Famous at Home

Have you felt stuck in the trenches, especially in the early years of parenthood? Trying to be the best mom you can be, yet also feeling the urge to lead outside the home too?Or maybe you decided that in certain seasons you would focus on leading your kids, and wait to find God's calling for you outside of motherhood after that particular season was over.In this episode, we talk with Kelly King, Women's Ministry Specialist for LifeWay Christian Resources, about how women can lead in the varying seasons of motherhood.We talk specifically about: * How to navigate raising kids and discovering the call to lead * Not dismissing the little doors because they feel small to us * Why it's important to stay in your lane * How to overcome mom shaming * The importance of who you surround yourself with * How husbands can champion their wives to leadKelly's insights come directly from her own personal lessons. This is a message she has lived in every season of raising her kids.Show Notes: Click here to register for the LifeWay Women's Leadership Forum, November 8-10, 2018. To receive a special $20 discount, use Promo Code: FORUM226    Podcast Sponsors:

Have you been faced with getting difficult questions from your kids, and perhaps at a younger age than you had wished? Or feeling the need to have conversations with your kids but not sure how to have them?Welcome to parenting in the 21st century.We live in a very different political and cultural climate than in decades past. In this episode, we talk with Dr. Phillip Bethancourt, executive vice president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, on how he equips parents and church leaders to have these conversations. A very practical episode, you will be encouraged and equipped, especially if you lack confidence with some of the topics.Phillip, who has four boys, also provides super helpful illustrations to matter the age of our kids.In addition, this episode kicks off an online Bible study that Phillip co-wrote and that we're hosting on our blog called Christ-Centered Parenting: Gospel Conversations on Complex Cultural Issues. It's a free online study and we'd love to have you join us! Click here for details and to sign up. These 6 sessions will give you more confidence as a parent, help you instill a biblical worldview into your children, and equip you to talk to your kids about today’s tough cultural issues, including: * Gender issues * Suicide, depression, and anxiety * Pornography * Addiction and coping mechanisms * Technology * Singleness, dating, marriage, and divorceShow NotesSign up for the Christ-Centered Parenting Free Online Bible Study. Click here.To sign up and learn more about the ERLC National Conference, The Cross-Shaped Family, click here. To sign up for The Weekly, and learn more about today's cultural issues with the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, click here. Podcast Sponsors

Your questions are fuel for us for two reasons. First, you are real and desire to live a great story for your kids. Secondly, your courage to ask questions helps everyone listening to the podcast. If you struggle with something, other families struggle with it too.It's an honor being in this together with you. These Q & A episodes give all of us encouragement. So thank you!In this episode, we had a number of questions related to being emotionally safe for our kids and why it's important. In this week's episode we discuss: * Resources for understanding our own story as a parent * How to connect and talk to our child with grace, especially if he / she is prone to feeling ashamed * If a parent is away for work, ways he / she can connect with the kids from the road * How to plan for a difficult conversation with our teenager (and even our kids), especially when there is a rift in the relationship * Championing our kids in their interests and passions, even if they have no outlets for it in our local area * The importance of kids recognizing and putting words to their emotionsAs a general takeaway for this episode, give yourselves grace. When we walk in grace, it's easier to pass it onto our kids as well.The questions: Jen: In episode 51 you talk about emotional safety for our kids and attachment. I recognize the only way I can address my own attachment style and my tendencies and my reasons for flying off the handle (or why certain things make me go to that place) is if I do the hard work of understanding my past and who I am. But I don't know where to start. I have very little long term memory, so I don't know how to dig in? Do you recommend any resources for helping along with this deep work?Annie: My oldest is 6, she is extremely independent and smart. I have raised her almost completely by myself because my husband is in the oilfield and physically absent. Over the last year or so she has developed this habit of every time I try and correct her (often my delivery isn’t with grace) she responds by saying, "It’s because I’m stupid, I’m just stupid.” She just seems so frustrated and defeated. I can’t seem to get through to her to try again or that she isn’t dumb/stupid. I know I have done something maybe to contribute to that. But since it’s already been done, what is something I can say to maybe help navigate or reframe her mindset. I also need to say I have NEVER called her that. However, I know she has heard me say things like, “This is so stupid,” talking about lots of different things.Lindsay: I just found your podcast in a major time of need. I just feel I'm getting it all wrong. I've listened to a few of your episodes and know I need to change my parenting style. I have a 16-year-old who previously to this last year was easy to raise. The last year has been a living nightmare and I'm handling it all wrong. I'm disappointing, angry, mean, and just lost. My question is, how do you suggest I start making a change? I know I need to sit down and have a conversation but I don't know where to start.Shannon: My daughter is nine years old and she hates sports, exercise and being outdoors. She loves singing and performing and creating movies on her iPad. Unfortunately we live in an area where our school only offers athletics - there is no chorus, show choir, drama, or band. My daughter has a meltdown and wants to quit anytime something is difficult. She is a pleaser, is very sensitive and wants to fit in and be included. So we make her play rec sports because a) she needs the exercise and b) we are worried that if we let her quit now that she will regret it once she gets up to junior high and all of her friends are on teams. She currently complains about leaving the house...

