We love our kids, that’s why we hate to see them struggle.  But maybe that’s precisely the wrong way to think about it? Because we love our kids, we have to let them struggle. We need them to struggle.  In his essay On Providence, Seneca writes in defense of adversity and hardship. Think about the…

Too often, as parents, we focus on the results. We care about their grades. We care about whether they’re turning in their homework. We care whether they know their times tables or whether they’re making it to work on time for their summer jobs.  Obviously these things are important, but by doing this we can…

Trevor Ariza chose family over basketball. He chose his son—a month with him—over $1.8 million dollars in salary. He made the right choice, although it couldn’t have been an easy one. This year’s NBA season has already been cut short. Who knows what the future of sports will hold? But for Trevor, in the middle…

Your kids can’t tell you they’re having a hard time. They don’t know that they are. They don’t understand what’s happening in the world. They don’t appreciate what the disruption to their schedule, to their school, to seeing their friends has really meant. Even if they’re older, even if they could tell you, would they?…

In the 2008 American presidential campaign, Barack Obama famously used the Reverend Wright scandal as what he later called a “teachable moment”—a chance to discuss race with the American people. Whatever you think of Obama’s politics or of that scandal, it’s hard not to like that phrase. A “teachable moment?” It’s rare in politics that…

What gives you the right? What’s your purpose on this planet? Why do you work so hard, why do you fight for the causes you fight for, why do you put up with all the crap you have to put up with in this life? You know why. It’s because of that sleeping three year…

You’ve been working for this moment your whole life. To make it into the league. To sit behind the big desk. To command the squadron. To have the power.  It was for these things that you sacrificed a lot, but now you think your family really has to sacrifice. Don’t they understand how important this…

There are so many sad examples: The father who can’t bear to be contradicted. The parents who refuse to admit when they are wrong. The mom who spends all her energy trying to impress other people. The father who is jealous of his own son, or threatened by the attention his daughter gets.  All these…

What do you think drew Steph Curry to basketball? It must have been many things, but chief among them has to have been the time he spent in arenas watching his dad play. The lights before the team ran through the tunnel. The cheers of the crowd. The pounding of the music. The sound of…

So much has happened and so much now remains uncertain. Do we go back to work? Do we let the kids go to the park? Do we stay inside? Do we start homeschooling? A pandemic raises questions. It explodes the status quo. Suddenly everything seems in flux. Suddenly our foundation has been shaken.  But it’s…