S Club Mama

This parenting gig is hard. Can I get an "amen"? I read almost any parenting book (reputable) I can get my hands on, but I really appreciate the ones from people I trust. Jim Daly, President and CEO of Focus on the Family, is one of those people I trust. I listen to the Focus on the Family podcast almost daily (when I workout) and I love hearing Jim's stories about his boys and his and his wife's parenting. They seem like people we could just hang out with. I have most of "When Parenting Isn't Perfect" by Jim Daly highlighted and notes in the sidebars. I had my heart opened to much of my parenting faults - looking for achievement, not character. How often do I get so angry with my boys when they misbehave in the grocery store (every time) instead of realizing they are little boys running a super boring errand and are trying to entertain themselves instead of thinking they are being rude - that's not their heart intent at all! They may not be think...

I have seen my fair share of horror movies...but not for several years. They give me the creeps and nightmares. I am already a worst-case-scenario kind of a thinker so that just makes things worse, so I try to avoid them. I have been intrigued by a few the last several years, including Annabelle: Creation, which releases August 11, 2017. The synopsis, without giving too much away (nothing you can't get from the trailer , which I couldn't even watch all of), is about parents who lose their little girl in a horrible tragedy. In their grief, they try to bring her back. This movie portrays possession of a doll and that's about all I can tell you because the trailer creeped me out. As Christians I think we tend to stay away from horror movies, but in doing so, sometimes we stay away from their messages. Messages such as -evil is real! There is a spiritual battle going on all around us! I don't pretend to understand it completely but I know it's real. I've felt ...