Parents and Family

Category Archives: Parents and Family

LifeTeen.com Blog

Creative Gift Ideas for Christmas

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One of the biggest stresses of the Christmas season is gift giving. It can be difficult to find the right gift for a person. Or the stores you shop in are incredibly busy or your wallet isn’t keeping up with your heart (especially for students and others on tight budgets). Gift-giving should be joyful though!

To help you out we have a list of a few meaningful, inexpensive and homemade presents you can give to your friends and family. You can easily put your own spin on each of these ideas. Some of them might take longer to make than others but it’s still a great way to show someone how much you appreciate the gift of their life!

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LifeTeen.com Blog

Help for Those Who Struggle Through Father's Day

Being a teenager without the presence of my father was a struggle. I often felt a void, longing for someone who would show me what it was to be a true man of God. As I travel around and meet a lot of teenagers, I know that many young men and women struggle in their relationship with their fathers. For those of you who have a great relationship with your dad, please take some time to honor him this Sunday. For those of you who struggle, here are some thoughts from someone who’s been struggling as well.

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LifeTeen.com Blog

The Death and Love of My Father

Late in 2010, my dad was diagnosed with cancer. In March of this year his doctors said he only had weeks to live. Suddenly, my world, my faith, and my relationship with my dad were all flipped upside down. I held my dad and my siblings as we cried in the hospital room that day. The next 8 days we spent laughing together and acting like it was any other weekend visit. But that time was definitely more special than anything I had experienced. The difference was that this time we were free to pray together and share our faith. The chaos and confusion of the past all seemed unimportant.

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LifeTeen.com Blog

Mother Always Knows Best

Mother’s Day has always been tricky for me. What gift is ever good enough for Moms – those souls who constantly give so much of themselves? Appliances might make their lives easier, but they don’t exactly get them out of the kitchen. A massage or spa day are great, too, but a few days later their backs are usually tied up in knots again. And what do you do on a fixed budget with no artistic skill? Popsicle picture frames are great when you’re in preschool, but what about high school, college and beyond? So this year I’m taking a [...]

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LifeTeen.com Blog

My Life in a Foster Family: An Interview with Matt Smith

Family is a word that can a lot of different things, and when the crew of LifeTeen.com sat down to look at the theme of “Family,” we realized that even working in the same office, we all come from different types of families. Our Director of Internet Ministry and first-round draft pick out of Georgia Tech Matt Smith came from a family that has a pretty unique story. I turned around the chair at my desk, looked over to Matt, and interviewed him about what it was like in the Smith family.

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LifeTeen.com Blog

No Roaming Charges: Why Extended Family Is Important

My mom likes to text me. I don’t know if you have the same relationship with your mother, but my mother has found that texting is the easiest and quickest way to get my attention. And while she loves to ask me random questions during my week, she does a very good job of keeping me informed about my extended family: you know, those aunts, uncles, cousins… the ones you rarely see, but you know are somehow related to you (as evidenced by that large tree map someone put together years ago).

It’s often already hard to build good relationships with the people we live with, but even more difficult with family whom we rarely see. How are we supposed to be “in relationship” with people we barely know and who live so far away?

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Video

Prodigal

Experience a story of forgiveness, family, and conversion in this Life Teen film. “…this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.”

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LifeTeen.com Blog

Scriptural Scuffs: How to Get Along With Your Siblings

I grew up in a family of five—my two parents, my older brother, my younger sister, and myself. Although my brother, sister, and I get along now that we are adults, growing up we fought A LOT. I can honestly say that I don’t remember a time when we weren’t yelling at each other about something.

Conflict resolution, especially with siblings, is a very important skill to have within your family. Fighting or arguing with your family members can have a lasting impact on your relationship.

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