How to have happy children

A recent study by the UK Department of Education here has discovered the top ten factors in having happy children. Some surprises, but a lot of great encouragement for parents. Here's the list:

1. Being able to talk to parents when worried. 

2. Having one or more good friends. 

3. Not being bullied. 

4. Not often feeling worried about parents or family. 

5. Often sitting down to have a meal with people at home. 

6. Being able to talk to friends when worried. 

7. Not often feeling worried about the way they look. 

8. Being a boy. 

9. Being pre-teenage. 

10. Eating fruit and vegetables.

So worth persevering with family meal times, keeping the lines of communication open and bigging up the brocolli. But you might also check out Luke 6 v 20-23 for some challenging thoughts on how your children will be truly happy...

Losing your way

A Mystery: Why  Can't We Walk Straight? from NPR on Vimeo.



Cracking video that is just crying out to be used as an illustration for something.

Suggestions?

Life's a bitch

Today is officially "Blue Monday" -- the most depressing day of the year. The nights are long, Christmas is gone, the weather is rubbish (in the northern latitudes of the UK at least), and we dare not open the credit card statement that has just dropped through the letterbox for fear of what it may contain.

Oh, and it's raining.

But Christians should feel different, surely. Don't we have an enormous amount to be thankful for? Aren't we the ones who are blessed, even though we are poor, mourning, weeping and persecuted? Don't we believe that life is a beach, rather than the other?

Yeah but… no but…

Surely there's a middle path to walk here. Not the grim depression of living in a world and a body that is dying and hopelessly fallen; nor the glib "happy clappy" optimism of those who think the only reason a dark cloud appears is so that a silver lining can drop on our heads. But the way that knows I am both incredibly sinful, but amazingly loved; that weeps over the pain and futility of life, but trusts in the wisdom and power of our sovereign God; whose moods have grey days and sunny days, but who has a joy in God that distrusts the false optimism or pessimism of them both.

cinquains

Youngest has come home with a project to write a Cinquain. First I'd heard of this form, but thought I'd start to flex my writing muscle on it. Discovered here that it was invented by Adelaide Crapsey. Thought hard about what joke to write there, but couldn't come up with anything remotely original.

Dear Adelaide created this form of syllables: its 2-4-6-8-2:

Youngest

making cinquain

chews pen, furrows brow, looks lost

but then words flow and she smiles wide

proud dad

Lines upon the death of a rodent

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Linked in

Don't want to disappoint anyone who links back from The Good Book Company website (it's new, it's wonderful, it's here!) I'll mostly be posting my unedited versions of the the blog pieces that appear in The Good Book Blog here - so it might get slightly repetitive.

Although, you will also get to see the dark and curious inner workings of my mind on other subjects like the books I'm reading and the stuff I am trying to write when I'm not at work.

Greet the Goblin!

As we sat around with Friends on New Year's Eve, we tried to invent a new global tradition. After all, we have a Santa who leaves presents, a tooth fairy that exchanges worn out molars for money and an Easter Bunny that dispenses chocolate for no discernable reason - why not a Resolution Goblin that sneaks into your room on New Year's Eve and leaves suggestions for how you can improve yourself in the coming year? 

We all started writing things on slips and sneaking off to, ahem, give them to the Goblin, who duly settled them under the relevant pillows. Of course, no-one could wait til the morning, so we had a great time reading out the suggestions and guessing who they came from. 

So if all goes according to plan, this time next year I'll be two-stone lighter, more generous to my children, actually finish some of the writing projects I start or dream about, be fantastically wealthy and have cleaned out both the shed and the under-stairs cupboard. 

Of course, this will be all achievable when my three daughters magically transform into homework doing, tidy, respectful, vivacious and delightful human beings, who never, ever, ever throw temper tantrums. My lovely lady wife, is, of course, already perfect, so that rustling sound is the Goblin sweetly sliding past her without disturbing her downy headrest.

Check back next January for an update on this miracle transformation...