Police Officer adopts opioid-addicted newborn

February 2, 2018
by Mike Slater


It’s stunning to me that someone could be spiritually and emotionally prepared enough to make this decision to adopt a baby on the spot.

And not just any baby, but a baby you know is going to have some challenges because of mom’s drug use.

How do you prepare yourself to make that decision? What does your view of the world, and your purpose of being in it, have to be to decide you’re going to do this?

Selfless doesn’t begin to describe it. I’m in awe. And I’m grateful the president highlighted the Holets family at the State of the Union.

CLICK HERE to watch the original CNN story

When Were You Most Proud Of Your Kids?

January 31, 2018
by Mike Slater

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This is one of the most commented Facebook posts we’ve ever had

Parents: When were you the most proud of one of your kids?

I’m not looking for athletic accomplishments. More like when they gave you a glimpse of the man or woman you want them to become.

Posted by The Mike Slater Show on Friday, January 26, 2018

The answers are inspiring. Please go and read them and post your own!

I can’t even pick the best to post here, but…how about this from Kimberly:

I have two sons. We lost their father in a tragic accident when they were 15 and 10. Shortly after the accident, I passed by my oldest son’s room around bedtime and his younger brother had climbed into bed with him and was crying. My older son was just holding him, consoling him, very much like a parent would a heartbroken child. It was the most touching moment I’ve witnessed as a parent.

I ask this question because I want a vision for the young man I want Jack to become. I want him to do these awesome things parents wrote about. And to make that happen, I need to be intentional.

The Mission Statement of the Christian Parenting podcast is, “We believe in purposeful parenting. We think of the type of adults we want our kids to become and work backwards.”

Your answer to this question gives me a lot of inspiration to be purposeful.

And every answer a parent gave is a story about a kid living out a meaningful VIRTUE. We need to celebrate more success stories!

 

ps, Someone asked me why I excluded athletic accomplishments. They said that sports teach kids life lessons.

Obviously.

I was an athlete. It taught me discipline and perseverance and humility. But I feel like our society places too much of an importance on athletics. Athletics also becomes a kids IDENTITY.

Being a swimmer was my identity growing up. When that part of my life ended, I didn’t know who I was.

There are many former pro-athletes who suffer from depression. It’s rooted in losing their identity:

“I wanted to leave winning a Super Bowl, rushing for 2,000 yards, then having a press conference and crying at the podium,” says Eddie George, a running back who spent eight seasons with the Oilers/Titans franchise before retiring in 2005 after one year with the Cowboys. “I wanted to have that moment, you know? But that didn’t happen. I’m sitting at my kitchen table with my cell phone, just waiting for my agent to call for an opportunity with a team. And that’s when I realized it was over.

“I had saved my money. I had done well. I had businesses that I had already started. But there was that void, a huge void, of: ‘Man, what am I going to do tomorrow morning when I wake up?’ It was pretty much, ‘Who am I? I’m no longer an athlete.'”

Lewis Howes’ The Masks of Masculinity has a great chapter about men who wear the “Athlete Mask”.

Anyway, the point is, I wanted to highlight other aspects of kids’ lives, beyond the glory of the field.

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Mom Guilt

January 31, 2018
by Mike Slater

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Mom guilt is when you don’t feed your kid the highest quality organic food, or they’re not dressed as cute as that kid, or “I’m not making enough breastmilk”, and THEN IT ALL SPIRALS INTO, “I’M A TERRIBLE MOTHER!”‘

Dad guilt exists, too. And it can be paralyzing.

We talked to Buz Mayo about this in the Christian Parenting Podcast around 22:00 in:

It all goes to comparison, and it’s a terrible thing for all of us…We have to know from our God that He has made us and He has given us these chidlren and He belives that we are enough – with Him – to raise them well.

No one knows what to do when they have their child the first time. It is a huge adventure and it requires great dependency on God, but we live in a culture where we’ve been trained and marinated in a sauce that says we have to be independent.

So it’s a big shift for a parent to be even asking God the question “would you help me learn to be dependent on you and not compare myself to these 47 other people.”

The sin of comparison can be crippling.

I first heard this concept from Matt Chandler at the Village Church:

The first bucket where we will find most of the sins of women is the bucket of comparison. The second bucket we will find most of the sins of women would be called perfectionism. As men are prone to selfish passivity and selfish aggression, women are prone to the disordered desires of comparison and perfectionism, and both of those lead to a type of darkness and destruction as to erode the very feminine soul, so women will carry with them under the weight of comparison and perfectionism the stench of death just like men carrying and walking in selfish passivity and selfish aggression will reek of death.

Remember, as Buz said, God believes that we are enough – with Him – to raise our kids well:

As I’m leaning to invite Jesus more into everyday and every hour and to yield, we have to trust and believe that there is far more at work in our parenting than we are aware of.

New parents: Where have you experienced mom guilt or dad guilt?

And more experienced parents: help give us proper pespective for this guilt. Do you still feel it? How does this look like now that some years have passed?

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