2.If your child wants to add an activity they may consider giving up current activity in exchange for new one.

3.Set family nights on your calendar. Order a pizza and play board games. No one can schedule anything on family night.

4.Help your child learn to say “No” and help set appropriate limits on their activities away from home.

5.Do not say “Yes” to any new activity for yourself or child till you have weighed costs (i.e. financial, emotional, loss of family time, etc.)

6.Assess your irritability quotient. Do you find yourself frequently saying, “Hurry up, we are going to be late?” How can you slow down? What can you give up?

7.Resolve to eat dinner together as a family at least 3 - 5 times a week, even if this is sandwiches before you head out to a game or lesson.

8.Schedule “goof-off” time for your family and children. Give your child down time to explore a hobby or play outside.

9.Set priorities for your family. How many hours a week do you want to be together as a family?

10.Take time as a family to enjoy God’s creation away from home. Examples: Go to a park, go for a bike ride, go hiking, etc.

As Christian parents we are modeling for our children how to handle stress and how to balance our time. What lessons are we teaching our children? The Bible tell us in Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God...” I’m afraid in our hurried society we are teaching children to “Be harried and know that I am God.” We all need down time and time to answer many beautiful, challenging questions our children have about God and our world. Make time to slow down and enjoy gift of your children.

The enemy has it in for us. He will fan all false beliefs and all situations to ensure that any feelings of acceptance and self worth are at their lowest ebb. Our experiences when they are bad will appear so that they make us unacceptable to God and man. We feel rejected and think that we must earn our right to be accepted by what we do. Our fears grow beyond proportion and if he can so push things that a family or family members become abusive, then satan thinks he has won.

He will use anything; birth, gender, conception, character just to get us to be sure God does not want us. If he can find and inspire other children who will bully us or who will admire us for bullies we become. If he can find teacher who shouts or push parents to divorce he will do it. if there is illness and he can find a way to make child feel to blame or if there is a sibling to quarrel with ; parents who fall out; poverty or just a sense of being different then there is Satan with a plan to make sure that one thing we never find is father heart of a loving God.

This means our life view has to change. May I say it again? OUR LIFE VIEW HAS TO CHANGE. Until that happens we are going to continue to believe deep down ( whatever we say), father of lies.

The good news is that God actually knew about it all along and is planning if we will let him to make some changes. He was never worried about Father of lies because He knows that he has already defeated him. For every feeling of rejection, lack of self worth, self esteem, self hatred and sheer hurt through Jesus God already provided healing and a way out.