Can you hear it? Do you know what is one of the most pleasing sounds humans love to hear? We love to hear our names. Especially when spoken with kindness!
Sound silly?
Well, just turn it around and think of the last time someone called out your name when they were ticked off. Remember how strong that feeling was? Eeesh! I saw you flinch just thinking about it! (more…)
Hearing is easy. Listening is work. You know that lovely mouth that God blessed you with? Sometimes, you just have to shut it!
That may sound harsh but, seriously, one of the best gifts we can give to anyone–family, friend or stranger–is our listening ears. Not our motor-mouths.
Our focus here is especially on communicating well with our kids, but we’ll get there by looking first at listening, in more general terms.
We have all seen many versions of “listening.” And we have, all of us, used each of these ways. Let’s take a look at them. (more…)
In my blog Change Is Here, Ready Or Not, Part 2, I addressed the importance of listening to your college students tone of voice. The President of NNU made it very clear to us that it is important for us to listen for the difference between “the scraped elbow and the broken bone kind of pain.” This is key to knowing when you need to get involved by contacting adults on campus who can help your child through the situation.
Listening is key throughout your entire relationship with your kids. (more…)
In a blog I published two years ago this month, I wrote about the high calling we have as parents for nurturing our children’s creativity. As created beings, made in the likeness of the Creator, all of us feel an urge to create. How could we not? Genesis 1:27 declares that we are made in God’s image. Ephesians 5:1 calls on us to be “imitators of God.”
So why don’t more of us engage in being creative? (more…)
~JANET’S BLOG
Change, sometimes the unwelcome visitor, turns our world upside down and hurls us out of our comfort zone.
Change, even when it is invited, still shakes us up and causes stress.
Our family has been anticipating and is now going through significant changes. The greatest, most impactful change has been having our one and only child, a daughter, whom we were never supposed to have in the first place, move out of our house and into her college dorm room. (more…)