How to discipline children

I’ve been going back and forth for a long time about writing this post (or any post) about how to discipline children. As the mom of 2 little boys, discipline is a huge part of my life. I know that it’s something most parents need help with, because it’s so easy to feel like you have no idea what you’re doing when it comes to discipline.

Well, I’m tackling child discipline today. Not as an expert, because…well…because I mess up just as often as I get it right. But, I have learned some things through a lot of trial and error, and today I’ll be sharing some basic principles and philosophy behind loving child discipline that work in a Christian family.

Meals are important in our house. When we’re home, we eat all of our meals at the table as a family, and we try to often invite others to share meals with us, too. All of those meals mean that we spend a lot of time cooking with our kids.

Cooking is one of those things that I LOVE doing…sometimes. I like cooking when my house is super clean, there’s no pressure, and I have plenty of time. This is pretty much never the case (because kids and life), so either I don’t cook or I grit my teeth and pour love into my family’s meals anyway.

Thankfully, my husband loves cooking (and is good at it). So we share the responsibility.

But, we believe that our kids need to learn to cook, too.

People, I’m WAY overdue for an update on how it’s going with my word of the year–diligence, so here it is, in all of its glory–in July (sigh).

If you haven’t read it already, here’s the original post on diligence (my 2019 Word of the Year)–check it out and then come right back here for the update and you’ll be all caught up!

Diligence: The Overview

The truth is, I don’t have a glowing report for you.

Going screen-free?

Whether you’re participating in National Screen-free Week or you’ve decided to embrace screen-free parenting as a lifestyle (or anything in-between), I’ve gathered some resources to help you out!

Resources for Going Screen-Free

People got along without screens for an awfully long time, and not too many ever died of boredom. But, if you’re short on ideas, here are some great ones!

National Screen-Free Week is Coming!

National Screen Free Week will be May 4-10 in 2020, and no matter how much screen time your kids usually get, I hope you’ll join me in making some changes to your family’s screen usage for a few days (at least)!

My husband and I are doing our best to practice screen-free parenting with our kids, so you may be wondering how I’ll do anything different than business as usual with my kids during Screen-Free Week.

The fact of the matter is that the changes I make for Screen-Free Week this year will affect me more than they’ll affect my kids. My pledge for Screen-Free Week 2019 was

Personal Bible study is pretty major for committed Christians. It’s something all Christians should be doing.

Unfortunately, though we all know we should be reading our Bibles daily, according to Lifeway Research, about half of churchgoing Christians don’t do it. That’s pretty discouraging, isn’t it?

Why I chose a word of the year

Every year my husband (as well as each person on the pastoral team at our church) chooses a word of the year to serve as a guide and direction for his life and ministry. They meet together early in January to share the words they’ve chosen and to pray together to begin the new year.

I’m always invited to join the prayer gathering, but with 2 young kids at home, I haven’t made it yet. But for 2019 I decided that at least I would take the concept of the word of the year and choose one for myself.

Today we’re going to be getting into the specifics of how I keep my kids occupied during church services each week.

Why should I bring my kids into the church service just to entertain them with toys?

Let me start off by saying (as I did in my previous post, Making Sense of Church with Kids) that snacks and entertainment are not the end goal, here.

Good news, today! I’m excited to tell you that I have been nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award!

What is the Sunshine Blogger Award?

The Sunshine Blogger Award is an award given by bloggers to their peers in recognition for creative work that inspires positivity. I’m honored to receive this award, because, though Disciple Mama is still just a few months old, blogging has already become really important and special to me. I want my writing to

If you’ve ever taken a baby or a toddler to church, you know how long a church service can feel. If you’ve taken a baby AND a toddler to church, you may not have gotten to the end, and if you did it all without another adult to help you–go make yourself a tray of brownies, because you deserve it.

In our home, the (very few) hours between waking and getting to church each Sabbath morning are very busy ones. We get up, get breakfast on the table