Real FamilyLife®

Who led family devotions in your family? Most of the time it was my dad. He would read something from the Bible or we would operate out of a devotional book, and he would start things off. And so I'm following his footsteps in that regard as the spiritual leader of my household.

When people call me on the cell phone and it starts breaking up, I get pretty aggrivated 'cause I can't understand what they're saying and I want to know what they're saying a lot of the times. So a lot of times I'll just hang up and let them call me back.

When we got married, meals together was going to be a high priority for us. That when we started having children, we would have family time at the dinnertable. We'd pray together, and dinner would become a big priority. And now, it's rare that we don't have any meals together.

My observations with a number of the schools have been, where the parents are involved with the school, the school seems to move ahead. Where there's lack of parent involvement, the schools are definitely lagging behind.

I guess I learned some work ethic from my dad. My dad worked at a chemical plant for over thirty years, worked swing shift. I never remember him calling in sick. I mean, he was . . . there.

It's been myself, I think, that's had the greatest challenge in letting go early on in marriage. I wanted to borrow money and things like that. And it wasn't until early in my 'thirties that I was able to cut those strings. They were ready to.

1: Some things that cause my family stress are, being too busy. Too many outside activities. Not enough time to be together. 2: One major thing that causes our family stress is finances, making sure they come in. That we have enough to live on.

When I was a teenager, a friend of mine let me borrow a concert video, and told me to wait until my parents were in bed to watch it. I guess he thought it was offensive. I didn't feel right about that, so I asked my dad to watch it with me. Even though it was late at night, and he was really tired, he was willing to do that. And then we had some good discussion afterwards.

When I was a kid, I never wanted to take the blame when I did something wrong. So usually my older brother, my brother that was just a year older than I, he caught most of the blame.

Now I realize this is an unfair question, but it's for every dad. Do you work harder at home or on the job?

Raising a child is more than a tough job. It's also a privilege.

Has the romance in your marriage begun to cool?

Training soldiers and training children have a lot in common.

In your family, is Sunday more a "day of rest," or a "day of stress"?