The Connected Family

A Powerful Approach to Bringing God's Grace to Kids Did you know that the way we deal (or don't deal) with our kids' misbehavior shapes their beliefs about themselves, the world, and God? Therefore it's vital to connect with their hearts--not just their minds--amid the daily behavior battles. With warmth and grace, Jim and Lynne Jackson, founders of Connected Families, offer four tried-and-true keys to handling any behavioral issues with love, truth, and authority. You will learn practical ways to communicate messages of grace and truth, how to discipline in a way that motivates your child, and how to keep your relationship strong, not antagonistic. Discipline is more than just a short-term attempt to modify your child's actions--it's a long-term investment to help them build faith, wisdom, and character for life. When you discover a better path to discipline, you'll find a more well-behaved--and well-believed--kid.

'A practical and timely book I highly recommend' Arianna Huffington, Founder and CEO, Thrive Global 'Connect offers a compelling and highly accessible roadmap for building relationships that lead to professional success and personal fulfilment. I highly recommend this book' Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and co-author of Blitzscaling and The Alliance 'I encourage anyone who cares to develop stronger and more meaningful relationships anywhere in their life to read this book' David Rogier, Founder and CEO at MasterClass ________________ David Bradford and Carole Robin taught interpersonal skills to MBA candidates for a combined seventy-five years on their legendary Stanford Graduate School of Business course, "Interpersonal Dynamics". Now, in Connect, they share their time-tested strategies for developing the interpersonal skills that have become fundamental to success at work and in our everyday lives, such as building trust, giving feedback and navigating conflict. Connect shows why relationship-building is crucial to becoming a more effective manager and leader and living a fulfilled life, from highlighting the importance of curiosity and empathy to demonstrating how to break logjams and negotiate boundaries. Filled with research-backed insights, useful concepts and thought-provoking exercises, Connect is an important resource for anyone hoping to build and sustain relationships, providing tools to make relationships robust -- and even exceptional. ________________ WHAT FORMER STUDENTS SAID ABOUT INTERPERSONAL DYNAMICS: 'I can't believe how much I learned about myself and about how others see the world' 'This course changed my life; it was transformational' 'I feel so much better equipped to create the kinds of relationships I want in my life'

National news reports periodically proclaim that American life is lonelier than ever, and new books on the subject with titles like Bowling Alone generate considerable anxiety about the declining quality of Americans' social ties. Still Connected challenges such concerns by asking a simple yet significant question: have Americans' bonds with family and friends changed since the 1970s, and, if so, how? Noted sociologist Claude Fischer examines long-term trends in family ties and friendships and paints an insightful and ultimately reassuring portrait of Americans' personal relationships. Still Connected analyzes forty years of survey research to address whether and how Americans' personal ties have changed—their involvement with relatives, the number of friends they have and their contacts with those friends, the amount of practical and emotional support they are able to count on, and how emotionally tied they feel to these relationships. The book shows that Americans today have fewer relatives than they did forty years ago and that formal gatherings have declined over the decades—at least partially as a result of later marriages and more women in the work force. Yet neither the overall quantity of personal relationships nor, more importantly, the quality of those relationships has diminished. Americans' contact with relatives and friends, as well as their feelings of emotional connectedness, has changed relatively little since the 1970s. Although Americans are marrying later and single people feel lonely, few Americans report being socially isolated and the percentage who do has not really increased. Fischer maintains that this constancy testifies to the value Americans place on family and friends and to their willingness to adapt to changing circumstances in ways that sustain their social connections. For example, children now often have schedules as busy as their parents. Yet today's parents spend more quality time with their children than parents did forty years ago—although less in the form of organized home activities and more in the form of accompanying them to play dates or sports activities. And those family meals at home that seem to be disappearing? While survey research shows that families dine at home together less often, it also shows that they dine out together more often. