Note:  I wrote this for “prospective” parents.  Those who are already parents know the following information and will probably just nod as they read.

Recently my daughter and I had what I will euphemistically call a “broo-ha-ha.”¹ Later that evening I related events to my husband with righteous indignation.  After I was done, he patiently, but pointedly, explained why I was wrong and our daughter was right.  My husband was right.  I came to understand my daughter was right and I was the one in the wrong.  Now if I had been all alone in this parenting venture, I might have blown off steam to a friend who would have cooed and agreed with me to make me feel better, because that is what friends do, or for no other reason, just to shut me up.  Unlike a spouse, a friend has no vested interest in how someone else raises their kid.  Where as parents have an absolute interest in how their child turns out.

Read more...

When I turned 21 I thought, “Now I’m a grown-up!”  Then I turned 30 and thought, “Ok, I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff since I turned 21, but now I’m a grown-up; I’m married with a child.”  Then I turned 40 and thought, “Dear Lord, I am so screwed up.  Please help me to grow up and be the person you want me to be.”  Maybe this is why God used to let people live hundreds of years; growing up can take a long time for some of us!  I look around and see we are all at different points in our growing up; in maturity of thinking, in our spiritual life and our relationship with God, in our ability to think of others first, not just ourselves, in controlling or delaying our impulses and wants, in controlling our anger, and on and on. 

Read more...

When I was in my early twenties I was paying the attendant at a gas station when a young girl came in and hysterically asked the attendant to call the police (this was pre-cell phone era).  She said her boyfriend was trying to “kill her.”  She was very upset and fairly incoherent (with hysteria, not drunkenness… that I could tell).  Having paid I walked out, not staying for the drama.  I was pumping my gas when a car came around the station slowly, with the girl hanging out the driver’s door, being dragged along, trying to stop a man (I assume the boyfriend) from stealing her car. 

Read more...

The following article by Frank Turek, Sweet Caroline: Where was God? (Thursday, December 24, 2009) is so moving and powerful we felt it should be a Just Pondering article, rather than just link to it on a single day.  PWU are big fans of Frank Turek and hope this article may be of help to those who need it.  May God bless and keep you.

Read more...