One of the most difficult parts of marriage is agreeing how to discipline. When one parent is more lenient, and one is more harsh, often parents fail to back each other up, and instead form emotional bonds with the kids. Here's a situation that happened in our family recently: One of our daughters, who had been very compliant, hit puberty, and...

Words are powerful. They start can start a revolution, they can start a family, they can change a nation, they can end a war.  We decorate our walls with words, some of us tattoo them on to our bodies.  In the moment it can be hard to find just the right words which might also be why we like quotes so much.  T. S. Eliot wrote, “It is impossible...

What one gift that everyone wants? The gift of time. Time is the main ingredient in building lasting relationships. Your time is a gift you can give your spouse every day. My goal for this month is to learn more about my husband. My relationship with my husband is an important one. I’m constantly reminding myself of that and the importance of...

Today, the number of credit cards in Canada had grown to almost 65 million while the value of annual purchases made with credit cards increased more than ten times. The hard truth: More credit cards mean more credit card debt per person. Many Canadians are swamped by their monthly credit card obligations. Credit card debt is painful because often...

Are you called or are you driven? Do you feel like your life is out of control, or can you peacefully move forward, knowing God is leading? I want to look at that question in relation to our finances. But before we do that, look at this picture of a house: Small, isn't it? And yet the majority of North American families in the 1950s lived in something...

Every now and then, an idea explodes through our collective consciences, challenging our notions about how life works. It happened in the fifteenth century when Galileo argued that the earth was round. It happened in the eighteenth century when upstarts in North America decided they wanted to govern themselves. And I hope, for some of you parents,...

He stood at my kitchen counter drinking a cup of coffee. Our overnight guest casually spoke about summer plans he made with his wife. It sounded nice  –  a few picnics, a couple of quick weekend trips, kids sports events to take in, maybe a holiday that they had talked about for a long time.  Then he paused and asked me, “Do you know where...