Do you ever wonder what our Heavenly Father would want for Father’s Day? I mean, really? Do you ever picture Him up in Heaven and think, I wonder what He thinks of all this?

It truly has led me to dive into scripture, and I am reminded of just how good He is. You really can get to know the heart of God by simply opening the book He wrote to all of us. The Bible has His thoughts, His commandments, His desires for His beloved children (all of us). 

As I think about this Father’s Day, I wanted to look and see what God said to Dads. What is His desire for the Dads?

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 

6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Proverbs 13:24

Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.

He...

What if we surrender? What if we relinquish control?

Ladies, I'm going to invite you into the following thoughts that I have been wrestling with for a long time, and I want to share what I’m learning. 

What if we let the man in our life LEAD? What if we stopped focusing on what he’s not doing and stepped back to let him step up into his GOD-GIVEN ROLE to make the decisions for our family?

What if we settled into our role as his helpmate? Equally important, by the way. But these God-given roles are POWERFUL and what I am learning, friends, is that when we try to override these roles, and take control because we are fearful, or insecure, or don’t have faith, we mess everything up. We destroy the very relationship we vowed to cherish. 

You know, I thought I was letting my husband lead for the first 10 years of our marriage, but it wasn’t until now when our family has personally walked through some hard things, in this...

WELCOME 2021!

Is it just me or has it felt like an extremely bumpy year already? 

I want to give you some hope, a message that I have been clinging to:

Jeremiah 29:11 

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

No matter what your challenge is RIGHT NOW... whether it’s balancing homeschool and in-person school with multiple children, a physical setback that interrupts your career path, or monitoring politics to a paralyzing degree...I want to remind you, God is in control. He knows the plan; He is in charge. We are called not to worry, but to trust in Him. 

So I want to invite you to lean into His truth. 

I want to challenge you to stop looking to others for comfort, and to show up the way you would want your children to show up in the world. Respond to situations and challenges the way you would want your children to respond to...

To get a phone or not to get a phone...that is the question. 

Has your child asked for a phone for Christmas this year? How old is your child? And are you getting him/her one? Are you on the fence? Let me know in the comments; I'm curious!

We wrestled with this for a LONG time as we watched our oldest son's friends get phones...and we waited. He BEGGED...and we waited. 

We assured him that, “We are going to do things a lot different than what other parents and families do,” and that's ok. One day he will understand.

You hear parents say, “I’m not your friend; I'm your parent.”

I want to find a balance somewhere in between for my family. I want my children to come to me and be able to talk, but I also want them to know I will draw the line because I love them.

That line is so hard to draw at Christmas though, when you want to create a fun and joyful Christmas for your children! And the thing they ask for over and over again...

What if we loved our spouse and all their imperfections 100%? What if we could simply stop getting frustrated and annoyed with them, and start accepting the things that make us crazy?! 

When I tell my husband "You're driving me crazy," he responds "Crazy in love!"

Philippians 2:14 says, "Do everything without grumbling or disputing." Man! If you are anything like me, and have OCD tendencies with a layer of perfectionism on top, then you like things to be a certain way. And when God gives you a husband who has a bit of ADD... well, that's a good time friends! Haha! 

But instead of looking at that match-up as a disaster, suppose it is actually a gift. I mean, opposites do attract! What if I actually realize that what I think are imperfections in him are actually the very things that compliment where I am lacking?

Like the fact that he has the gift of play. He can get lost in downtime and just have fun, whereas my to-do list holds me back. Like...

Spend time with things that love you back.

This is the phrase, this is the secret sauce, this is what helps us navigate parenting in a digital world. 

Do you feel like screens have literally taken over this year? In the most wonderful way and yet the most overwhelming way, screens are a part of our everyday lives. 

In our home, we have been using the phrase "spend time with things that love you back" to help us and our children easily disconnect from screens without confrontation for several years now. I can't wait to launch the digital course I've been working on (Digital Family Reset) that teaches how and when to use this phrase and what to do if conflict arises around screen-time. 

If you haven't heard me talking about this on social media, stay tuned!! If you want to sign up for our free downloads and get on the waitlist of announcements, click here.

We are so thankful for the opportunity to share this message, and this phrase that happened by accident,...

Do you Agree? Do you agree that Technology is a gift? 

What's really funny is that as I open this page to write this blog post, an error message pops up and says "error - reload." Ironic, no? 

At Family Strong, I know our message is so loud about being off technology and present in your life, and it is. It always will be. However, we also recognize that technology is a gift too. 

Everything good has to be consumed in moderation. Just like cake. And our mission is to help families think of technology like cake. Too much of a good thing can lead to much greater issues and complications that are not worth all the cake. 

We teach our children (hopefully) about the dangers of too much cake. How it can rot your teeth, spike your blood sugar, turn to excess fat that makes your heart work harder than it should, which leads to even more problems; and we have to handle that heart with care. 

So, is technology a gift, oh yes! And it's not...

SOWING SEEDS

Do you remember the phrase your Grandma or Grandpa would say, or maybe it was your Mom or Dad..."You reap what you sow." Well, did you know that is from SCRIPTURE? 

Read Matthew 13 to see how Jesus used stories about a farmer sowing seeds to teach such valuable lessons to sow seeds of love, planted in faith. 

At Family Strong, we anchor ourselves in #spendtimewiththingsthatloveyouback and #datemealways.

Part of "Spend time with things that love you back" is spending time in the Word. God loves you and wants you to spend time with Him, in His Word. If you sow His Word into your heart and into your soul, you will reap incredible gifts. 

He will give you the wisdom you need, the strength you didn't think you had, and the love you've been looking for.  

Part of "Date me Always" is putting our priority in place to love your spouse above yourself, to have sacrificial love toward them. And in a world filled with messages of...

This last week was interesting. We had my dad here for the first time since shut down for a "Quaran-cation"..... a vacation where he came down from Georgia and I refused to let him leave our house so that I could protect him from every single germ there was, lol!

Of course in our #wonderfulchaos home, all of our stay-at-home fun went exactly as planned! Are you picking up on my sarcasm?

Imagine day two: we wake up, have a delicious cup of coffee on the porch, the breeze is blowing, and the kids are playing in the yard. We go for a walk with the puppy and bike ride with the kids, come home to make breakfast, and BOOM! I get a migraine. I'm down for the count. SERIOUSLY?! 

THEN, two hours later I emerge from my room to try to participate and relieve my dad from watching the kids (mind you, this was after an interlude of my husband coming home for a lunch break and assisting). The 3-year-old throws a MASSIVE temper tantrum, and the 13-year-old is monitoring his Fantasy Football...