Kristin Hill Taylor

Seeking God as the Author of Every Story

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5 skills to raise kids well

July 25, 2022 by Kristin Leave a Comment

Parenting is a broad job that doesn’t really fit on a resume. Life lessons pop up at various moments throughout the day. Adventures can lead to conversations about all sorts of topics. And skills are learned all along the way. 

Often I wish I had a manual for my kids. We all know that’s not how life goes, though. Some days I do better as a mom than others. Regardless, I consider motherhood my greatest and hardest job.

Here are five skills that help parents raise children well:

Cooking

Being able to cook for yourself is one thing. But having the ability to prepare meals for the whole family is quite another. Crafting recipes that offer everyone sufficient nutrition that also taste good requires a lot of skill and is much more challenging than you might imagine. I know it’s a winner if nobody complains! 

The good news is that cooking skills are something that you can develop quickly. Once you’ve followed a dozen recipes, you soon get the gist of it, and your creations improve tremendously. I say this from personal experience! When Greg and I were first married, I hardly knew how to cook. Now, two decades and three children later, I’ve gotten to the point I can make up some of my own meal creations and get excited when I find a recipe I think my family will enjoy. 

Stress Management

Stress is part of life, but it can be managed. The idea here is to reduce the pressures and burdens of life on everyone, helping them to relax, and accept whatever happens as just another challenge. 

For kids, keeping the stress of school work and social relationships under control is important. If stress levels rise too high, it can impact bodily health and physical strength over time, leading to all sorts of issues in the future. Some of the ways we manage stress around here include talking through events, listing things for which we’re thankful, reading scripture, praying, remembering life isn’t all about one person, and preparing for the next time a similar situation arises. 

First Aid

Being a medical professional may be a good career background to bring into parenthood! My kids are always getting injured or sick. I’ve learned a lot in this area as a mom! Of course, investing more in learning first aid could, according to MyCPR NOW, could save someone’s life.

First aid, for instance, teaches you what to do if someone gets knocked out or has a cardiac arrest. It also teaches you what to do in the event one of your children gets injured or has an open wound. Little tidbits of information like this make it easy to save a life and avoid catastrophe. 

Love

Love is an emotion and a skill. Sometimes it’s hard to find outlets for love. Parents bring their own emotional baggage with them and don’t always take the time to work through underlying issues, possibly from childhood. As parents, we are always able to learn and grow. We can become better versions of ourselves as we go along.

All sorts of resources are available for parents on how to love children better. Considering children’s love languages is always important in this area. 

Conflict Resolution

Conflicts inevitably arise in families. You’ve got multiple people with different personalities and preferences living under the same roof and sharing daily life. 

Learning a set of conflict resolution skills that work is vital in family life. This helps parents avoid the yelling and hurt feelings that so often accompany family relations. Conflict resolution skills prevent a parent from losing their temper or trying to get their own way. Many of them start with working on yourself and looking for ways to feel understood and not offended. 

What’s another skill that’s important to your family life?

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About Me

Telling stories is my therapy and I love sharing them with friends on my porch.

The main characters in my stories are my entrepreneur husband, our ninth-grade girl who never forgets, our have-no-fear sixth-grade boy, and our joy-filled kindergarten girl. As we live out our stories, we seek God as the author of them all.

Learn more about my story here.

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We’ve taken our older kids on short-term mission We’ve taken our older kids on short-term mission trips and hope to go on more. They’ve served locally. We support missionaries. We want our kids to be open to wherever God calls them and incorporating missions into our small-town life is one way we, as parents, have hoped to teach that. 

I’m incredibly thankful @hardinbaptistchurch comes alongside us with the same message. The middle and high school @hardinstudents spent the summer looking at different aspects of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. Youth minister @cbright2 spent the last Sunday of the series looking at nine practical ways that students – yes, even middle and high schoolers – could participate in and pray about going for God. 

Chase shared these 9 Ways to Go with students' parents, and I asked him for permission to share them with you because even as an adult I want to remember to live on mission – even right where I am. 

9 WAYS TO GO FOR GOD: https://bit.ly/9WaysToGo

#linkinbio #ontheblog #bloggerlife #momlife #churchlife #faithlife #livingfaithfully #missions #missionminded #youth #teenagers #parenting #parenthood
“Writing is what makes me happy. Writing, even, “Writing is what makes me happy. Writing, even, is how I feel I contribute to the world. Reminding people of what’s important. Letting them escape the harsh parts of life, even if it’s just for a few hours. Helping them feel happiness through watching happily-ever-afters unfold. Remembering truths. Recalling their self-worth. Loving others. Living well. Learning. I want to do that.” 

And, let’s be honest, love stories about writers make me happy too. “Meet Me in the Margins” was cute, predictable, and a good way to escape for a little while. 