Welcome to Season 4 of the "In This Together" podcast!School is back in session. In this episode, we talk about three ways we can spiritually prepare our kids for the new school year.Whether you homeschool, or your kids go to a public or private school, this episode will help guide your family to spiritually prepare your kids (and yourself) for the school year ahead.Here are the questions we consider to help us: * What is the biggest lesson you learned from last school year? Revisit that lesson. Write it down. What decisions will you make differently this year as a result? * What parental agendas do you have for your kids that you need to surrender this year? What are questions your kids have about the year ahead? * What two values do you want to instill in your kids this school year? * Do you have a family mission's statement? Put a plan in place to start one this week. * What is one thing you can remove from your family calendar that is adding undo pressure?Podcast Sponsors:

The final week of our "Best Of" Series is one that will challenge your faith. We listened to it again and it was like watching a movie the second time around. There was much we missed the first time that we needed right now in this season of our lives.Faith is the currency of heaven. We all need more of it. You may be in a season where you think that a "faith adventure" is just too much... * “But we are in survival mode.” * “Maybe when the kids are out of the house.” * “I’m too afraid.”We ourselves have said everyone of these. Christine Caine shares her family’s story of living a faith adventure and graciously shows us why we can’t afford not to.Here are a few highlights from one our favorite episodes! * How to overcome our, “But, God.” * Why marriage and family is a crucial part of Christian witness in the days ahead. * How our paralyzing fear serves nobody, and how to overcome it. * How to bring our kids on the adventure, no matter their age, and why our kids deserve it!Don’t miss this one. The topic is too important.Show Notes:Purchase Unexpected: Leave Fear Behind, Move Forward in Faith, Embrace the Adventure by Christine Caine, click here.     

Welcome to week 3 of our "Best Of" series!As Dr. Townsend states about entitlement, "This isn't a generational problem; it's a human problem."Apparently, a lot of parents in our generation don't want their kids to be entitled. It was the most listened to episode of season 3!Entitlement, according to Dr. John Townsend, is "a belief that I am exempt from responsibility and that I am owed special treatment." Unfortunately, you don't have to look too far today to find entitled kids--and adults!In this episode, Dr. Townsend helps parents learn how to not raise entitled kids. An incredibly practical discussion, you'll learn the three antidotes to entitlement and hear Dr. Townsend explain the following three ways to apply the antidote: * Change your language * Do hard things first * Keep inconvenient commitmentsDr. Townsend encourages us, "Kids need to grow up at a dinner table where mom and dad are doing interesting things." Here's to being parents who take responsibility, live well, and show our kids how to be grateful.Show Notes: Learn from a Role Play Coach. Join TownsendNOW today!To learn more about Townsend Leadership Program, click here.Learn more about earning a Master's degree through the Townsend Institute. Click here.To purchase The Entitlement Cure by Dr. John Townsend, click here.

