Create a Circle of Virtue
We’re rolling out weekly parenting tips to help you embrace your role as a parent. Your journey to Christlike parenting begins here. Click here to get them for free! Preparing for this school year looks totally different than last year. Besides buying supplies, shoes and other necessities, parents must watch for any signs of illness,…
Read MoreParenting Toward Adulthood: Forming a Community of Persons
‘It’s time to become the guide at the side, not the sage on the stage”. This phrase aptly describes the transition parents make during the young adult years. Youth are still expected to follow the right counsel of their parents and participate in family life and parents are still expected to provide guidance and interaction.…
Read MoreLonganimity: Patience for the Long Haul
Our culture is broiling with anger and turmoil. Pandemic, lockdown, riots, and political vitriol surrounding presidential elections are making us irritated, frustrated, and angry. We could all use a greater strengthening of this month’s virtue: longanimity. Also known as “long-suffering,” longanimity refers to patience over a long period of time. The word literally means “long-souled” and is closely related to the term magnanimity, which means “great-souled.” Being willing to put up with suffering and frustration, especially out of love for others, is one way we express the greatness of Christlike love. In our parenting, longanimity means playing the long game, putting up with current challenges in order to help your children become who God created to be. Learn more about this powerful virtue in this month’s “Circle of Virtue” article.
Read MoreParenting in the School-age Years: Participating in the Church
Children at this age are masters at memorization. They are also at an age of great intellectual curiosity. The parent’s task is to engage that curiosity and capitalize on their increased learning capacity to lead them to a better understanding of the faith. One mistake that parents often make at this stage is to assume…
Read MoreLessons of Life and Love
A proper, full understanding of love is just as important as a proper, full understanding of sexuality. Authentic love isn’t first about self-fulfillment. It’s about self-giving. Learn what true love really is.
Read MoreParenting Style Matters
Parenting is complicated because every child is unique and each situation is different. This means that parents can seemingly lose their minds trying to decide the best way to help their child grow in love. Diane Baumrind, a research psychologist for the Institute of Human Develop at Berkeley, looked at the relationships between parental behavior…
Read MoreParenting in the School-age Years: Developing Society
When your children were younger, developing society as a family was directed by the parents. As your children reach puberty, they are going to have their own ideas about how to serve others through volunteerism and social justice.
Read MoreHope: Trusting God Through the Chaos
Your family needs the virtue of Hope, now more than ever. There is no doubt that you are raising your family in tumultuous times. Confusion and chaos abound in both the culture and the Church. It would be easy to throw our hands up in despair and cry out, “Why even bother? What’s the use?”…
Read MoreThree Key Catholic Teachings About Sexual Intercourse
The final step in the “stair-step” approach to teaching your child about sexuality is teaching about the act of sexual intercourse. In addition to the biological facts about intercourse, there are 3 key points to teach about God’s plan for life and love. Point #1: The most important Catholic Church teaching about sexual intercourse is…
Read MoreParenting in the Early Years: Developing Society
The third task of parents is to develop society. This task revolves around the virtue of hospitality which is the friendly reception and treatment of guests. As parents, it is your duty to teach your children that everyone in the world is a guest, worthy of friendship and charity. Hospitality In the early parenting years,…
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