sensitive touch. God gives us just enough of a head start to bring perspective and understanding to the fragile needs of our kids.

Our job is to help them meet those needs with love, purpose, and hope. The ultimate way to achieve this is when they find a secure love, a significant purpose, and a strong hope through an inti-grace- mate and authentic relationship with Jesus Christ. This is the most important part of our role in our children’s lives. When we do this effectively,

One of the primary roles that God gave Christian parents is to create adults who reflect His heart.

Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” The author goes on, two verses later, to build a case for a God who can be trusted in our day-to-day life by reminding us that this is the same God who created the entire universe out of nothing: “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at

reaching young people is a lot like fishing. When it comes to luring fish, it’s best to put on the hook something they like to eat, not what you like.

Fathers and mothers have lost the idea that the highest aspiration they might have for their children is for them to be wise—as priests, prophets or philosophers are wise. Specialized competence and success are all that they [most fathers and mothers] can imagine.6

Our children are deeply loved by God. He wants to have a meaningful and eternal relationship with them. He wants that relationship to enable them to live a life that makes a spiritual difference.

Children embrace what is modeled far more than what they are told.

Why did we choose not to defend ourselves? In any given crisis, there are the facts of the conflict and the feelings of the conflict. Depending on which way the parties look at the conflict, both are convinced that they are right and both are convinced that the other person is wrong. If my daughter or son was looking at a particular situation from