Welcome to week 2 of our "Best Of" series!Emotional safety was one of the most requested topics in season 3. Not only that, this episode became one of the most listened to of any we did.When we first became parents we were exhausted and overwhelmed by the opinions of what we "should" do. That's why we decided to start with the end in mind. With the outcomes we most desire in our kids when they become adults. What we found is that emotional safety—more than any other factor—is scientifically linked to raising kids who live, love, and lead well.In other words, the posture from which we parent matters infinitely more than the techniques of parenting. What is emotional safety?In this episode, we answer this question and discuss: * The Golden Rule of relationships * Four walls of a Safe House (exploration, protection, grace, truth) * Four parenting styles (BFF, helicopter, boss, religious) * How to lead in grace and follow up in truth as we discipline * Why being a parent isn't rocket science; it's just brain surgery.Show Notes:To order Safe House: How Emotional Safety is the Key to Raising Kids Who Live, Love, and Lead Well, click here!        Interested in going through the 6-week DVD Safe House Parent Study with your spouse or church small group? Click here to learn more! 

We're kicking off our "Best Of" Series for season 3. During the summer we take a little hiatus to regroup, rejuvenate, and plan for our upcoming season--season 4!In part 1 of of our "Best of" series, we revisit our interview with Frank Tate. As one of the most highly listened to and commented about episodes, we chose it first because of how it will change your view of being a parent.If you're a regular listener and were unable to listen to this episode, put it at the top of your list. Likewise, if you're new to the podcast, put it at the top of your list. This is time well spent!In his upcoming book, Foster Kid, Frank tells his riveting story and leaves behind nuggets of wisdom he’s picked up from the screaming data of raising his own two kids. Here’s a few nuggets he discusses with us in this episode: * How to listen to your kids’ screaming data * Why parents should be editors, not authors * How to avoid GPS (Generational Peer Stress) Parenting * What “goodwill shaming” is and why we do it * Why you should give data-based praise * How to champion your child’s inner genius (and potentially save lots of money on a college education)If there is one episode that will change how you think about parenting, this is that episode.

Championing kids with special needs or medical disabilities can be quite difficult on many levels.First, there's the academic needs of the child. For instance, in some school systems, grades become emphasized over emotional development or character. Other schools lack the resources to champion the heart or strengths of the child.In addition, there's the therapeutic needs of the child. From a financial perspective, this can put quite a strain on the family.We close out this three-part series on families with children who have disabilities or special needs by talking with Kelly Bagwell. She and her husband Jeff are on the latter end of the journey, as their twin boys (who are on the autism spectrum) are about to graduate high school. She is also a high school teacher with special education students and a certified Christian counselor. So her perspective comes from all sides.However, as you listen, especially if you're a parent, what you'll hear is raw emotion and honesty about how to champion your family and kids. It's an honest conversation about the challenges, necessary steps, and gifts of raising children with special needs.Show Notes: Click here for the 100 Day Kit for Newly Diagnosed Families of Young Children at www.autismspeaks.org.Podcast Sponsor:

So often, conversation on kids with intellectual disabilities centers on ministry "to" children with disabilities. What if we instead focused on the ministry "of" children with disabilities?In this episode, Amy Julia Becker presents us with a massive paradigm shift on many levels. After reading her cover article in Christianity Today titled The Ministry of the Disabled, we knew we needed to learn from her.A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, Amy Julia's essays about faith, family, and disability have appeared in the Washington Post, USA Today, Christianity Today, the Christian Century, and online for The New York Times, ABCNews, the Atlantic, Vox, and The Huffington Post.Here are some highlights of our conversation: * Changing how we see the word "need." Would you describe yourself as "being needy?" What if it were a necessary and good thing? * Why it's important to receive people (especially our kids) as they are given to us, not through the lens of who we want them to be. * How Amy Julia discovered the core parental fears and idols she had after learning her daughter, Penny, had Downs Syndrome. * Tangible ways we can all come alongside families who have children with disabilities. * How churches can include children with disabilities. * Very practical ways we can celebrate and champion every child, and look for ways to bring everyone together.Show Notes: Visit Amy Julia Becker's website by clicking here. Click here to read Amy Julia's Christianity Today article title, The Ministry of the Disabled. Click here for A Good and Perfect Gift: Faith, Expectations, and a Little Girl Named Penny.Click here for Small Talk: Learning From my Children About What Matters Most.        Podcast Sponsors: