License to Parent with Trace Embry

While music videos, TV sitcoms, and Hollywood movies too often portray kids as having equal rights, authority, and wit as their adult counterparts, we are seeing similar behaviors playing out in real life as well. We see it in our school systems, internet videos, government, sporting events, grocery stores, and, sadly, even in our churches. Even younger kids do not seem to respect or mind their parents like they used to. Has our culture, itself, been a greater contributor to this than most of us realize? As God-fearing parents, how do we pass on our values to our kids, while maintaining our sanity in a society that’s gone insane?

Dr. Kevin Leman is an internationally known psychologist and New York Times bestselling author of more than 50 books, including The Birth Order Book and Have a New Kid by Friday. His new book, Making Children Mind Without Losing Yours, is completely updated and expanded for a new generation of parents. The previous edition of this book sold more than 1 million copies. Dr. Leman lives with his wife, Sande, in Arizona; they have five children and four grandchildren.

How Bad Behavior Is Becoming the New Normal For Kids

It seems that just about everyone you talk to these days has a Walmart story. By that I mean a story about kids behaving badly while their parents do their best to maintain their sanity and dignity.

I have a few of these Walmart stories myself. And it's not like Walmart is the only place that this happens, there are many other public venues where kids have been seen acting out and not minding their parents or other authority figures for that matter. In fact, it seems that the news regularly reports incidents of kids cussing-out, flipping-off, and even physically assaulting their teachers in the public school system with little-to-no consequences afterwards.

The thing that I just can’t understand is that when kids get in trouble at school today, too many parents are quick to put the teachers on the hot seat instead of Junior. In the past, when you got in trouble at school, round two was coming even hotter and heavier from your parents when you got home. I was in a doctor’s office recently, and I overheard a conversation between two retired public school teachers. Both of them were talking about the incredible changes in today’s kids compared to just 10 years ago. They went on to talk about how happy they were to have gotten out at a time where they still had their sanity— and their lives!

I’m not kidding! Things are a mess today. I know our parents’ generation gets accused of being too “authoritarian”—and maybe they were. But most kids did what their parents told them to do back then. Kids minded their parents—in their presence, anyway. Hopefully, today’s guest will help us figure out how we can get our kids to mind us, not only in our presence, but in our absence as well. Dr. Kevin Leman and I discuss effective parenting styles as we cover the following topics:

What are the different parenting styles?

Is there a parenting style that is harmful?

Why your child might say that he or she “hates” you.

Why encouragement is better than praising your child.

Examples of an authoritative parent.

How do I address violence in the home?

The importance of not raising all of your kids in the exact same way.

Picture provided by: alphalight1

While music videos, TV sitcoms, and Hollywood movies too often portray kids as having equal rights, authority, and wit as their adult counterparts, we are seeing similar behaviors playing out in real life as well. We see it in our school systems, internet videos, government, sporting events, grocery stores, and, sadly, even in our churches. […]

Challenging our kids to ponder the reality of the afterlife is too often an overlooked component in raising emotionally healthy kids today. But what if you could tell your kids about someone who claims to have been there and then returned to earth to tell about it? Well, after today’s program, you will have plenty to talk about with your kids concerning the afterlife. Today, we will be talking to someone who claims to have been there.

Mary C. Neal, MD is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon, former director of spine surgery at the University of Southern California, a founding partner of the Orthopedic Associates of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and the author of 7 Lessons from Heaven and To Heaven and Back.

Dr. Neal received her medical degree from the School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she also trained in general surgery before completing an orthopedic surgery residency at the University of Southern California. She has served as an elder in the Presbyterian Church of Jackson Hole, is a member of the board of directors for several nonprofit organizations, and created the Willie Neal Environmental Awareness Fund. More information about Dr. Neal and her books can be found at her website, drmarynealbooks.com.

How Letting Kids Know About the Afterlife May Shape Their Faith

When someone claims to have visited the afterlife, I think it is fair to teach our kids to sort through the claim and not automatically reject it. After all, we’re expecting our kids to believe a lot of similar things from the Bible—not the least of which is the ultimate afterlife experience upon which our entire faith rests. That, of course, being the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Himself. If we’re expected to believe—and expect our kids to believe—the account of Christ’s death and resurrection from 2,000 years ago, then I think it’s only fair to at least hear out someone who claims to have had a first-hand supernatural experience in contemporary times.

I think that refusing to keep an open mind about it might prove us guilty of denying the very power that we claim our God possesses even today. It also puts us in a similar position as those people in Scripture who were forced to believe or refute the testimonies of those who claimed supernatural experiences back in the day. For me, the bottom line is this: Anything that could help build my faith or the faith of my children, I want to know about it. By the same token, anything that could clarify what I believe or even challenge it, I want to know about that too. Truth is a lifelong pursuit. Today, Dr. Mary C. Neal and I discuss her experience with the afterlife as we cover the following topics:

Mary C. Neal’s traumatic kayaking accident.

