Parenting
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Parent’s Do You Help or Hinder Your Kids?
Some of you know that my 16-year-old daughter became a licensed driver in June. In California, the teen driver’s license is a provisional license. There are several conditions a driver must meet to drive legally. One provision particularly is creating some challenges in the Donovan home. But it also developing a young woman of character.…
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Raising Kids and Back to School
School started today (Wedsnesday) at the Donovan Clan home. As I write this, I just watched my daughter get into the car and drive off for her first day as a junior. I waved. She waved in return. Then she was off. I stood in the driveway. I didn’t cry or worry about her day.…
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Donovan Clan Is Dating
Some interesting things are happening in the Donovan Clan house. And today I want to share with you some of my thoughts about all of it. I also will acknowledge that some of you will disagree with me and some of you I might offend. However, I also know there a many of us moms…
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Bittersweet
Dear Dineen and Lynn: I just have to share with the two of you my “bittersweet moment” this morning. To back track, I just got home yesterday from having been with my youngest daughter the past three weeks as she gave birth to her first child-a precious 9 lbs. 1 oz. baby girl, name Hadley. …
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Glee and Other Thoughts – The Chronicles of the Donovan Clan
I hope you read the comments from my Monday post, Television and Our Kids. There are some very wise parents who offered their thoughts and reflect on some of their past interactions with regard to their children and the media. I am deeply troubled over the direction television programing is headed. It is reflective of…
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Television and our Kids
So I’m bugged. And I’m going to have to chat about it. I’m opening up a bucket of worms in controversy. But if we as believers don’t talk about some of this stuff how are we going to help one another? So I’m bugged about television. On several levels. I may not have all of…
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Politics is the New Bullying
Politics is the new Bullying Last week our country suffered under full assault from the mudslinging, contentious and outright mean barrage of campaign commercials. As I watched with repulse on one specific evening I felt a smack in the face with a blaringly obvious irony. Let me explain. A week, prior to the election, I…
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What do we do with Halloween?
What do we do with Halloween? Each year when October 31st rolls around I find it fascinating how many of us in the Christian community struggle to know what to do with this day. Is it a holiday? Should we celebrate it? Do we allow our kids to participate in Trick-or-Treat? Is it a sin…
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In-Laws and Prayers
It’s a busy season around the Donovan house so I’m a bit behind in posting this morning. This past weekend I went to visit my son who lives in Las Vegas. On Saturday night, I met my son’s girlfriend’s parents. They are very nice people and I adore his girlfriend. They have been dating for…
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Marriage Monday… Public School?
And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." (Gen 1:28 ESV) It’s Marriage Monday and the topic…
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Chronicles of the Donovan Clan – Wordless
It’s scary being a parent. I’m probably not alone in that I fret about how my kids will turn out. I think it is often doubly scary to be a parent in an unequally yoked home. There is more compromise in a divided home when parents have differing worldviews. My husband and I have disagreed…
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Weekend Devo-Praying Fervently for our Children
In celebration of Father's Day, I'd like to share this wonderful article by Rick Warren with you. -Blessings! Dineen Fathers: Pray Fervently for Your Children by Rick Warren "I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those You have given Me, for they are Yours" (John 17:9 NIV). Jesus reflected…
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What About the Kids?
My daughter AND my husband attended church with me yesterday. As the pastor stepped up to begin his message, he picked up a rope. He then asked one of the guys seated up front to take the other end of the rope and start walking out of the sanctuary. This yellow rope began to stretch…
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Relentless, Unforgiving, Pursuit!
The Aggressor, my 13 year old Daughter.Good Morning Everyone, I am running a tad behind this stormy Monday morning, so I am posting late. But as I read my Bible this morning, I was deeply impressed with a message that seemed to be written in the Holy Book for just me. As I thought about it, I bet some of you…
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Kid’s and Everyday Faith
A couple of Friday’s back I wrote a post about our kids going back to school. I talked about ways we can impact our children’s lives with Jesus. Today, I have a few more suggestions I hope will inspire. Original Post: Kid’s are abandoning their Faith (click here). The idea is to begin some new…
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Kids are abandoning their Faith
A new study by The Barna Group (Ventura, California) shows that despite strong levels of spiritual activity during the teen years, most twentysomethings disengage from active participate in the Christian faith during their young adult years-and often beyond that. In total, six out of ten twentysomethings were involved in a church during their teen years,…
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Jesus, My Hero
I’ve heard so many people express a desire to make this week meaningful. Passion Week. Their words pricked a cord in my heart as well. For so many years this holiday has been about Easter baskets full of candy and chocolate bunnies. (Well, I did revert to chocolate crosses some years back. Had to get…
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My Faithful Father
In June of 2006, I wrote this post about my daughter recommitting her life to Christ. I shared how I had prayed for two straight years, blessing her everyday as she walked out the door to go to school, and then asking God to ignite a flaming fire in her heart for him as she…
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Parenting a Middle Schooler in an Unequally Yoked Marriage
One of the interesting and challenging aspects of parenting in an unequally yoked marriage is education. As a Christian parent I would prefer to educate my child in a Christian school. I am unable to do so for two reasons. First, the expense. It is outside of our budget to send my daughter to a…
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A Child’s Faith
One of the delights of writing some of the series of articles for Spiritually Unequal Marriage has been my interviews with my family. I have been surprised, humbled, and encouraged by my family’s willingness to participate and their honesty in the answers. They are truly interested in helping us in any way they can. Mostly…
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Raising Kids Christian – Part V
Sunday morning arrives and so does the stress. To attend church or not to attend church is the question. Spiritually mismatched couples find church attendance a giant point of contention as I discussed in the series, Going It Alone. This series explores the flash points of disagreement which arise with our spouse over church and…