Homeschooling 
In public high school, science was full of adventure. I remember pulling the same fetal pig out of the same plastic bag for 5 days in a row, and by the end of that week, I was pretty sure the organs were completely in the wrong place. In chemistry, we loved watching our teacher make things steam, foam, fizzle, pop, and explode. In physics, we loved watching our teacher drop random objects off the top of the second floor of the school building into the parking lot to demonstrate wind friction. When my wife and I decided to homeschool our kids, as the high school years approached, we asked ourselves: How can our kids ...Read More
Foods Is “Gluten-Free” Biblical? – Wheat and Bread in the Bible
When we first published our book, Weeding Out Wheat, we were attempting to answer a specific cross-section of skeptics: those who believe a gluten-free diet is both (1) unnecessary and (2) unbiblical. In this article, my hope is to address the second concern: since there is both wheat and bread in the Bible (spoken about in positive ways), how can a Christian defend a gluten-free diet? (By the way, if you are looking for gluten-free resources, make sure to check out my Everything Gluten Free resource page.) Now, I get that this might seem like an odd question. For most people, the question of whether ...Read More
Should My Family Attend a Gay Wedding? A Christian Perspective
To many people, the question is nonsensical: "Should my family attend a gay wedding?" because the answer is simple: "RSVP the same way you would to any wedding." But for the Christian who believes God is opposed to homosexual relationships, the answered isn't always as cut and dry—especially when the wedding invite is from someone we especially love. There is by no means any consensus among conservative Christians about how to handle an invitation to a same-sex wedding. Much of it comes down to two questions… In your own conscience, does attending a wedding ceremony imply that you are blessing and ...Read More
What’s the Best Bible Translation for Kids?
There are dozens of English Bible translations available, but what's the best Bible translation for kids? One major factor to consider is your child's reading level. Recently, we were shopping for Bibles for one of our kids. Can we say, overwhelm? There are so. many. options. What helped us narrow down our options was considering several important factors... Longevity: Ideally we wanted a Bible he could read over and over for years, not just a Bible that was suitable for one or two years of his life. Reading Level: At the same time, we didn't want to buy him a 12th-grade-reading-level Bible when he was ...Read More
A Sure-Fire Way to Give Your Kids a Map of the Bible
When our oldest was 7 years old, he was attending a VBS at a local church, and the teacher asked all the kids, "Who knows what sin is?" Many kids started listing out different kinds of sins: lying, cheating, stealing, disobeying parents, etc. The teacher said, "Yes, those are different ways people sin, but what is sin?" My son raised his hand and said, "Sin is disobeying or not conforming to God's law in any way." The teacher stood stunned for a moment, and then said, "I think that's the best definition of sin I've ever heard." Of course, he didn't come up with that definition on his own. After VBS I told the ...Read More
When Your Child Says They’re Gay: A Christian Parent’s Response
What are the odds your son or daughter will tell you they're gay? If Gallup Polls have anything to say about it, and all other things being equal (which they rarely are), your child has a less-than-4% chance of identifying as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. So the odds are small. Regardless of what you think about same-sex attraction, for many parents those smaller odds allow them to breathe a sigh of relief. No one wants their child to grow up feeling "different" or "weird." And yet those smaller odds means for those kids to do experience same-sex attraction, they feel all the more alone. As a Christian parent, ...Read More
Your Wife and the Essential Oil Craze (a letter to skeptical husbands)
I remember the first time I walked into our local "health food" store. I felt a bit like an unclean pagan walking into a holy hippie temple. Surrounded by little boxes of organic herbal teas, agave fiber scrape cloths, and homeopathic pellets made of albatross, I just prayed to the heathen gods that the beatnik priestess behind the cash register didn't smell the McDonald's fries on my breath. And then there was the wall of oils. Check that. The walls (plural) of oils. None of it made much sense to me. Then, some time later, my wife was diagnosed with Lyme disease. And I'm not talking about the ...Read More
When Should We Talk to Our Kids About Homosexuality?
No one wants to raise a child in a war zone. When we hear reports from war-torn countries like Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia, our hearts break for parents in those countries who daily face the possibility that their child might be killed by a barrel bomb or suicide bomber. For parents in these countries, while they hate being surrounded by war, they do their child no favors by pretending they aren't in a war zone. Christians today live in a cultural war zone. Every day, the guardians of culture impress their values on us and our children—values that are often contrary to those of Christ's kingdom. And we ...Read More
