Family

Strategic Parenting

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My children are different.  I love them equally, but I father them differently.  Mario is definitely different from Luigi.  They are both very different from Princess Toadstool (sorry, don’t have that costume just yet). I discipline differently.  While certain techniques I use might be the same, each one has to be corrected differently to get their attention.  They each are …

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Happy Birthday Amanda!

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Love.  Peace.  Joy.  Acceptance.  These are just a few of the things that I get to experience everyday with my wife Amanda.

Wishing her a happy birthday is a funny thing.

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Act Like Men

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I have the job of raising my boys to become men.  They are supposed to think like and act like men when I am done with them.  The only problem is – many “men” don’t know what that means!

1 Corinthians 13 is often called “The Love Chapter.”  It’s a great reminder for us all, but it especially reminds us as men that we are called to love our families. Each man is expected by God to be patient, kind, and humble.  Paul takes it even further.

Take a moment to read this verse 1 Corinthians 16:13-14:

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The Father Who Prays

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Rick Via is an evangelist who has shared the gospel in over 40 foreign countries. Through his work in the United States and all over the world, he has seen many converts and equipped many saints for the work of ministry. While his ministry has been very active and busy for years, his greatest contribution to the Kingdom comes in a different arena.

Rick and his wife, Janet, have 5 grown children who are all “involved in ministry in one form or fashion.” They are also blessed to have an ever growing number of grandchildren through biological and adoptive means. While he has invested into countless lives around the world, he never stopped investing into his children.

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8th Anniversary

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It’s with much joy and disbelief that I wake up this morning to the fact that I have been married for 8 years!  Had I had the privilege to be married to Amanda for 8 days, it would have been more than what I deserved, but the fact that God brought us together and given us 8 years is truly humbling.  I mean this quite literally – it calls me to worship when I think of how good God has been to me with the gift of my wife.

The other day, as the anniversary neared, Amanda marveled at the fact that we have been married 8 years.  I told her, “Just think, 8 years ago, you graduated college, you had a job on the way, and then you married me, and look at this you got!”

As I did my best Vanna White impersonation to display what was behind me, she laughed out loud.

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The Centrality of the Home (Unbelievable Message)

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On February 7, 2006, a group of more than 1,000 pastors and church leaders gathered for the Southern Baptists of Texas State Evangelism Conference in the Dallas Metroplex. During the second night of the conference Voddie Baucham, who had preached at the previous year’s conference, was called upon to stand in for Dr. Tim LaHaye who had become ill a …

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Rewriting Wedding Vows

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I can still remember driving away from the church with my new bride.  As I tried to navigate through the barrage of tissue paper and groomsmen’s underwear, so much was on my mind.  I had just committed to my bride and in front of many close people that I would love her.  Forever.  We vowed it.

Do you remember your wedding vows? Sure you do! They were those words you repeated guided by a preacher where you almost passed out in front of the congregation. The traditional vows from The Book of Common Prayer are:

I ______, take thee, _______, to my lawful wedded Wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, according to God’s holy ordinance.

If the average spouse were to rewrite these vows based upon marital reality, how would they change?  Think about it.

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I’m Now the Father of Two 4-Year-Olds

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What a precious thought to wake up to this morning: my beloved son Eli is 4-years-old.

It’s hard to imagine that I have two 4-year-olds in the house now, but I couldn’t be any prouder than I am of these boys.  On Eli’s birthday, my heart is full of joy and my head is full of memories of all that God has done in and through him in his short life.

Eli, you are loved more than you could possibly know.  Not only by us, but you have been embraced by such a large extended family.  You were “uplifted” and yet you have done more uplifting of your own than most people have in their entire lives.

As you become the big boy age of 4 today, I wanted to give 4 perspectives of why 4 close people love you:

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How the Agnew 5 Are Really Doing

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So, we are now a family of 5.  The new normalcy is settling in.  I’ve posted some precious photos and shared some cute sayings from the boys, but I’ve been asked a lot lately: ‘So, how are you guys really doing?”

Let’s see: we have a newborn over a month old, an almost-4-year-old, and a recently turned 4-year-old.  My wife has the enormous responsibility of managing 3 wild monkeys everyday.  I have a pretty involved job and the responsibility to have energy and drive once I get home to help out.

So, how are we really doing?

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Overwhelmed Mothers

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I wanted to write a post for all of you overwhelmed mothers out there.  I was blown away by the correspondence I received when I urged mothers to let mothers mother.  Let’s face it: moms have a unique burden placed upon them. Many of you are overwhelmed with your wonderful calling because it is a difficult one.  You can easily …

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