• Child Protection / Abuse in the Church,  Momma Tara~Parenting

    The Difficult Task of Declining the Sleepover Invitation

    Last year I read a post by Tim Challies on why his family doesn’t do sleepovers, reminded me of an awkward conversation we had to have with some of our dearest friends in the world. It had to do with an invitation that one of our daughters had for a birthday party sleepover. As a general rule, we are a “NO SLEEPOVER” type of family. But we have some exceptions to this rule—basically, when we have known a family for years and years and we trust them and their children to be not only appropriate, but vigilant, re: access to and use of technology, nature of entertainment, length of unsupervised child-time,…

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  • Child Protection / Abuse in the Church,  Momma Tara~Parenting

    Child Abuse in the Church: Justice Can be Grace

    I greatly appreciated this link from Challies and I urge you to read it and listen to its counsel:  Safeguarding Against Abuse in the Church The only thing I would add is that it’s never too young to (age-appropriately) begin talking with children about these things. Let me give you an example … When Sophia was little, my assigned task at our little homeschooling co-op was theology and parties. (Great job I have, eh?!) One Christmas Co-Op Party sticks out in my mind because that week, a dear friend had shared with me more details of how she was sexually abused for years by her own father, pastor, and other church leaders (many of whom are in…

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  • Redeeming Church Conflicts,  Relationships & Peacemaking

    PCA Women’s Ministry Connection Series – Videos on Key Doctrines and Women’s Ministry Topics

    I am so grateful for the entire PCA Discipleship Ministries team (PCA = my denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America)! Their prayerful, sacrificial and wise ministry creates wonderful, biblical, Christ-centered resources and events for our denomination and I thank God for them every day. This year, the PCA women’s ministry is releasing a series videos to help connect women to key doctrines and Women’s Ministry topics. Each video is paired with questions for your own personal reflection and to encourage conversation and connection among your women’s ministry too. I encourage you to check them all out! I was so honored to get to participate:   To access the other videos and the discussion questions for the PCA…