Do you have any advice for dealing with a teenage daughter who’s recently gotten involved in premarital sex and other destructive activities? While hunting for an extra set of car keys in my daughter’s purse I came across a condom and a cigarette lighter. Needless to say, I was devastated. Should I confront her about …
Family Q&A
How can I reconnect with my children after divorcing their mother and abandoning them? I regret to say that I walked out on my wife and family several years ago. Since then, I’ve found the Lord and realized my mistake. Now I’d like to get back in touch with my kids, but they don’t want …
How can I bond with a disconnected child? Our daughter is newly adopted, and we’re excited to have her home. But she’s struggling with attachment issues. We don’t know all the details of her history, but some of her behavior indicates she may have been abused. Can we reverse the damage and move in a …
Can you suggest some disciplinary methods that might be effective in dealing with a fussy baby? My child cries a great deal of the time, and I’m finding it difficult to get anything else done. What can I do to change this behavior?
Should we have kids if my spouse is emotionally unstable and has been physically abusive with me? We’ve been married for four years and are in our mid-thirties. My wife has become physically and verbally abusive with me on several occasions. We’ve seen counselors about this and other issues, but the problem persists. A trusted …
Do you have any advice for older couples who are thinking about having children? My husband and I are both in our early forties and are newly married. It’s a second marriage for both of us, but neither one of us have children. We’d like to start a family of our own and we’re giving …
Should we force our 18-year-old son to worship with us? He’s a Christian but recently decided to stop going to church. Since he lives in our home and we still support him, we think he should follow the rules we establish. But we don’t want to drive him away from the Lord.
How can I make sure that my children will recover from the emotional impact of disaster and trauma? I’m especially concerned about the long-term effects. Over the past month our community has been devastated by a terrible flood. The impact to my family has included the loss of our home, interruption of work and school, …
What’s the best way to teach young children the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, and appropriate and inappropriate behavior? We understand the importance of early spiritual training, and we’ve been praying with our child and reading her Bible stories ever since she was old enough to listen and understand. But the challenge …
How can we get the most out of our family dinner times? Our family recently committed to sharing mealtimes together at least three times a week. It was an adjustment in the beginning. There were a lot of rough spots, but I’m pleased to say that we’re already seeing some positive results. At this point …
My husband has never physically harmed me or the kids, but he constantly subjects our children to mean-spirited put-downs. For example, he tells them that they’re stupid and lazy. He demeans my son’s athletic abilities. He tells my daughter that she’s ugly and needs to lose weight. The children try to ignore him and put …
Do you think there’s any danger of my kids becoming victims of sexual exploitation? I’ve never been a big believer in overly tight controls for my teenagers. My feeling has always been that they should have an increasing amount of independence at this stage of their development. I don’t enforce strict curfews or ask a …
We have a toddler who is just learning to talk – is there anything important we should know about the respective ways in which moms and dads influence speech development? I understand that word use is one of the key areas in which men and women differ, and I’m interested to know what this implies …
Should a college freshman join a fraternity? Our son is in his first year at the university, and he wants to pledge to a fraternity on his campus. I don’t know much about fraternities, and I’m not sure what to think. What is your perspective on this?
What are some of the most common medical problems to watch out for during the first three months of my baby’s life?
Can you suggest some basic, general guidelines on how to discipline children? We’ve just become parents and neither of us had positive role models growing up. We want to do a good job raising our child. What principles should we keep in mind when it comes to discipline?
Is it wrong to tell children what they should believe about God? Isn’t that a form of “indoctrination?” I’m thinking it’s better to allow kids to make up their own minds.
Should I, as a single parent, be thinking seriously about adopting another child? How does your ministry feel about this?
How can we tell if a babysitter has acted inappropriately with our kids? It’s painful even to think about this, but we have reasons for suspecting that our babysitter may have abused our young child. What would you suggest we do in such a case? Are there “red flags” or tell-tale signs that we should …
Should I teach my child about the importance of self-denial? We don’t hear much about it in the modern American church, and contemporary secular culture doesn’t value it at all. But I’m not sure how our kids will understand what it means to follow Jesus if we neglect this aspect of the disciple’s calling.