Our Perspective
God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of love and power, and a spirit of a sound mind (from 2 Tim 1:7) -- He has called us to parent, not with fear, but with love and joy, knowing that He has also given us His power and access to His wisdom that brings a sound mind for making decisions.
As I (Kristen) navigate my social networks and the sharing of blog posts and articles, I hear a theme arise that I want to address.
"Every baby is different..." "Figure out what YOUR baby needs..." "Whatever works...."
There is a lot of pressure on parents - internally as we reflect on our upbringing and externally as we watch children around us with their various temperaments and behavior. We also observe friends who are parents and hear random advice from observers. The purpose of this website is actually to help relieve some of that pressure. However, we don't believe that the philosophy "anything works" is right nor that "figure out what your baby wants" is helpful or sometimes even possible, and even the baseline of "every baby is different" misses an important point. We do believe that God does give insight for the process of nurturing.
Unfortunately most of the advice we see comes from fear based parenting where one looks at sociological studies and tries to do whatever possible to avoid negative outcomes. Brave parents trust God and follow the order He has set up throughout Scripture. By His grace they follow His word, to the extent that it gives principles in parenting, and follow His Spirit and the community He has set up for us (husbands, church families) when it is not explicitly laid out for us.
So, what will relieve the stress of trying to get it right? What will bring peace to the household when a new person enters it with crucial needs to meet, and only cries to communicate those? We hope this website provides lots of resources to show you how to ask the right questions about your parenting choices, and to confidently lead your children.
What is included in “nurturing?” It has a broad meaning that includes training up, teaching, correction, discipline - all motivated by love for the child. This call is a big task. How can we do this and do so joyfully? We believe trusting God for direction will be the source of our joy, and that it is the opposite of parenting from fear.
Read "To nurture Joyfully" to see our Biblically based rationale for responsibility learning, and find resources to help you from the beginning and throughout the next 18 years to understand and love your child.
The family unit was God’s design. To understand better why he chose this design read Why did God make the family unit? What did He intend the family to do?
We've gathered some resources that help with the foundation of nurturing (training or disciplining). Read a short overview of the Biblical basis for this philosophy. To receive the perspective from the biological and sociological research available to us through the study of child development, read the page on Child Development
Within the context of development, think through the specifics and uniqueness of your own child/ children as you desire to nurture them. Read these resources to help you know your child.
"Even small children are known by their actions..." Proverbs 20:11
"Train up a child in the way he is bent..." Proverbs 22:6
To understand more about training up your child, look at
Sleep learning, starting with newborns and infants, is a big component of helping our children become part of the family. Read the why and how of it and (why we feel it is a good first step) as you think and pray about what to do in your family. In that chapter you will find articles about how to start at day one, or down the road at a month or at 6-7 weeks and with an older baby. You will be introduced to our term “20 minutes of grace” and how to balance the encouragement to tummy sleep with the fear of SIDS. If you are curious about how much a sleep a baby needs at different ages you can check out the sleep wheel.
We also have an article to look at what to expect during the first two weeks of your infants life.
As I (Kristen) navigate my social networks and the sharing of blog posts and articles, I hear a theme arise that I want to address.
"Every baby is different..." "Figure out what YOUR baby needs..." "Whatever works...."
There is a lot of pressure on parents - internally as we reflect on our upbringing and externally as we watch children around us with their various temperaments and behavior. We also observe friends who are parents and hear random advice from observers. The purpose of this website is actually to help relieve some of that pressure. However, we don't believe that the philosophy "anything works" is right nor that "figure out what your baby wants" is helpful or sometimes even possible, and even the baseline of "every baby is different" misses an important point. We do believe that God does give insight for the process of nurturing.
Unfortunately most of the advice we see comes from fear based parenting where one looks at sociological studies and tries to do whatever possible to avoid negative outcomes. Brave parents trust God and follow the order He has set up throughout Scripture. By His grace they follow His word, to the extent that it gives principles in parenting, and follow His Spirit and the community He has set up for us (husbands, church families) when it is not explicitly laid out for us.
So, what will relieve the stress of trying to get it right? What will bring peace to the household when a new person enters it with crucial needs to meet, and only cries to communicate those? We hope this website provides lots of resources to show you how to ask the right questions about your parenting choices, and to confidently lead your children.
What is included in “nurturing?” It has a broad meaning that includes training up, teaching, correction, discipline - all motivated by love for the child. This call is a big task. How can we do this and do so joyfully? We believe trusting God for direction will be the source of our joy, and that it is the opposite of parenting from fear.
Read "To nurture Joyfully" to see our Biblically based rationale for responsibility learning, and find resources to help you from the beginning and throughout the next 18 years to understand and love your child.
The family unit was God’s design. To understand better why he chose this design read Why did God make the family unit? What did He intend the family to do?
We've gathered some resources that help with the foundation of nurturing (training or disciplining). Read a short overview of the Biblical basis for this philosophy. To receive the perspective from the biological and sociological research available to us through the study of child development, read the page on Child Development
Within the context of development, think through the specifics and uniqueness of your own child/ children as you desire to nurture them. Read these resources to help you know your child.
"Even small children are known by their actions..." Proverbs 20:11
"Train up a child in the way he is bent..." Proverbs 22:6
To understand more about training up your child, look at
Sleep learning, starting with newborns and infants, is a big component of helping our children become part of the family. Read the why and how of it and (why we feel it is a good first step) as you think and pray about what to do in your family. In that chapter you will find articles about how to start at day one, or down the road at a month or at 6-7 weeks and with an older baby. You will be introduced to our term “20 minutes of grace” and how to balance the encouragement to tummy sleep with the fear of SIDS. If you are curious about how much a sleep a baby needs at different ages you can check out the sleep wheel.
We also have an article to look at what to expect during the first two weeks of your infants life.