teens against the allure of addiction, let me tell you why I chose this image to illustrate the point: Facebook reminded me yesterday that this is what happened two years ago. My family and I Read more…
Let’s be realistic. Not every hard thing you or your kids will face in life is of giant proportion. It’s not always little David with his five little stones and his faith in God running out to meet the monstrous Goliath (But read the story – Goliath is truly humongous, Read more…
As we continue this parenting series on how to help our teens prevent addiction in their lives, we move from the importance of living honestly to the power of working for long-term rewards. This gets to what motivates us and drives our decision making process. Seriously important stuff! Allow me Read more…
We begin this series of how parents can empower our kids against the destructive pathways of addiction by looking at the freeing power of living with a pattern of honesty and integrity. When I use the term, “honesty,” I mean the sincere effort to communicate about life as it really Read more…
Addiction. We seem to hear more about it all the time. New forms of addiction. New addiction treatment options. Someone famous has been crushed by an addiction. This is what addiction is costing society. And on and on and on. Addiction is a serious issue that devastates countless lives. And Read more…
If you have not yet heard about vaping or “juuling,” you haven’t been paying close attention to what’s happening with teens and pre-teens today. Yes, I said pre-teens. Vaping (sometimes referred to by its most popular device brand: “Juul”) refers to using an electronic device to vaporize a special liquid Read more…
Life gets tough. And busy. And distracting. And even discouraging. Right? While it may take many different forms from family to family, I love that our country continues to recognize a holiday that is all about giving thanks. Whether as individuals, families, organizations, communities, or nations – we are better Read more…
As parents who love our kids, our aim is to raise them to become fully capable and responsible adults who will strive to make a positive impact on the world around them. Right? And that sort of theoretical statement sounds all great and wonderful when our kids are little. But Read more…