Parents

In this article, we explore various prayers for newborns and infants that you can pray in your devotional time or with others.

When a brand new baby is born into a family, it’s such a huge blessing and joy. It’s like a bright light has come into a home. These little humans can bring such a tremendous impact. It’s like what Psalms 127:3-5 says about children; that they are like arrows in the hand of a warrior and that they are blessed.

Children are a heritage from the Lord,    offspring a reward from him.Like arrows in the hands of a warrior    are children born in one’s youth.Blessed is the man    whose quiver is full of them.They will not be put to shame    when they contend with their opponents in court. – Psalm 127:3-5

At work one day at a local pizza shop, I saw a family with two young elementary school-aged kids that came in to get food. A few minutes later some of their relatives walked in and they all ate lunch together. When they were finished eating and saying their goodbyes the two kids were standing there with their faces in their phones instead of giving their relatives a hug and saying goodbye. That seems like an odd thing to be writing about here. Not anything earth shattering, right? But after this experience, I started thinking a lot about phones and how young kids get their first phones earlier and earlier these days.

When I was in elementary school it was rare to see a kid younger than 12 having a cell phone. Now you see kids in 2nd and 3rd grade walking around with their own phones and having all social media platforms.

In just a couple of days it will officially be Autumn. Though we might still be in shorts and drinking iced tea because it’s Texas, I’m doing everything I can to pretend that we are moving very swiftly towards the holidays. In fact, we are less than 100 days until Christmas! Thanks to Hallmark Publishing, there are many new Hallmark stories available to put on your gift list this year, like the brand new On Christmas Avenue by New York Times bestselling author Ginny Baird. I’ve got all the scoop!

Every parent knows what they want for their children. Or at least they assume that they know and believe that they are educating them and preparing them for the future in order to achieve the planned objectives. But have you really thought about this?

Do not assume you know the answer. Take a simple exercise, spend a day thinking about the question: What do I really want for my children? There are days when we just want them to clean their rooms, do their homework, and sleep a good night’s sleep. In others, we delineate well-defined plans and begin to build what we consider to be the first foundations of their castles.

CHICAGO — Tucked deep in the obituary for Charles Recka was an announcement that a Mass celebrating his 87 years of life “will be held at a later date.”

Such notices are increasing amid the coronavirus pandemic, as an untold number of burials around the globe go forward with nothing more than a priest, a funeral home employee and a single loved one.

While in some places, bodies of people who have died from COVID-19 are stacking up at hospitals and people are buried quickly in the clothes they died in, Recka’s death from an unrelated long illness tells a different story: One of families whose grief just happened to arrive amid a pandemic that has them terrified to even share a church pew with loved ones, let alone hug them.

Recka’s daughter, Dawn Bouska, sees no choice but to prevent her twin 11-year-old boys and their 14-year-old sister from getting any closer to their grandmother than the other side of the window at the senior living center where she lives.

Whether you’ve got big plans to travel the world in 2020 or intend to stay put, you’ll need a few good books to keep you company. All those hours waiting in airports, riding on trains, or spent tanning on beach loungers are always more satisfying and entertaining when filled with the written words. And if you happen to be home, but wish you could be elsewhere, the pages of a novel will provide the escapism you’re longing for. For those purposes (and more) we have selected 20 books being published in 2020 that will hit the spot, no matter where you are and what you’re doing. From historical fiction set in Ireland to a family saga in Norway, and nature writing in South Africa, these are the books most anticipated by Matador Network team this year.