Helping Kids Navigate Holiday Wants and Holiday Needs: Giving The Gift of Being Known
Kids often build their Christmas lists from influencer recommendations, trending videos, and carefully curated feeds. But what if we used gift-giving to help kids feel truly seen—not just marketed to? In today's Facing in the Dark, Wayne and Dr. Kathy explore how parents can use this season to cultivate discernment, deepen connection, and choose gifts that strengthen identity rather than feed consumer pressure. You'll learn how to navigate social-media-driven wants, avoid gift-giving guilt, and lean into meaningful, memorable ways to bless your kids this Christmas.
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Big Feelings, Big Families: Preparing Kids for Holiday Gatherings That Overwhelm
Holiday gatherings can feel like a joyful reunion, or a pressure-filled performance. In this Thanksgiving episode of Facing in the Dark, Wayne and Dr. Kathy unpack why kids struggle during big family events, how parents can prepare them beforehand, and what it looks like to approach the holidays with patience, curiosity, and a heart aimed at connection rather than perfection. You'll learn how to lower anxiety, handle family dynamics, create space for rest, and help kids feel secure as they reconnect with relatives they barely know.
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Thinkfulness as Thankfulness: How Gratitude Builds Resilient Hearts
Gratitude isn't just a holiday feeling, it's a way of seeing the world. In today's Facing in the Dark, Wayne Stender and Dr. Kathy Koch explore why thankfulness is essential for a child's identity, maturity, and resilience. Drawing from Dr. Kathy's book Parent Differently, they unpack how gratitude protects against entitlement, strengthens character, deepens humility, and centers kids on God's goodness. Together they discuss how families can build rhythms that cultivate gratitude year-round, how remembering anchors identity, and why thankful hearts shine light into the dark places kids face today.
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The Family Tech Covenant: Why Boundaries Communicate Love
Before you hand your child their first device, consider this: tech boundaries aren't rules, they're love in action. In today's Facing in the Dark, Wayne Stender and Dr. Kathy Koch unpack why shared expectations around phones and screens help kids feel secure, valued, and connected. Drawing from the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Kathy explains how a family media plan, and a "we, not you" mindset, creates clarity, prevents conflict, and protects character. They explore co-authoring agreements with kids, resetting tech habits when things have slipped, and why thoughtful shifts don't harm a child's security, they strengthen it. This honest, grace-filled conversation centers on identity, belonging, and how families can create a tech culture rooted in peace, faith, and love. Find Dr. Kathy's Family Media Covenant developed with Techless Wireless here>> Considering a phone for your child? Check out Techless Wireless>>
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Raising Thinkers in an AI World: Why Struggle Still Matters
If our kids can ask a chatbot for every answer, what happens to their ability to think? To struggle? To wrestle with an idea long enough for it to shape them? Wayne Stender and Dr. Kathy Koch dig into the hidden cost of growing up in an AI-accelerated world. They explore research showing how automation is changing workplaces and may be changing the cognitive wiring of the next generation. Wayne shares a classroom moment where students traded screens for paper and suddenly came alive, wrestling through ideas, searching for their own words, and discovering the power of slow thinking. Dr. Kathy explains why struggle isn't failure, it's formation. Kids who push through discomfort develop creativity, discernment, people-skills, and self-efficacy, traits that technology cannot automate and AI cannot produce. Together they ask the question every parent now faces: Are we raising kids who can think deeply, connect relationally, and lead wisely in a world that wants to think for them? This rich conversation offers hope—and practical insight—for families who want their kids to be more than consumers of answers. They want them to become thinkers, creators, friends, leaders, disciples, and whole people.
Daily encouragement from a multitude of speakers, led by Dr. Kathy Koch. All topics covered are helpful not only to kids and their parents, but also to single adults, married couples, teachers, social workers, pastors, and many more. We hope you can be encouraged through these messages, send it to a friend so they can join you in joy and growth!
Listen to Celebrate Kids Podcast with Dr. Kathy, Animal Tales: The Kids' Story Podcast and many other podcasts from around the world with the radio.net app
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