What Mary learned during her life review.

What Mary experienced while she was underwater.

Is it true that she saw Jesus?

Why she believes this experience happened to her.

Why this miraculous story is relevant to you and your family.

How does Mary answer the skeptics?

Picture provided by: maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com

Challenging our kids to ponder the reality of the afterlife is too often an overlooked component in raising emotionally healthy kids today. But what if you could tell your kids about someone who claims to have been there and then returned to earth to tell about it? Well, after today’s program, you will have plenty […]

On top of all this, the Bible is a resource for parents as well. Even though roughly 70,000 books have been written on the topic of raising kids, the Bible has always been a preeminent go-to source for parents worldwide. This has certainly been true for American parents—at least for the first 200 years of our nation’s history, anyway. In more recent times, the Bible has become more of a “dust collector” than a “just director” for American families. To steal a phrase from one popular self-proclaimed parenting expert, “How’s that working for us?” Now that America has become a much more dangerous place to raise our children, perhaps we need to return to parenting by the book—this dangerous book, as some call it.

Steve Green is the President of Hobby Lobby, the largest privately owned arts and crafts retailer in the world. His wife Jackie actively supports him in his position at Hobby Lobby and is an adoptive mom who has served on the advisory board of a local crisis pregnancy center. She has also worked with her family in orphanages worldwide.

Together, Steve and Jackie have written a book about the Bible called This Dangerous Book. They are also a part of the founding family of the Museum of the Bible. The Museum of the Bible is the largest international museum in the world devoted solely to the presentation and preservation of the Bible. This facility opened its doors in November of 2017, but since 2009, the Greens have been collecting biblical artifacts from all around the world. Today, they possess one of the largest collections in the world. Steve and Jackie provide unique insight and commentary into the Bible’s role in our public and our personal lives. They have been blessed six children and four grandchildren.

How the Bible Is a Resource That Reveals a Path Toward Healing

When pop-psychologists and traditional approaches to helping troubled teenagers fall short, Shepherds Hill Academy remains a proving ground for the truth and power of God’s written Word to heal not only kids who have one foot in jail or one foot in the grave, but their entire families as well. Incredibly, this is happening for families from all across the country and around the world. While it’s easy to think that the healing is coming largely from Shepherds Hill Academy’s clinical approaches alone, we really attribute the lion’s share of the healing to the truth and power of God’s Word. The clinical team here at Shepherds Hill Academy is just doing what is congruent with what the Scriptures have already been trying to teach folks for thousands of years. One of those things is leading people to healthy and right thinking.

Without the Bible, how would we know what healthy and right thinking actually is? The Bible really is the ultimate psychology book. But it is much more than that. It reveals God and His redemptive purposes. It leads us to right “being.” Mental health professionals have their own “bible” of sorts; It’s called the DSM (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). They would say that this is where “right thinking” is discovered. But if things keep going as they have been going in mental health circles in recent times, “Christianity” itself might eventually be found as an actual disorder in their DSM. Today, Steve and Jackie Green and I discuss the Bible as we cover the following topics:

Why is the Bible considered dangerous?

Who are Steve and Jackie Green?

Why is the Bible different from the Quran?

What is the Bible Museum?

How did the Bible Museum begin?

How can the Bible Museum benefit my family?

Picture provided by: Chajm Guski

On top of all this, the Bible is a resource for parents as well. Even though roughly 70,000 books have been written on the topic of raising kids, the Bible has always been a preeminent go-to source for parents worldwide. This has certainly been true for American parents—at least for the first 200 years of […]

As a result of this, we have to use the term “traditional” in front of term “family” in order to convey its same historic meaning. But is the traditional family really any healthier or legitimate than other combination of human beings living under the same roof? Others in our society today would say that the traditional family is not any healthier—nor more legitimate—than any other definition of family. If this is true, why should preserving the traditional family be a priority for the citizenry of the United States—or for any other nation for that matter?

Tim Wildmon is president of American Family Association (AFA) and American Family Radio (AFR). Tim is the co-host of Today’s Issues, a daily radio program that offers a Christian response to issues of the day. He is also co-host of Christian Worldview This Week, a weekly program that examines social and political issues for Christians and considers how they can become involved. Both programs air on American Family Radio stations across the country.

Tim has appeared on Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN. He has been quoted in national newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and numerous other media outlets. He is also frequently quoted by Family News in Focus, WorldNetDaily, SRN News, and USA Radio News. Tim is a frequent guest on local and national radio programs.

