At the Dynamic Church Conference, I said I would post some links for resources. Here you go:

Leave a comment and I will update any other information needed.

You guys were great!

Kim and I had the privilege to teach a session at the Faith Promise Marriage and Parenting Summit last Friday. It was an incredible time sharing our hearts with those who were a part of those 50-minutes together. The session was titled, Parenting: The First Five Years, and we reviewed the areas that we won and the areas that we needed improvement as parents.

During the session, we asked the couple to answer 4 questions, and I’m going to share those with you in a four-part post. So, let’s dive in:

As a couple, what have been your greatest relational struggles since you had children?

There were three answers that dominated this question:

  1. Time together/intimacy
  2. Agreement towards discipline/parenting styles
  3. Feelings of exhaustion/energy

I wish that I could say that we’ve always won in these areas, and we could spend days unpacking them. However, I want to give you some thoughts that we believe will help you with each.

  • Clarify your expectations. Each person in a marriage comes from a different background – spiritually, emotionally, relationally, etc. So, each person has a different idea of what time together looks like or parenting styles. Talk about your expectations in each of these areas, and compromise to a place of agreement that each person can feel good about the decision made. Then, live it out! Most of our struggles come when we have lack of clarity due to lack of communication. (Note to guys: don’t try to win…COMPROMISE for the best solution.)
  • Establish family values. Discipline is often driven by values, and each of us have different personal values. When we have kiddos, our personal values collide! Establish family values that incorporate what each person sees as important. For instance, we value ministry (serving together). So, we decided that we would never “punish” our kids from serving or attending church. No matter what, they always get to be a part of ministry, because that is something we value as a family.
  • Recognize the pitfalls. Lack of energy happens because of the often sleepless nights or the sheer exhaustion of the effort put forth in parenting. I think we deplete our energy level even more when we attempt to make major life decisions at the wrong times. Often, we want to argue and debate things that do not really matter or can wait because we are tired. Several years ago, a friend shared the acrostic H.A.L.T – Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired. Each of these areas cause us to have a skewed perspective of life, impact our decision-making skills, and ultimately lead us to situations of frustration. Lack of energy, or being tired, is a pitfall that leads us to make irrational emotional decisions. Work together as a couple to help each other see this when it is happening and trust each other to get out of it together.

Tomorrow we are going to look at the question, “As a parent, what are the top 3 struggles with your children?”

Had the chance to talk to my friend David Putman last week and was reminded about the Velocity Conference 2011. David and Shawn have a great line-up of speakers and it really is worth your time to be there. Here’s the info: February 21 & 22. Mountain Lake Church. Cumming, GA. Register HERE.

Customer service has always seemed hit or miss to me – but mostly miss. Recently I have been looking to make a change in our internet service provider. It’s amazing how competitive people get when you are calling to cancel. But why do they wait until you call to cancel? Why not work to keep [...]

Last week I had the chance to host a webinar with Anthony Coppedge of Fellowship Technologies entitled, “Do You Really Know Your Congegration?” You can listen to it HERE. I began with the premise that in ministry, we have entered a stage where numbers are linked to arrogance or bragging. But numbers (really) matter and [...]

The church is in a bit of a leadership crisis – some might even describe it as chaos. Some churches are welcoming the chaos and thriving while others are rejecting it and declining. No matter what your take, there is a crisis in the church. Last week I was reminded that crisis can be a [...]


Please visit WP-Admin > Settings > Snap Shots and enter the key.How to find your key