Parent Hub Live: Recent Episodes
Bethany Community Church
Bethany Community Church, located in St. Catharines, ON is part of the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada. Each week join us for conversations with special guests, where we will seek to encourage you to bring your best to parenting, challenge you, and hopefully give you a few insights along the way.
This week we meet Tanner Hill, Renee Smith and her brother Liam. All three are involved in leading Camp Bethany this summer. They were also on staff last summer overseeing our Outdoor Adventure Clubs, as well leading weekly youth small groups. We hear about their passion for serving the next generation, why they are looking forward to Camp Bethany and what led them to serving at Bethany. They also share what they appreciate most about their parents and a word of encouragement.
Austin and Laura (Pastor of Worship and Creative Arts at Bethany) join us or Part 2 of our conversation. In this episode we hear about how Asian Canadians experience discrimination and microaggressions, how Austin and his family personally have felt this, their hopes for their daughters, and how we as individuals and as a church we can be better and and do better when it comes to accepting and including everyone around us - especially those who are different from us. They conclude with a couple practical marriage and parenting tips!
Austin and Laura (Pastor of Worship and Creative Arts at Bethany) shares how they met, what drew them to each other, and what they’ve found challenging and surprising in their first few years of marriage. Being in an interracial marriage (Laura from Canada with European descent, and Austin also Canadian, but born in Korea and raised in those norms and traditions), hear how they’ve navigated expectations and been intentional in honouring both family cultures through humility and honest conversations.
This week we continue our conversation with Naomi Reimer. She speaks about her personal period of burnout, her journey back to health, and how resting and listening prayer have been her catalyst for this. She shares why she decided to go back to work as a counsellor at Niagara Life Centre as well as helpful tips on how to be fully present and intentional as a busy parent.
Naomi Reimer shares about going back to work after spending time at home raising her girls. Learn how she approaches work differently than when she was previously in a career, how she strives to meet all the demands on her time, and how centering herself on Jesus has made all the difference.
Jayne Duldner (Bethany's Director of Children's Min) shares about her upbringing, who led her to Jesus and to start in kids ministry, and what has kept her passionate about serving kids and families for over 30 years. She also talks about how parenting has changed over the years, how we need to adjust how we parent as our kids grow and shares many other practical parenting tips and wisdom!
Pastor Andrew and Krista Mills share about themselves and how they support each other's life goals and dreams.
Martin, Jayne D, Laura Humphreys, Jamie and Naomi Reimer, Gen Epp
We’re experiencing a world crisis we haven’t seen for generations. How do we make sense of it for ourselves and our kids, and how do we help our kids unpack what they may be feeling in a healthy way. How can we leverage this crisis as an opportunity to live out at home our faith and trust in a sovereign and loving God.
Jayne Duldner, Martin Nieuwets and special guests host a parenting webcast every Wednesday night. This is a weekly conversation to provide parents with practical guidance and personal connection during this time.
Jayne Duldner, Martin Nieuwets and special guests host a parenting webcast every Wednesday night. This is a weekly conversation to provide parents with practical guidance and personal connection during this time.
Jayne Duldner, Martin Nieuwets and special guests host a parenting webcast every Wednesday night. This is a weekly conversation to provide parents with practical guidance and personal connection during this time.
Description:
Pastor Andrew Mills joins Martin at the table to have a conversation around the topic of doubt. What do we do when our kids have doubts about their faith and how do we as parents respond to the questions they are asking?
Next Steps:
When your kids express doubts or ask questions, our posture needs to open, we need to be open to the idea that our kids will have doubts about their faith.
Don’t freak out! Doubts and questions are a place for our children to engage with faith. Wrestle through these times with them! THIS IS A GOOD THING
When this happens, don’t feel like you need to answer right away, give them time to wrestle with their doubts, we shouldn't spoon-feed faith to our kids. Let them own it as their own faith.
Ask them questions that get them thinking “let’s journey through this together, but what do you think about this? Tell me what your thoughts are”
Be willing to have these conversations, doubt will not hurt our kids faith, it is the silence if we aren’t open to talk through questions with them that will.
Understand the goal of what we are trying to do as parents, journeying with our kids to have a resilient faith.
Set an example that faith matters. Show that going to church is important. Demonstrate that time with God should be a priority each day. Our children will have a hard time engaging with faith if they don’t see us living it out.
