When parents have differing opinions about child rearing, it is best to privately discuss our views and come up with a plan of how to handle that with the children. We should help our children learn to respect other's opinions and how to look for compromises but be united in our decisions about...

We must beware of complaining and passing our dislikes onto our children. One day, in 1993, while I was at a luncheon, I began talking to a woman about how I didn't like housework, cooking or sewing. She asked what my mothers attitude had been like in regard to those things. I said she was very...

We must not let our desire to make our children happy cause us to be insensitive to others. When our children were young, an incident came up where both girls had been invited to parties on a day that my husband and I would be out of town. The girls were disappointed, but they accepted the fact...

Hannah's story can be found in the Bible (1 Samuel). In those days, men often had more than one wife. It was also considered a disgrace to be barren. Hannah was barren and she suffered the taunts of her husband's other wife, who had children. Hannah cried out to the Lord for a son, promising that...

Sometimes, in life, I get so caught up in the task of problem-solving, that I overlook the obvious. Our 33 year old special needs son has been struggling with depression and anxiety. We've discussed and tried so many ways to help him find purpose in life, and we're in the process of looking into...

Men, including our adult son, Shon, have a God-given need for authority. It's difficult enough as a wife to learn how to grant authority to my husband, but it's even more challenging to learn how to grant it to our disabled son. Shon has enough mental capability to handle a fair degree of...

In 1983, I decided, with Tom's support, to quit teaching and stay home full time. Our son, Shon, who has cerebral palsy due to a premature birth, was one and half years old at that time. Since Tom was working and I was now home, most of the responsibility for researching our options for Shon fell...

In 1991, Forest Home Christian Conference Center hosted the first of three annual conferences for Parents of Special Needs Children. At first, Tom and I weren't planning to attend because we felt we were dealing with our son's disability fine. However, the director told us they'd love to have some...

As a parent of three grown children, I have learned a few things along the way (usually via my mistakes). I hope you will find them helpful. 1) Be consistent! As a couple, we should decide how we're going to handle a situation and then stick to it until we both agree on a different solution! As...