Our children desperately need models of what it looks like to live and speak within the Christian story. Modeling has always been shown to be the most effective form of moral and religious education. For that reason, parents should want to speak about God continually and place their children around teachers who speak often about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and what they are doing in the world and their lives.

Fear is arguably one of the biggest threats to modern parenting. Whether we’re parenting toddlers or teenagers, there are myriad reasons to fear for our children. In the words of pastor and author Rich Nathan, “We live in a world that bombards us 24/7 with threats to our kids.” Amber alerts, abduction stories, school shootings, screen time and internet predators…the list of these threats to our kids goes on and on. It feels impossible to protect our kids from all the things.

I first heard the word "enneagram" a couple of years ago from a friend that was reading a book about it. To be honest, I didn't know how to say or spell it correctly for several more months after that (now I know it's pronounced 'any-a-gram'). All I knew was that it had something to do with numbers and personalities.