Spiritually Formed

Is it healthy for kids to be afraid of their parents? Before we can answer that, we have to ask a harder question first: should we, as God's children, be afraid of Him? In this episode, we dig into what Solomon meant...

If our kids do what we want because they're afraid of us, are they actually obeying us, or are they surviving us? Every parent wants to have obedient kids, but what if making obedience the goal is doing more harm than...

In order to care for something, you must understand it. This is true for the plants we own, the cars we drive, and the kids we raise. In this episode, Brian and Katie Hess discuss two things that every kid needs from...

Many Christian parents are asking the same question: How do I disciple my kids? But that question rests on the assumption that it's even possible to raise kids without discipling them. A disciple, by definition, is...

God is good and He does good things, but He also allows us to experience difficult circumstances in life in the interest of helping us grow up and become people of love, hope, and joy. In this episode, Brian and Katie...

It's normal to want our kids to be happy...but what if the goal of "happiness" is robbing us and our kids of something better? Happiness is good, but it's fragile and circumstantial. Joy, on the other hand, is lasting...

Sometimes the nice things we do for our kids are, in all seriousness, very unkind. Love is kind, and kindness is motivated by what you can do for the good of someone else. Niceness, on the other hand, does not typically...

Jesus was many things, but nice wasn't necessarily one of them. He was, however, the embodiment of kindness. The terms "kind" and "nice" are often used interchangeably, but they're often, in practice, opposite of one...

Love is many things, but passive is not one of them. God disciplines those that He loves, and in the interest of trying to become the best parents we can be for the sake of our kids, we're actively learning how to...

In light of our previous episode, which is all about the necessity of forgiving our fathers for any ways that they weren't who we needed them to be, we thought it would be helpful to talk a little bit about what...

<p>In this episode, Brian and Katie discuss six different father types, and talk about the importance of forgiving our fathers for any ways that they weren't who we needed them to be in the interest of experiencing...

<p>Everything in our lives has the potential to influence what we think about God and the quality of His character. Everybody faces their own set of circumstances in life, and the challenge for us is to develop an...

<p>Raising kids is tough. They have both a mind and a will of their own, and when they don't do exactly what we want, it's easy to react with anger. The temptation for parents is to assume that our anger gives us power...

<p>If something you believe is untrue, would you want to know?</p><p>In our relationships with others, and most likely with our kids, there are a few lies that we can easily fall into the trap of believing. It may not...

<p>The meaning of self-control is as profound as it is simple. With it we're able to choose how we'll think, feel, and act towards other people. Without it, other people will be able to choose how we'll think, feel, and...