How Postmodernism Has Impacted the Traditional Family Concept

As we have discussed many times before on License to Parent, common sense can’t be common when a society has no common set of standards on which the vast majority of its citizenry can agree. If everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes, which is basically the mantra of the postmodern thought that pervades American thinking today, then, logically speaking, how can you have common sense?

Within the greater American culture, common sense can’t exist—unless, of course, we consider the common terms and values among the enclaves or subcultures within the greater American culture. Our own Christian subculture is one example. Some Native Americans or Muslims would have their own common sense values as well. And there are many others. But what is common sense to them may not always be common sense to you and me. So, for the most part, “common sense” for our greater American culture is virtually gone. That has been true in this country ever since the lens of a predominantly Biblical worldview slowly began being exchanged for a lens of a postmodern worldview 50 years ago. We can see what this has done for the definition of family in recent years.

I’m looking forward to hearing what our guest has to say about all this. Today, Tim Wildmon and I discuss the definition of “family” as we cover the following subjects:

What is the AFA?

What is the culture’s definition of a family?

How should parents define family?

How should parents address their teen’s argument against marriage?

The importance of taking “sin” seriously.

How do we return to a traditional home?

Picture provided by: Virginia State Parks

As a result of this, we have to use the term “traditional” in front of term “family” in order to convey its same historic meaning. But is the traditional family really any healthier or legitimate than other combination of human beings living under the same roof? Others in our society today would say that the […]

It’s argued that all of God’s children have intelligences to offer the world. Knowing how to nurture the God-given gifts, strengths, and intelligences of children can help parents raise them in, what Scripture calls,“the way they should go.” This is the way that will bring them contentment, significance, identity, belonging, joy and the emotional and spiritual well-being to glorify God and benefit everyone they encounter. Now, that’s a recipe for a successful life.

Dr. Kathy Koch, the Founder and President of Celebrate Kids, has influenced thousands of parents, teachers, and children in 30 countries through keynote messages, seminars, assemblies, and other events.

Dr. Kathy is a popular guest on Focus on the Family radio and other radio talk-shows. She is also an author of six books, including four published by Moody Publishers and two published by Celebrate Kids. Her best sellers are Teens and Screens: Connecting with Our Kids in a Wireless World and 8 Great Smarts: Discover and Nurture Your Child’s Intelligences.

Dr. Kathy earned a doctorate in reading and educational psychology from Purdue University in 1984. She was a tenured associate professor of education at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, a teacher of second graders, a middle school coach, and a school board member before founding Celebrate Kids and becoming a full-time conference and keynote speaker in 1991.

How Understanding the Various Intelligences of Children Can Help Them Find Their Calling

I was in my mid-thirties when Beth and I first felt called to ministry. At the time, the thought of Bible college made Hell feel like a vacation in the Caribbean. The only reason that I was even close to being an average student back in high school was because I had taken classes like drafting, power mechanics, machine shop, and typing. Other than those kinds of classes and sports, I hated every minute of school. So, when, at the age of 34, I had to take an aptitude test to get into Bible college, I scored far, far below sea level. In other words, I had no altitude to my aptitude. In fact, I was so far below sea level that I had to look up to find the ocean floor—and that was covered with whale dung.

That’s how bad I scored. It was not only disappointing, it was beyond humiliating. Here I was, telling people that God Himself had called me to ministry, yet according to the way my aptitude was measured, I should actually be in a therapeutic school and program right now, certainly not running one. If it weren’t for a God who measures qualification for His work by a totally different standard and my pastor who saw something in me that I didn’t even see in me, I might be bagging your groceries right now or preparing your hamburgers—not that there’s anything wrong with either of those things. I’ve done both—and pretty well, I might add.

Despite my humiliating college aptitude scores and the fact that Beth and I were both working to support our three kids and pay our own way through college, by God’s grace, I managed to be on the dean's list every semester I was in school! I don’t say that to brag. I say that to demonstrate to our listeners and our guest, Dr. Kathy Koch, that what we’ll be discussing today is evidenced in the very guy who will be asking the lion’s share of the questions. Her book is spot on! I just wish my parents and I had access to it about 40 or 50 years earlier. Dr. Kathy Koch and I discuss the various intelligences of children as we cover the following topics:

What is Celebrate Kids?

What do I do if my child is not making A’s in his classes?

How can I cultivate my child’s strengths?

How do I train my child to be wise?

Why application of truth is so crucial.

What are the “8 smarts?”

Picture provided by: maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com

It’s argued that all of God’s children have intelligences to offer the world. Knowing how to nurture the God-given gifts, strengths, and intelligences of children can help parents raise them in, what Scripture calls,“the way they should go.” This is the way that will bring them contentment, significance, identity, belonging, joy and the emotional and […]