the BLOPE

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 gives us our mission from God as parents: “Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 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. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” I want to quickly unpack this job description for parents into 3 action steps that you can do today to begin passing down faith in your home: 1) Put it in your Heart First - “these commands…are to be on your hearts” You can’t give away what you don’t have. You can’t inspire someone else to do something unless it inspires you first. If you want your teenager to be fueled by their faith than make sure that is what is fueling you. ACTION STEP: ...

unsplash-logo Helloquence Do you have a will? You know, the paper that they pull out when you die to see who gets your stuff. The process of preparing a will is not fun. The lawyer asks you, “If you die who will you give your stuff to?” You say, “Give it to my spouse.” The lawyer quickly responds, “and if your spouse dies who will you give your stuff to?” This goes on and on until it seems like everyone is dead and you realize the lawyer is just trying to get you to add him into the will! “What if Aunt Bertha dies? And your cranky neighbor? And the postman, then will you finally give me your stuff? When you write a will you figure out how you are going to leave behind your stuff, but you are more than the sum of your stuff, right? So let’s write a different kind of will. What values are you going to leave your teenager? What will you teach them about what is right and wrong in this world? What will your teenager know about faith? bcsm wants ...

unsplash-logo Rob Hampson In June of this year, we hosted a live video conference all about Technology and Teenagers. Below you will find a bunch of resources that you can use to help you parent through your student's teenage years and just navigate modern technology and all that surrounds that. It is so hard to tell what boundaries and restrictions to give your teenager when it comes to technology. Which social media accounts you should let your students have. When to give them a cell phone and when to take it away. Maybe you feel like you don't even know where to start. Join us from home as we discuss Technology and Teenagers or just take a look at the resources we have compiled below. Meeting Notes Resources Tech Guides Focus on the Family Online Tech Guide Focus on the Family 2019 Parent's Guide to Technology and Entertainment Research Common Sense Media's Common Sense Census Key Findings Common Sense Media's Family Media Agreement Ar...

picture by  unsplash-logo Elijah Macleod Dear Parents, You are the greatest influence in the life of your teenager. Research proves it time and again your voice is the loudest in their life. That is a great opportunity for you to make a forever impact in the life of your teenager. It is also a great opportunity for me to partner with you and cheer you on in the process. We have tried that in several ways over the last few years. What we have found is that parents are busy people and adding an extra event to remember or get to was not the most helpful thing we could do. We want to be bringers of hope, help and harmony. For that reason, I am launching an online form of Parent Hacks ( a resource based off of one from minstrytoparents.com)  that I think will become a helpful tool for you as parents to keep in your toolbelt.  I will post encouragement and truth to you in the form of articles, videos, maybe a podcast in the future and messa...