Let's Parent on Purpose: Christian Marriage, Parenting, and Discipleship

When Steven and Mary Beth Chapman took their 11 year old daughter Emily on a mission trip to Haiti, it changed the trajectory of their family. A burden to adopt started with Emily and spread to each family member. As the Chapmans adopted three children from China, God connected them with other families that needed support in their own adoption journeys. 8,000 children later, Show Hope is still resourcing moms and dads to enlarge their forever families. Mary Beth joins me to share their story as well as her incredible wisdom for others who are at every step of the adoption process. This is a conversation for more than just adoptive families. It takes a practical and spiritual village to adopt a child!   Steven and Mary Beth were married in October of 1984 and have six children – three biological children, Emily Chapman Richards (married to Tanner and mom to three daughters Eiley, Della, and Verity), Caleb Chapman (married to Julia and dad to son Noble and daughter Olive "Ollie"), and Will Franklin Chapman (married to indie artist Jillian Edwards and dad to daughter Willow Faye), and three daughters adopted from China, Shaohannah Hope, Stevey Joy and Maria Sue, who is now with Jesus. The Chapmans live in Franklin, Tennessee.   Resources Mentioned: • Sign Up for My Things For Thursday Email - https://bit.ly/3EDH56y • https://www.marybethchapman.com/ • www.showhope.org • howtoadopt.org

Kids and teens are more stressed than ever. As our world bombards them with social media, bad news, and inescapable connectedness, researchers are finding depression and anxiety rates are higher than ever. Author and counselor Eliza Huie joins me once again with great practical advice for moms and dads on fostering emotional health in every stage of their children’s lives. We talk about the importance of nurture, understanding your child’s capacity, regarding their feelings, cultivating hope, and knowing when and how to get help.   Eliza is a counselor, author, speaker, and trainer committed to providing care and resources for the whole person. Trained both biblically and clinically, she understands the complexities people face in their spiritual, emotional, and physical lives.   She holds a Master of Arts in Counseling and has advanced certificates in biblical counseling from The Christian Counseling Educational Foundation (CCEF) and The Association of Biblical Counselors (ABC). She is also a licensed clinical professional counselor.   Eliza is the director of counseling at McLean Bible Church located in the Washington D.C. metro area. She is the Dean of Biblical Counseling for Metro Baltimore Seminary in Maryland. She and her husband Ken have been married for almost 30 years and they have 3 grown children and a lovely daughter-in-law.   Resources Mentioned: Raising Emotionally Healthy Kids - https://us.10ofthose.com/raising- emotionally-healthy-kids-help-for-parents-paperback/ Eliza’s other books - https://us.10ofthose.com/search.php? search_query=eliza Sign Up for My Things For Thursday Email - https://bit.ly/3EDH56y

Our culture is obsessed with influencers and leadership, but parents often forget that their primary opportunity for leadership and influence is in their own household. My guests Jeff and Terra Mattson talk with me about the distance between what we say and what we do in our families, and how that damages our credibility. We discuss the necessity to recognize the influence of our own childhood families, the importance of grieving trauma and loss, and empathizing even when we don’t agree with the other side.   Jeff and Terra are a husband and wife team who co-founder of Living Wholehearted, LLC, a professional counseling and organizational consulting firm outside of Portland, Oregon and a global movement for moms and daughters called Courageous Girls. Terra is a licensed marriage & family therapist and executive coach with over twenty years of clinical and ministry experience. She is the author of Courageous: Being Daughters Rooted in Grace and the visionary and curriculum developer for Courageous Girls. Jeff serves as president of their organizations and leads the executive coaching and organizational development arm of the practice. Together they are the co-hosts of the weekly Living Wholehearted Podcast and Dear Mattsons YouTube series produced by Christian Parenting and the co-authors of Shrinking the Integrity Gap: Between What Leaders Preach and Live. Married just over twenty years and raising their two teen daughters, they integrate biblical, clinical, and relational wisdom to help leaders live and lead with integrity in the home, work and community.   Resources Mentioned: www.livingwholehearted.com www.mycourageousgirls.com www.terramattson.com   FB: wearelivingwholehearted mycourageousgirls jeffterramattson   IG: @terramattson @living_wholehearted @mycourageousgirls   Shrinking the Integrity Gap: Between What Leaders Preach and Live - https://amzn.to/3CA5qsF

What if you could go back in a time machine and give your young parenting self some advice?  My guest Cynthia Yanof and I talk about this very idea on today’s episode. As Cynthia watched her little one play on the playground, she thought about the lessons she could teach her younger self based on how the children were playing. We talk through her excellent advice and how we are still in the process of growing, learning, and fumbling forward on our parenting journey.   Cynthia Yanof is a wife, mom, blogger, and the host of the Pardon the Mess podcast. She has a relaxed style of interviewing, combining her quick wit and sense of humor with a firm commitment to never taking herself too seriously.   She loves Jesus, her family, foster care, and having lots of friends around her as often as possible. Cynthia is relatable, real, and a friend to all of us just trying to walk the parenting road in a meaningful way that’s pleasing to the Lord.   Resources Mentioned:  Sign Up for My Things For Thursday Email - https://bit.ly/3EDH56y The Pardon the Mess Podcast: https://www.christianparenting.org/podcasts-post/praying-for-our-kids-praying-accountability/ www.cynthiayanof.com www.pardonthemess.org

