Wisdom is essential in building a strong family and home life. Women have innumerable people, projects, and loyalties competing for their time and attention. Proverbs tells us that, “The wisest of women builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down.” In this weekly podcast wife, mother of ten, and seasoned home educator, Kara Murphy looks to God’s word for wisdom that will help women build up their families instead of tear them down. This podcast is both an encouragement and a challenge to rise above the folly that marks our culture and be HomeWise!
By Erika Schanzenbach on
Do you find yourself planning, but not actually following through with those plans? How can you plan efficiently and effectively? Are you trying to do too much? How do you keep from getting overwhelmed or getting stuck in a rut? What are some different ways to schedule out your year?
By Kara Murphy on
How can you keep summer trips manageable? Summertime is a great time for hospitality when you can keep the activity outside! How can you encourage your kids’ creativity? Steve and Kara share some simple, low-cost, memory-making, summer activities that their family enjoys.
By Kara Murphy on
How do you balance the constant pulls for time from church activities with a healthy family life? How do you build routines that work for your family and don’t neglect the fellowship and ministry of the church? Does being at home with your kids mean that you are not doing “ministry”? Remember that during different seasons in your family life your involvement in ministry activities may look very different.
By Kara Murphy on
It’s okay if you make mistakes, every homeschool mom makes mistakes. How can you plan for a smooth transition from public or private school to homeschool? How do you manage the duties of the home AND educational duties? How does academic work fit into the life of your family? How do you transition from seeing the home as primarily a place of rest and recharge to being a place of daily work? What are the difficulties involved with being your child’s teacher and not just his parent? How can you let go of your expectations of what “school” should be. . .
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By Kara Murphy on
Is it a good thing that some things are NOT in your control as a parent? Trying to control outcomes of every situation can create overbearing, micro-managing, uptight, stressed out attitudes in your family. Understanding the limits of our control helps us trust God who controls all things.
By Kara Murphy on
How consistent do you need to be in your homeschooling? Should teaching your children be like a job with schedules and vacation days? Can you be consistent in training in godliness even when the school schedule gets upended? How do you keep your goals straight so you are being consistent in the things that matter the most?
By Kara Murphy on
What do you do when you are home all day with young children? What does it mean to BE WITH your children? How do you get things done? What are some practical things you can do with naptimes, mealtimes, bedtimes, playtimes, to keep a happier home? How can you consistently build biblical foundations in your littles?
By Kara Murphy on
Steve & Kara talk about their child (still in the womb) being diagnosed with spina bifida. How have they seen God’s providence and care during an uncertain time? How are they making decisions and thinking about the future knowing their child is likely to have physical challenges his whole life? See how you can help the Murphy family during this time HERE.
By Kara Murphy on
What is the role of parents in the process of courtship? What kind of physical contact is appropriate for engaged couples? How do you get families on the same page with their expectations? With more people involved in the relationship there is more opportunity for sin, how can you deal with this rightly? How do you keep a humble attitude when two families don’t agree about how courtship should go or what the wedding should be like?
By Kara Murphy on
How can we regain some sanity on this difficult issue? Is there a formula? Does courtship always have to work the same way for every couple? Can courtship ever be a sinful thing? Is fear a driving force in your family’s understanding of these issues? Steve and Kara discuss some of their experience as their children have started to marry.
By Kara Murphy on
What are some of the things that “kids” need to be able to do before they are ready to take on the responsibility of marriage? Do they need to be ready to parent? What does it take to be financially ready? What level of maturity is needed? What are appropriate expectations? How can you gauge their emotional readiness?
By Kara Murphy on
By Kara Murphy on
How can we maintain a gracious attitude toward those we have disagreements with about non-essential issues: breastfeeding vs. bottle feeding, home birth vs. hospital birth, vaccinate vs. not-vaccinate, homeschool or Christian school, organic vs. not-organic. Families have strong opinions about these and other topics. How can we keep these things from becoming divisive? How do we keep from creating laws for each other where God allows freedom?
By Kara Murphy on
Kids will do what you do not what you say. When you yell at your kids to stop yelling, what are they learning? Are you telling your kids they should be saving their money while demonstrating how to get into credit card debt? Living out a good example is a powerful form of teaching.
By Kara Murphy on
What price do children pay when their parents are uptight, controlling, and fearful? Does being plugged in to all the social media feeds and parenting apps breed an uptight attitude in your parenting? Are you constantly comparing yourself to everyone else? What does fear have to do with it? Why do parents think they can control EVERYTHING? Join Steve and Kara for conversation on loosening up when necessary.
By Kara Murphy on
It’s easy to let things slide. How do you regain ground when you realize that you or your kids have backslidden on tasks or skills or habits you’ve already learned or thought you’d mastered? How can you revisit old lessons in a way that makes your family stronger and keeps you moving forward. Are there times when it’s okay to coast for a bit? How do you know when it’s time to hit the reset button?
By Kara Murphy on
What are the enemies of being a teachable person? Why do we get set in our ways and become unable to see problems in our parenting paradigms? What can we do to overcome our own blind spots? In this episode Steve and Kara talk about the difficulties of learning as you go while parenting and how to keep a humble attitude about your plans and methods of parenting.
By Kara Murphy on
How can you help your children move through different stages of life? Do you need to think about a longterm plan when your kids are still young? How do you know when your kids are ready to be released from being parented like a child? What should your relationship with your kids be like after they leave the home and get married?
By Kara Murphy on
How do you deal with difficult family during the holidays? Why is this more difficult than dealing with other people we have disagreements with? How can you be prepared to be a peacemaker and to speak the truth in love when your family makes unpleasant comments about your parenting or family? How can you rise above emotional reactions and learn to respond graciously to unkind words?
By Kara Murphy on
The Murphy family loves Christmas…no, they really LOVE Christmas! Kara talks about some things that help her get through the holiday season without getting stressed out. In the middle of the busyness are you remembering what it is all about? How can you check your attitude? How can you assess when to keep doing activities and traditions and when to let things go? How can you keep track of it all? What do you do about budgeting?
