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Teach Chastity Not Purity
By Amanda Markel For as long as I can remember, and maybe even longer than that, American evangelicals have focused on purity when talking to their children about sex. On the surface, this sounds good. Purity goes hand-in-hand with abstinence-based sex education, and that tends to be the goal of most Christians…waiting to have sex until marriage. The emphasis on “purity” is problematic for several reasons, though. Let’s start with the most obvious. None of us are pure, period. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking sexually, or in any other way…we all fall short. We are all poor, miserable sinners. To think we can attain purity in a specific area…
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Treasury of Daily Prayer
By Amanda Markel Many individuals and families struggle with having a devotional time in the home. What should this time look like? What do you actually need to do? What resources are available — and not just available, but theologically sound — for you to use? A few years ago, Concordia Publishing House came out with a book that takes all of the guesswork out of spending time in the Word. It’s called the Treasury of Daily Prayer, and it’s a wonderful resource for use in the home, for people of all ages and from all walks of life. And the best part is, you don’t have to worry about…
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Easter Vigil
By Amanda Markel You may have noticed that some churches have a service on Holy Saturday evening. For some people, this may or may not come as a surprise. It is not uncommon for churches to have a Saturday evening service weekly, which usually serves as an opportunity for members who cannot make it to the regular Sunday morning service to still receive Christ’s gifts, and be in fellowship with the congregation. But whether or not your church regularly worships on Saturday evening, the Holy Saturday service, the Great Vigil of Easter, is different. First, what it’s not. It’s not supposed to be a regular Saturday worship service. It shouldn’t…
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Christian Fiction
by Amanda Markel Reading is a great use of time…except when it isn’t. I have enjoyed reading for as long as I can remember, and I’ve tried to pass that on to my children. There are many books from my childhood which hold a special place in my heart; treasure that I’ve looked forward to sharing with my children. There are also books from my pre-teen years, that looking back, make me cringe to think that I read them. Lest you think I was reading something worldly and inappropriate when I was still in junior high school, let me reassure you—I wasn’t. I was reading something much more insidious—Christian fiction.…
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Special Needs Parenting
One of the most difficult tasks of parenting any child is discipline. This difficulty is magnified when parenting a child with special needs. How do you strike the proper balance between correction and mercy, especially with a child who may not understand their actions or the need for correction? In church we refer to this as the proper distinction between Law and Gospel, even though as parents, on a day to day basis, we don’t always think about it in those terms. The Law, of course, shows us our sin, while the Gospel shows us Jesus. We deal with this constantly in our homes, from the littlest matters to the…
