Leading Kids to Live by Faith with Joshua Verwers

How can we pass on faith to our teenagers?

One of our main goals as parents (and commands by God) is to bring our children up in the training and instruction of the Lord. 

In this episode of my Podcast, I talk with Joshua Verwers, a friend of mine and fellow pastor.

He gives practical advice on how to keep older kids engaged in understanding what God has for them.

You can get in touch with Joshua at: Joshuaverwers.com or check out his YouTube channel.

You can also find the podcast on any of your favorite podcast players. Just search for Dennis Poulette.

If you prefer to watch, here’s the YouTube link: Leading Kids to Live by Faith with Joshua Verwers

015 – Teaching Kids Civility with Jeff Coleman

How can our kids learn to be civil in a world full of anger and fighting? If we don’t teach our kids basic civility, we will only see society continue to decline and division will increase. Parents should be proactive in teaching their kids civility and being positive examples in this arena.

In this Podcast Episode, I sit down with an old friend of mine, Jeff Coleman. Jeff served on the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and is founder of Churchill Creative. He also wrote a book titled “With All Due Respect: Recovering the Manners & Civility of Political Combat” (Affiliate).

You can get in touch with Jeff at: https://churchillmedia.org

You can also find the podcast on any of your favorite podcast players. Just search for Dennis Poulette.

If you prefer to watch, here’s the YouTube link: Teaching Our Kids Civility with Jeff Coleman

Leadership Lessons Learned from Game 6 of the World Series

If you know me, you know I’m a huge Tampa Bay Rays fan. We have been watching Rays baseball every night for a long time (even when we were living in Mexico City), and this year’s playoff run has been a highlight of a crazy 2020. 

In case you don’t know, the Rays played the Dodgers in the World Series. After an emotional back and forth series, the Rays had their backs against the wall in Game 6. 

They put Blake Snell on the mound, who had an incredible Game 2 performance, and he was on fire in Game 6. He had 9 strikeouts in 5 innings and had only given up one hit. 

Then the second Dodgers’ hit in the 6th inning caused Kevin Cash to come out and take out the 2018 AL Cy Young Award Winner. The Dodgers went on to score 2 runs that inning off of the Rays bullpen and ultimately won the game and the championship.

Kevin Cash’s decision was not very welcomed by Snell, the fans, or much of social media. As I ponder the entire situation, I think there are at least three leadership lessons to be learned from this series of events:

 

3 Leadership Lessons Learned in Game 6 of the World Series:

LESSON 1: Everyone wants to give their opinion on your performance.

We live in a society where every single person is happy to share their opinion. We are encouraged to talk about it all over social media. Twitter lights up with commentary on all sorts of things, from what people wear to what they say. Leaders understand that everyone will have an opinion on their performance, yet they don’t let that dissuade them from taking action. I’m convinced that Kevin Cash knew that taking out your ace in the 6th inning would be critiqued for ages by baseball commentators and fans alike. Criticism is part of leadership. Get ready.

 LESSON 2: Sometimes what gets you where you are doesn’t take you where you want to go.

The Rays have depended on their bullpen this season. They have been stellar, with so many guys who can step up and shut down a team. It is no wonder Cash thought that the bullpen would carry them through in this game as well. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Sometimes, as a leader, you have to evaluate the current situation and make adjustments to your typical strategy. What you’ve done in the past doesn’t always work out in your favor again. It’s a fine line between second guessing, going with your gut, and sticking to the plan. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Good leadership understands that and is willing to take the risks associated with each one of those decisions.

LESSON 3: Tomorrow is another day.

Sure, the agony of defeat stings for a few days. We were so close. It was such a fun season. The regular season, big playoff series victories against the Yankees and Astros just to make it to an incredibly entertaining World Series—all of those things will remain in our minds for a while. The bad taste in our mouth from this World Series loss will hopefully just make the Rays more hungry to win next year. In leadership, you cannot dwell on your past losses or even successes. You have to realize that it’s a new day with new opportunities and possibilities.

While I’m sad my team lost last night, I know they will take the lessons they learned and put them towards winning tomorrow. After all, there are only 114 days until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training.

013: Preparing Kids for College with Chris Shepperd

In this Podcast Episode, Chris Shepperd, College Pastor at Brazos Fellowship in Texas, gives tips and advice for Christian parents to prepare their high school children for college as well as what it takes to succeed as a freshman in college. 

Listen below or by clicking here.

You can also find the podcast on any of your favorite podcast players. Just search for Dennis Poulette.

More Videos on Parenting

How to Connect With Your Kids

Not too long ago I made a video about how to have a spiritually FIT family. One of the steps to being FIT as a family is to spend intentional time together.

I realize that life is busy and it is often difficult to spend intentional time with your kids, but it is of utmost importance. I read somewhere once that the average kid spends less than 5 minutes a day in meaningful conversation with his parents. We have to do better than that. 

In this article I want to give you some goals that you can gradually accomplish in order to have a positive impact on your kids and be more intentional about the time you are spending with them. 

How to Spend Intentional Time with Your Kids

DAILY conversations: Take time each day to deliberately have a conversation. Maybe it’s asking a quick easy question that will help you connect (make sure to ask the right questions). Maybe it’s just noticing something, but connect on a daily basis. Pick a time…maybe before bed, during dinner, right when you get home, or some other time…to intentionally look your kid in the eyes and connect with them through meaningful conversation. Even 5 minutes will go a long way.

WEEKLY hangouts: Be intentional on a weekly hangout time with each of your kids. Take them somewhere, if you can. Maybe it’s to the ice cream parlor. Maybe it’s a coffee shop. Maybe you schedule a game night or a round of that video game they’re into. Set a time. Connect deeper. Do it each week. Make it something you both look forward to. Spend more than five minutes on this weekly time together. It will likely be something you and your kid look forward to.

MONTHLY outings: Each month, do something together as a family. Picnics, movies, mini-vacations, fishing, hiking, or even in-house movie nights or game nights for the whole family will work. Just be intentional and schedule out this month’s outing for your family. Don’t let the to-do list crowd out this time. These monthly family outings are building a solid foundation for a FIT family, and you won’t regret scheduling them when the kids are no longer in the house. 

Daily, weekly, and monthly habits will help your family spend intentional time together, and this intentional time will make it easier to talk about important things when necessary. Five minutes daily, a half an hour to hour weekly, and an afternoon monthly will definitely change your family. 

Remember, small things repeated over time will make a big difference in the way your family interacts with each other.