Sometimes our expectations for our families are just way beyond reality. My guest Lisa Clark reminds us that we are all just sinners raising sinners, still in the process of transformation by the gospel of Jesus. We talk about expectations, personality differences among children, settings habits for a thriving family, and what to do if a child is rejecting the faith.   Lisa is married to Brad, her husband of 35 years. She and Brad co-teach a young married life group at their home church in Plano, TX. They have two daughters, Caroline and Camryn. Grounded in God’s Word, Lisa has a passion for encouraging moms in the day-to-day struggles of parenting preteens and teens. This passion and mission led her to write her very First book in 2016, Raising Sinners. Raising Sinners is a biblical parenting, short story written for moms and dads in all stages of parenting. Lisa also hosts two podcasts - Wonder and Raising Sinners, both with her cohost Chrissie Dunham.    Resources Mentioned: Sign Up for My Things For Thursday Email - https://bit.ly/3EDH56y  https://www.lisaclarkspeaks.com The Raising Sinners Podcast - https://www.christianparenting.org/ podcasts-post/a-story-of-hope-with-mary-beth-chapman/ The Wonder Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-wonderpodcast/id1335112615 Raising Sinners - https://amzn.to/3HNAAQj 

We want our home to be a place of peace and stability, but sometimes external and internal dynamics make this extremely challenging. Virgil Tanner and his wife Joy have parented their children on three continents in a variety of difficult circumstances. Today he shares how they learned to order their family stability around regular prayer and the family sabbath. Learn how he took a two thousand year old Christian tradition and adapted it to engage his little ones, teenagers, and the adults in their household. The practice has helped them thrive in the midst of shaky governments, cultural chaos, and personal tragedy.   Virgil Tanner has been married for 20 years and is a father of five. He has lived on three continents and currently oversees strategy and global operations for a non-profit with hundreds of staff scattered all over the world.   Resources Mentioned: Celtic Daily Prayer - https://amzn.to/30M74JZ Northumbria Online Prayer Community - https:// www.northumbriacommunity.org/offices/how-to-use-daily-office/ The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin Jr. - https://amzn.to/ 32lN55l LPOP 189 Teaching Children How to Think with Virgil Tanner - https:// letsparentonpurpose.com/2020/08/30/shepherding-a-childs-heartpart-2-teaching-children-how-to-think-with-virgil-tanner/ Sign Up for My Things For Thursday Email - https://bit.ly/3EDH56y

The pornography industry makes more money than the NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL combined. Porn is hunting for every member of our family, and the effects on the body of Christ are devastating. There is no greater obstacle we face when it comes to discipleship, spiritual leadership, relational and spiritual health than the enslavement of porn addiction. Today Ted Shimer joins me to talk about the grim realities happening in our families. He then shares the hope that comes when combining spiritual principles with brain science to bring men, women, and our children lasting freedom from the grip of pornography.   Bio: Ted Shimer has mentored men since 1991 with the collegiate ministry Student Mobilization. He received his MABS from Dallas Seminary and has been trained as a Pastoral Sex Addiction Professional-Supervisor. Ted has helped people overcome the bondage of pornography in the context of making disciples. He is the Founder of The Freedom Fight, an online porn addiction recovery program. He is also the author of the book, The Freedom Fight, The New Drug and the Truths that Set Us Free. Ted and his wife Amber have four adult children and live in Fayetteville, Arkansas.   Resources Mentioned: www.thefreedomfight.org The Freedom Fight: The New Drug and the Truth that Sets us Free  The Freedom Fight 30 Day Challenge to break free from Pornography  Freedom From Porn Begins Here: YouVersion Bible 30 Day Devotional Plan  Covenant Eyes: Accountability and Internet Filter Canopy Parental Controls  Sign Up for My Things For Thursday Email

More than any other period in our lifetime, the world seems to be swirling in chaos. On top of that, many of us have personal crisis or perpetual responsibilities that leave us traumatized. Today I talk with Virgil Tanner about two strategies for centering on Christ in the midst of a chaotic world. The first strategy is for long term soul health. The second strategy can be adapted to acute times of crisis to keep us from spiraling out of control.   Virgil’s Framework The Five Dimensions of the Human Soul, and the three areas to address with each: Spiritual: Alone, With Others, Working in the World Physical: Eat, Move, Recover Cognitive: Learn, Focus, Play Emotional: Notice, Interview, Manage Relational: Discern, Invest, Grow   Virgil Tanner has been married for 20 years and is a father of five. He has lived on three continents and currently oversees strategy and global operations for a non-profit with hundreds of staff scattered all over the world.   Resources Mentioned: Centering on Christ, Caring for Your Soul: a self-guided exercise - https://www.dropbox.com/s/fhqkdh8sfdpuwuv/ Centering%20on%20Christ%2C%20Caring%20for%20Your%20Soul%2 0Exercise.pdf?dl=0   Sign Up for My Things For Thursday Email - https://bit.ly/3EDH56y

If we want to change our families, we can do so by concentrating on one habit at a time. Today I brainstorm several potential family habits to consider for 2022, and encourage you to pick ONE new one to ingrain in your lives. Habits:PrayerMorning TimeMeal TimeDrive TimeBed TimeThe WordRead at dinnerThe Bible App DevotionsVerse of the Week or MonthDinner togetherMinimum times per weekdo Roses and ThornsMake one night a week a special night of worship or blessingRead the WordFamily WorshipInvite Grandparents to bless their grandchildrenPick one night a week or month to practice hospitalityBe a BlessingFamily service projectAdopt an orphanAdopt a spiritual orphanAdopt a single person or widowServe at Church TogetherGive Generously  Resources Mentioned:Sign Up for My Things For Thursday Email - https://bit.ly/3EDH56yNorthumbria Prayer times - https://www.northumbriacommunity.org/offices/morning-prayer/

When charcoal is grouped together it burns hot and does its job. When you remove a briquette from the fire, it goes cold. In this short devotional I give a simple explanation for the importance of staying connected to the Body of Christ, in a manner that you can easily demonstrate with your family. Sign Up for My Things For Thursday Email - https://bit.ly/3EDH56y