KirbyAndersen.com

Years ago I established the habit of doing a big picture review of major areas of my life. Here’s my Top Ten Actions for the New Year:

Review habits of spending time with God, your spouse, and your children.
Plan to keep your”saw sharpened.” (Stephen Covey made this analogy well known. The idea is to make sure […]

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I wrapped up a series yesterday entitled, Raising Godly Parents, with a message about a parent’s responsibility to protect the child from influences contrary to God’s ways. It comes down to establishing boundaries limiting your child’s involvements and exposure to certain activities and people - insulating, not isolating. With proper training and keeping communication lines […]

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Just returned this week from an another awesome family vacation; hence, very few blog posts lately. We’re still basking in the afterglow. While vacationing is still on my mind, here are a few recommendations for making your own great family vacation memories.

Name your vacation early on during the planning stages and select a Vacation […]

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I’m on vacation; hence, fewer blog posts. Since I’m in the vacation mode, I’ve been thinking of some of the things that have made our family vacations so memorable.
The first thing that comes to mind is The Vacation Cry. Not sure where or how this started but it’s become a nonnegotiable part of the Andersen […]

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I bought my wife flowers today for Mother’s Day tomorrow. The cashier asked if they were for Mother’s Day then proceeded to tell me how her dad wouldn’t buy her mother anything on Mother’s Day because she wasn’t his mother. Defending him, she said she thought he had a point. I said maybe, but […]

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Actually, the countdown to our family vacation has been going for several months. But this week, the anticipation starting going viral.
Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO has always been our family’s default vacation destination. We’ve been going for close to 25 years so it’s part of our family culture. Now that several of […]

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Every parent hopes for a great relationship and open communication with their child during teenage years. It’s easy, however, for us parents to inadvertently discourage that by continuing to speak to them as we did when they were younger and needed more cut and dried direction. As the child moves through the teenage years, our […]

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My twin daughters spent the weekend with a daughter of some family friends while the parents were out of town. One of my daughters came down with a bad stomach flu yesterday afternoon. I brought her home and took care of her the rest of the day. Just as I went to bed last night, […]

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Our church hosted Gary Smalley’s Couples Conference simulcast today. Keynote speakers were Gary Smalley, Erwin and Kim McManus, Les Parrott, and Henry Cloud. Here are my take-aways:

Guard your heart for from it flow the issues of life - your words, actions, emotions.
If you’re irritated by something your spouse does, it’s most likely a […]

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My sister-in-law is with us this weekend and today is her birthday. Birthdays are a big deal in our home. We have quite a few family traditions; e.g., singing. We sing Happy Birthday a lot. We sing while bringing presents out to the birthday person in the morning. We sing before each meal. […]

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