In the 1986 movie, “Hoosiers,” a rural Indiana high school basketball team with new coach Norman Dale improbably finds itself preparing for the state championship in a huge Indianapolis arena. So much larger than anyplace they had played previously, the team starts to shrivel as they feel dwarfed by the huge playing area.
That is, until their coach brilliantly defuses their fear by having the team members hoist a volunteer to carefully measure the distance from the floor to the hoop. Just like back home in Hickory, the measurement is exactly 10 feet. No matter what the fearful surroundings, a true picture of the situation helps conquer fear.
Considering the challenges families face as the school year resumes (earlier wake-ups, unfamiliar surroundings, new friends, etc.), parents who engage their children in the process have a head start. “Fear not” is a phrase used much in the Bible. Helping our kids see that they need not fear school, or school-related issues, takes the sting out of fear.
For young children, sometimes facing the first year of school, this will be a big change. Help them prepare by setting a firm wake up time, perhaps driving by the school, and talking about what it is like to go to school. Details of organizational planning will only help with busy mornings in the home. Parents, you are in the position to help by openly facing your children’s fears.
Home schooling families also face a new schedule and expectations, even without a brick and mortar school building. Home is now a learning area as well as a home. Work with your kids to define school, study, and free times of the day.
Middle School/High School students can be facing their first adult-like challenges of passing from classroom to classroom, managing a locker, and keeping closer track of time (especially with after school activities). Show your kids you care about their lives by asking about these issues and helping them see that the challenge can be met successfully.
I had lots of fears in Junior High and how well I remember both my parents coaching me through encouragement, Scripture, and reframing situations my pre-adolescent mind viewed as overwhelming. As I learned to practice their good advice, school became a great place.
High school to college … what a huge change! This is a major test of adulthood for many Americans as now they can be the ones to decide how late to stay up, what they will and won’t do, and, of course, to bear the consequences of these actions. Parents who keep in touch, without hovering, can be a huge resource as somehow, gradually, college students start to realize Mom and Dad actually understood quite a bit about life!
Whether it’s preparing for a new schedule, new acquaintances, activity try-outs, or going off to a campus away from home, parents can help kids by intentionally engaging their fears.
Like Coach Dale, helping our kids meet and conquer their fears will set them up for greater success, in school and in life!... Read more here

Ready for some good news?
A man from North Korea trained to kill the President of South Korea was changed while in prison, through the caring thoughtfulness of a South Korean military member. Kim, Shin Jo, a former trained assassin, is now a pastor in South Korea.
Check it out for yourself: http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/09/south-korean-pastor-is-also-a-trained-killer/?hpt=C2... Read more here

Do you remember where you were on August 2, 1990?
I was in Denver taking some summer courses in marriage and family therapy, a reservist not yet on active duty.... Read more here

All our Service Members need strength to serve well. Where do they find that strength?
This is your chance to sound off … where do military members find their strength to serve?... Read more here

At a recent technology gathering in Idaho, master investor and philanthropist Warren Buffett, overseer of Berkshire Hathaway, shared the best advice he had ever been given. What did the “Oracle of Omaha” (and purportedly the world’s third richest man) have to say?
He said that the best advice given to him was “the power of unconditional love.” Unconditional love. Loving someone else no matter what.
He made it very clear in his statement that unconditional love is not the same as uncritical love, that being in his words, “a different animal.”
To truly love someone doesn’t mean we always agree with him or her, or simply let them always have their way, and certainly not to enable bad behavior. It does mean that our constant and observant care does not depend on anything that other person can do.
Parents, unconditional love will provide the foundation your children will need in the difficult teen years and the challenges of adulthood. Not permissiveness, but unconditional love.
Unconditional love. That’s love that the kids don’t need to earn, that they can’t earn, because it comes from the heart of the loving parent.
This reminds me of a prodigal son who was loved by his father, ran away and lived a tumultuous life, and then returned to the father willing to be a servant, but was met by the father with hugs, a robe, a ring, shoes, and a feast. Why? Because he had blown his father’s inheritance? No. Because he came home. And he knew he could come home.
All of us, parents or not, can practice unconditional love. It makes the world a different place.
Take it from Warren.... Read more here