#KHTreads #bookstagram #booklover #authorlife #librarybooks #poolpeople #weekending
This is the only picture I took tonight. You can’t tell, but there was a porch full of people talking, more kids playing basketball, and another group around the kitchen table. We covered a lot of ground in our conversations. Nobody cared that I didn’t have hot dog buns or tomatoes for the burgers. I ran out of paper plates and am happy to hear the dishwasher cleaning all the “real” plates. I’m grateful for come-as-you-are community, where we share real life. 

#88daysofsummer #PorchStories #livingfaithfully #morethangroceries #choosingJOY #bettertogether #reallife #hospitalitymatters #poolpeople
While Ben had a great week at @memgrizzyouth camp While Ben had a great week at @memgrizzyouth camp with some school friends, the girls and I soaked up some more of summer with our friends. 

#88daysofsummer #boymom #bettertogether #girlmom #momlife #reallife #choosingJOY
I’m getting ready to get in my van again to pick I’m getting ready to get in my van again to pick up a kid from basketball camp. It’s the third time today I will have driven from my house to somewhere else and back again. And this is still Summer Break, when things are supposedly a little slower. 

My friend @marycarver gets me. She knows us moms spend a million hours a week taxiing people to school and sports and church and friends’ houses and errands and appointments. And maybe we linger longer before coming in the house with arms full of groceries and bags and papers and books … because we just need a minute. Or maybe we answer some texts before we pull away from the store and catch up on phone calls while we drive or show up early to pickup to read a book that has captured our attention. 

We spend a lot of time and accomplish much in our cars. Mary knows this and is giving us the encouragement we need in her new book, “Prayers from the Parking Lot.” It’s a perfect size to keep in your car or purse. Each of the 50 reflections are practical and inspiring and meet moms on the go right where we are. 

Preorder this gem now so you have it the next time you have a few extra minutes in a parking lot, school pickup line, or waiting room. It officially releases next week and is available from @revellbooks on Amazon and wherever else you buy books. 

#KHTreads #bookstagram #momlife #reallife #livingfaithfully
20 years married. 💛 I’ve learned a million t 20 years married. 💛

I’ve learned a million things in these adult years, but I keep thinking about this one this today: Celebrate the good things. 

This world is so noisy, decisions and situations clutter our brains, and there’s so much heartache. But there’s also goodness. And our married life falls into that category and is a testimony to God’s faithfulness. It hasn’t been perfect, but it’s been sanctifying and life-giving. 

(And it deserves a second post today.)

We celebrated today with a lunch date, some love notes, the two bouquets he surprised me with a day early, some chocolates I left in the car too long but rescued and restored them from their melted state, and dinner out as a family. I’ll take it. I will take every ounce of goodness on an ordinary day that marks what feels like a big-deal accomplishment. 

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In the past year, I learned Greg doesn’t like pa In the past year, I learned Greg doesn’t like packaged taco seasoning and bought my engagement ring on sale at a pawn shop. This after I’ve been wearing the ring for two decades and made taco meat more times than I could even begin to count.

With that, happy 20th anniversary, husband. I’m glad we can still learn things about each other after knowing each other for more than 24 years and being married for two decades. 

Being in our 40s celebrating 20 years of marriage together seems like such a grown-up accomplishment. But it also seems like exactly where we are supposed to be. Let’s keep adventuring and learning together. Let’s go celebrate, maybe with tacos! 

https://kristinhilltaylor.com/2022/08/20-years.html

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I need to work, but I want to read. 📚 #KHTread I need to work, but I want to read. 📚

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I read my 6-year-old daughter "The Prodigal Son" s I read my 6-year-old daughter "The Prodigal Son" story from "The Jesus Storybook Bible" before bed recently, and God reminded me of some things. 

“Jesus told people this story to show them what God is like. And to show people what they are like. So they could know, however far they ran, however well they hid, however lost they were – it wouldn’t matter,” author Sally Lloyd-Jones writes. “Because God’s children could never run too far, or be too lost, for God to find them.”

I was teary when I finished. While this Bible story was retold for children, the words brought to mind when I decided to follow Christ on Jan. 20, 1996, after hearing someone speak about The Prodigal Son during a Chrysalis weekend. 

I nailed some sins to a wooden cross in the sanctuary, representing surrender. I remember thinking of the beauty of the father welcoming his lost son home, understanding how the younger son thought he could hold together his own life, and relating to the older son who stayed and did what he was supposed to and found himself not quite willing to celebrate his brother’s homecoming. 

I told Rachel an abbreviated version of that story of being a 16-year-old girl hearing that story and making a decision that truly changed my life. 

Here more than 26 years later, I’m thankful God welcomes me home over and over again. I’ve surrendered and squandered and sulked, and God keeps opening his arms, which led me to salvation initially and continually prompts surrender. 

Read GOD ALWAYS FINDS THEM #ontheblog at kristinhilltaylor.com. #linkinbio #bloggerlife #livingfaithfully #thirdchild #momlife #faithlife #choosingJOY #bedtimeshenanigans
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