Category Archives: Parenting

RESISTING RESENTMENT

Posted on October 26, 2011 by stanwiedeman

This mother is wrestling with an insidious infection to relationships: resentment. Resentment results from being injured or insulted by someone. It is the negative response to being hurt. This devastating emotion often slithers into our souls unnoticed. We might respond in anger or sorrow initially and then “get over it” – so we think. A close cousin to the more hostile attitude of bitterness, resentment can hide in the crevices of the soul and go undetected as it poisons us. Continue reading →

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RELEVANT PARENTING

Posted on September 20, 2011 by stanwiedeman

Reminiscing with my adult children often results in accounts that differ so much that I wonder if I was even there. Maybe they are recalling an event from a movie they saw. Or perhaps I am confusing my own childhood experience with theirs.

Our memories particularly diverge during their adolescent years. This does not surprise me. The hormonal upheaval in children’s lives when they mutate into teenagers must surely make dramatic alterations to brain chemistry. Adolescents sometimes act as if their rationality went into hibernate mode. Continue reading →

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FAITH OF OUR CHILDREN

Posted on February 1, 2011 by stanwiedeman

“I think one of the things that is really tricky, particularly to convey to parents and the congregations as well, is that if you are trying to form your kids to be Christians, it’s not going to fit them very well for American culture. And actually, it’s probably going to deform them for some of the things that we value as a society.” (Kenda Creasy Dean in an interview with Ken Myers for Mars Hill Audio Journal) Continue reading →

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GETTING AT THE HEART OF BULLYING

Posted on November 29, 2010 by stanwiedeman

Most of us have stories of bullying. In my grade school, Deborah was the target of relentless taunting by the boys, who accused her of having cooties, a fictitious invention. I spent most of my eighth-grade year in evasive maneuvers, because a boy repeatedly announced that he wanted to change the shape of my face. Continue reading →

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DEMYTHOLOGIZING SELF-ESTEEM

Posted on August 16, 2010 by stanwiedeman

Parenting in the self-esteem era has presented major challenges. Not that children have changed. The culture’s perspectives on parenting continue to fluctuate like s school girl’s crushes. Apprehensive parents in each generation scurry to find advice from the latest self-proclaimed parenting expert, from Dr. Spock to Dr. Phil. Perspective on self-esteem has suffered from this hysteria. Continue reading →

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