Tag: KidMin Blog

There is a specific kind of heartbreak that happens in our rooms, and most of us never even see it. Because it happens on the Sunday we are not there. Every one of us has that kid. The one who picked us. The one whose whole face changes when they spot you across the room.…

A few years back, I watched my buddy Kyle teach his oldest daughter, Eden, how to ride a bike.  You know exactly how this goes, because you have either done it or lived it. Kyle was bent over at an angle that was absolutely going to wreck his back, jogging alongside her, one hand clamped on the back of the seat. Eden…

Can I tell you something I’ve noticed about myself?  Somewhere along the way, I learned that church is a place you dress up for.  And I don’t just mean the clothes.  Think about what actually happens on a Sunday morning. You walk through the doors, and almost without thinking, you adjust. The voice gets a little warmer. The smile gets a little wider.…

Let’s talk about the universal panic of a dying phone battery.  It usually starts at 20%. You get that first notification on your screen. You’re slightly annoyed, but you just tap “Low Power Mode,” turn down your brightness a little bit, and keep moving.  Then it hits 10%. The anxiety starts to set in. You immediately stop scrolling social media. You swipe…

Before you read another word of this email, I have a quick challenge for you.  I want you to close out of this screen for just a second. Go open your phone’s contacts, scroll through your recent text threads, or glance at your social media followers. Take ten seconds to just look at the sheer number…

Have you ever caught yourself using a phrase you absolutely hate, just because your best friend or your spouse uses it all the time? Or have you ever noticed that you’ve started adopting the exact same mannerisms as a coworker you spend forty hours a week with?  It doesn’t matter if you are a twenty-two-year-old college student, a parent…

An eight-year-old’s shoulders are roughly fourteen inches wide.  That is entirely too small to carry the weight of a crumbling marriage. It’s too small to carry the crushing, low-level anxiety of a digital world that never turns off. It is absolutely too small to carry the terrifying burden of abuse, severe bullying, or self-harm.  And yet, every single Sunday, kids…

Imagine it’s 9:15 AM on a Sunday.  In one room, you are sitting in a circle with a group of 1st and 2nd-graders. You’re handing out crayons and talking about how God created the world. A seven-year-old named Chloe, who has been quietly coloring a picture of a tree, stops. She looks up with complete innocence and asks, “If God made…

If you’ve ever watched a group of 2nd or 3rd graders at recess or a birthday party, you know it can be a surprisingly ruthless place.  It’s a world of unwritten, rapidly changing rules. In a matter of seconds, a kid can go from being someone’s “best friend ever” to being told, “you can’t play with us.” The social currency…

It’s 8:55 AM on a Sunday morning, and in walks Mason.  He’s a 4th grader, wearing a slightly oversized hoodie, carrying a water bottle covered in stickers, and before he even sits down in your circle, he’s already poked the kid next to him and announced that he doesn’t want to be here.  If you have lived around the Front Range…