Where at home are you inviting your kids into spiritual conversations? A simple place to start is by asking what they learnt while at Kidzone, at Blast, at Youth, during Sports or where they are engaging with faith.
Description:
Jamie and Naomi Reimer join us on today's episode to talk about the importance of ‘same page parenting’, marriage and ultimately parenting is often the coming together of two worlds - each partner has a certain worldview and experiences and values that have been shaped by their story. They bring this to their parenting - either they are aware of it, or it’s just subconscious. It takes a diligent marriage to get and stay on the same page when it comes to parenting.
Next Steps:
Prioritize time together as a couple, kid free! This allows for connection time with your spouse to focus on your marriage and talk together to be on the same page when it comes to parenting. Create a space to focus on each other each day.
Here’s our challenge: If you are a person of faith, ask God to give you a clearer picture of who you want your children to become as they grow into adults, use these three questions to help guide your prayers and conversations:
What does their relationship with God look like?
How would you describe their character?
What would those who are close to them say about them?
Allow the answers to these questions to help you as you imagine the end and parent on the same page
Description:
Andrew and Gen Epp join us around the table today to give some insight on how we can increase the warmth in our home. Doing whatever it takes to fight for the heart of our kids - creating a culture of unconditional love in our home that will fuel the emotional and moral health of our children.
Next Steps:
There will be times that we need to walk away rather than engaging with a power struggle or clash of personalities. When engaging with our kids in these moments, our words, our tone and our body language can be contributing factors to killing the warmth - rather than using the phrases “well, you are doing this!” which puts our kids on the defensive, try using phrases like “well, I am feeling this […] in the moment, how are you feeling about this?”
If our children are saying things to us, respond with these three words ‘Tell Me More’ - this communicates that we want to know more about what they are telling us. It is so important that our kids feel valued and that they see that we want to hear their voice.
Know your children's love languages and how you can be attuned to them.
4 simple things to ask your kids to be praying for - what are you thankful for, what do you need to confess, what is something you need & what is something for someone else.
On the show: Pastor Andrew Mills
Description:Pastor Andrew Mills joins us today to discuss ‘Parenting fails’, giving us some encouragement and advice on how we can learn from the moments we feel like we aren’t doing a ‘good enough job’ of raising our kids.
Next Steps:
Don’t be afraid to own how we respond when we have blown it. Take the time to talk with your kids and share why you reacted the way you did. Be open and apologize if you know you haven’t responded the strongest way. By doing this you are modelling the values that you want your kids to be learning and living out.
Create a family rhythm that allows for weekly family time if something has blown up there is dedicated time to allow for a reset.
You are doing a good job, know that none of us are perfect, but by putting in the effort and trying to become a better parent, that really matters.
On the show: Laura Humphreys
Description: Laura Humphreys joins us in today’s episode to share some wisdom of building grit and resilience in our kids. With stress beginning earlier in our kids lives, we as parents need to be ready to be a positive influence to help them along their journey.
Next Steps: There are times when we just aren’t able to rescue our kids from the choices they make. We do though have an opportunity to use the behaviours and choices that our kids make to become teachable moments and pour wisdom into their lives.
Lean in on the circle around you, rely on friends, guidance counsellor and those who you trust. There are times when our children just do not want to open up or talk to us. Reach out to those around you and have them connect with your youth or kid.
On the show: Jamie and Naomi Reimer
Description:
Jamie and Naomi Reimer share wisdom about how we can parent well even when our physical and emotional reserves are running dry, and how we can prepare for these inevitable times in our parenting journey.
Next Steps:
Take each day and be thankful for what it is, treasure time with you kids because they grow up so fast.
In moments of exhaustion, we lose sight that there are still good things going on around us and there are in fact times that we can be grateful.
Having a strategy of practising simple gratefulness, which can lead to a content spirit and a content heart. Thank God for the things that we can enjoy!
On the show: The Family Life Team
Description: The rest of the Family Life Team join hosts Martin Nieuwets and Jayne Duldner to talk about how five family values can transform your parenting and your family.
Next Steps: Begin to internalize these five family values. Think about how they could influence your parenting. Take time with your spouse or partner and put them in your own words.
On the show: The Family Life Team
Description:
The rest of the Family Life Team join hosts Martin Nieuwets and Jayne Duldner to talk about how we as a church can partner with and be a support for parents.
Next Steps:
Take time this week to Widen the Circle and reach out to someone to join you in influencing your children