95 Cents Directed to Ministry Jessica's Option Ultrasound Story The post Legacy Community Newsletter Summer 2024 Ministry Updates appeared first on Focus on the Family ..read more

My teenagers are past those endearing elementary school Mother’s Days now, those sunny Sundays with the extra hugs, the elaborate newsprint-and-glitter drawings, the fingers brushing my hair. The Joy of Celebrating Mother’s Day with Young Children And of course, there are those eyebrow-raising fill-in-the-blank cards: My mom’s favorite thing is me. I love my mom more than Funyuns and the dog. Thank you for picking me up when you forgot me at church. Your face reminds me of cottage cheese. But when celebrating Mother’s Day with young children, these days can feel exceptionally joyful and ligh ..read more

You don’t have to be a perfect mom or a perfect Christian to teach your children about biblical prayer, or about God. You can grow closer to Him alongside your children. And you will learn more about prayer as you teach them how to pray. Studying the story of Hannah from the book of 1 Samuel is a wonderful place to start when teaching children biblical prayer. God chose the Israelites to demonstrate His presence and power in the world. Like He does for us, God gave them freedom to choose how they would respond to His instructions. Unfortunately, it did not take long for the nation of Israel to ..read more

Before opening the link to the spiritual gifts test, let’s first explore what the spiritual gifts are all about. What are Spiritual Gifts? First off, a spiritual gift is not: a natural talent or ability with which we are born  an office, position, or job any of us hold or may hold in the future working in a specific geographical location a special aptitude for dealing with people of certain ages  Spiritual gifts allow believers to perform specific tasks beyond the realm of their own human skill and ability. Every person who has put their faith in Jesus Christ receives these gifts f ..read more

Over the years one of the most frequent questions parents ask me is when to begin sex education in the home. It isn’t a surprise that wise parents want fail-proof advice for such sensitive topics.  Specializing in the treatment of sexual issues, I’ve seen the pain associated with misinformation and sexual sin, and I believe the topic of sexuality is second only to teaching our children about God. That is why it is important to start sex education early. Parents often wonder “how long can I put it off” talking about sex. By the close of this article I hope you will be eager to get started ..read more

My wife, Erin, and I were taking our 10-year-old daughter, Annie, to a soccer game. The park she was playing in was massive: 15 different soccer fields. Thousands (it felt like) of athletes and their families. And — by the time we got there — no parking. We searched lot after lot. Annie was becoming nervous and giving me directions from the back seat, and my frustration level was rising. Finally, we found a parallel parking spot — the last on the street — and I started squeezing our car into the space. But every time I tried to maneuver, I would hit the curb. Cars behind us started honking. An ..read more

Hey married folks. How’s your sex life? Satisfied? Is it all you dreamed about in the early weeks and months of being married? If not, I wonder what happened to that early sense of love? Where did it escape to? And how did it get there so fast? We seem to dirty the slate so fast in marriage. Resentments set in when we argue and leave the making up until it’s too late. All too often, we forget to go back to our spouse and resolve – and I mean really take care of – the relational junk that bogs us down. Resentments build up like a pile of bones in a closet we didn’t know came with the wedding ri ..read more

Contents Chapter One Introducing Your Child to God Chapter Two Teaching Kids About God’s Big Story Chapter Three How To Share the Gospel With Your Child Chapter Four Make Time to Talk About Faith Chapter Five 4 Challenges to Your Child’s Faith Chapter Six 7 Ways Your Kid Can Connect with God Chapter One Introducing Your Child to God by Larry Fowler No maps. No GPS. Few street signs. Those are three important reasons why I don’t drive in developing countries. I’d get lost. Raising our kids to follow Jesus is a lot like trying to navigate in an under-developed cou ..read more

A husband and wife were fighting. They refused to talk. Getting ready for a business trip the next day, and not willing to be the first one to cave in and actually speak, the husband wrote his wife a note, “Please make sure I’m up by 5:30 a.m. I must catch a flight.” At 9:00 a.m. the next morning, the husband awakens and realizes he’s missed his flight. Furious, he was about to go and see why his wife hadn’t awakened him, when he noticed a note by the bed. It read, “It’s 5:30 a.m. Wake up.” Who wins in a situation like this? Have you ever felt like you and your spouse are spinning your wheels ..read more

Remember June and Ward Cleaver – that oh-so-happy couple that chuckled through life’s lessons with nary a care? The couple that never seemed to have any conflict? Never seemed to fight? Gee, Beav, weren’t they happy? June and Ward were my parents. They never seemed to disagree, to argue or to have any conflict whatsoever. I remember hearing my parents have a serious disagreement only one or two times during my formative years. If you grew up in a family where fighting was the norm and days of peace were something only the neighbors experienced, you may be jealous. There are two sides to this c ..read more