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 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?
By Kara Murphy on
Why do we think that sickness is preventing us from living out God’s best plans for us? How do you deal with loss of control over things you used to be able to manage? The Murphys welcome special guests Mark & Andrea Robinette once again as they discuss how to deal with all the difficulties of illness when it is mom that is sick. Kara and Andrea talk about what to do when your health keeps you from doing all the things you desire to do? How do they care for their families and various responsibilities while struggling with illness?. . .
Read more »
By Kara Murphy on
Are you too self-centered in your focus on your own family at the expense of the church community? How do we pursue serving within the church in balance with caring for our families? Does your rigid schedule keep you from flexing to meet the needs that your neighborhood and community have? Your children are an integral part of the church. How can you involve them in serving the community and teach them that the world doesn’t revolve around them? This episode we welcome special guests Mark and Andrea Robinette to join our conversation!
By Kara Murphy on
Keeping your children in worship with you comes with challenges. How do you teach your children to pay attention and participate? What can you do to minimize the stress and disarray of getting ready Sunday morning to have your family prepared physically and mentally to join in worship on Sunday morning?
By Kara Murphy on
What role does music have in your home and family? How can you help your children, from your youngest to your oldest, love good music? How can you encourage your kids to learn to play and sing? How can music be a blessing in your family and to your community also? What if you aren’t a musical person, can you still teach your children these things? Join Steve and Kara as they talk about the joy of music in their home.
By Kara Murphy on
What do you do when you’re working really hard at something and not seeing any progress? What are some diagnostic questions you can ask yourself to discover problems with your parenting methods or education goals? Whether it is in academics or areas of discipline and maturity, how do we know if we need to just persevere or if we need to change what we’re doing. How can we help ourselves honestly see the progress we are making?
By Kara Murphy on
How do you know if you need to pull back from involvement in good projects or ministries for a time? Can good activities sometimes take your attention away from the best or more important things? Steve and Kara talk about their Summer break from podcasting and about being mindful of your time and energy and making sure you aren’t trading the best things for the endless good things that are out there.
By Kara Murphy on
By Kara Murphy on
How can you make your home into a place where people, even your own children, want to be? How do you keep people prioritized over stuff? Are there biblical ideas that can be applied to how we practice hospitality? Steve and Kara share some things they have learned that help them to be a blessing to the people who come into their home.
By Kara Murphy on
What are we really saying when we say, “That’s just who I am”? It is good to understand our strengths and weaknesses, but we shouldn’t close ourselves off to change. God works change in the lives of Christians throughout our lifetimes, and this is a good thing.
By Kara Murphy on
By Kara Murphy on
Is dating a critical part of a marriage? What about when money is tight or the kids are young, how can you make time for each other? If you are thinking you don’t even know each other anymore that creates big problems in a marriage. Taking time to be together can help keep you on the same page with your spouse and keep your family moving in a unified direction.
By Kara Murphy on
Having multiple young children in the home at one time is exhausting in many ways. Don’t give up! You are probably doing better than you think you are. How can you better manage the challenges of a full household while keeping your focus on the most important things when it just seems like everything is out of control? How can you make any progress with anything when there is nothing but constant distractions and interruptions? How can you maintain appropriate expectations, and genuinely enjoy the small successes during these busy years?
By Kara Murphy on
By Kara Murphy on
Can or should you do anything when your children develop strange or annoying habits that are not sin issues? What about a child who struggles with autism and the sometimes odd behaviors that come with that? Can we help our children minimize the habits which may become a barrier for them in their conversations or relationships in adulthood?
By Kara Murphy on
What does it do the the Christian family when couples try to plan the size of their family? Should the Bible’s words about the blessing of children carry weight decisions about birth control? How does our culture’s view of children color our own views? How can we acknowledge the serious health difficulties some women have while not disregarding or rebelling against God’s hand in building our families?
By Kara Murphy on
Some children are more difficult to parent than others. How can you parent these children with kindness and gentleness? Why can labels like ADD, ADHD, autistic, dyslexic, be problematic for your children and your parenting? A simplistic cookie cutter approach to parenting is often less than helpful. Your child’s personality and way of thinking should be taken into account when working to overcome teaching and training challenges. How do you parent your children faithfully even though they can be very different from each other?
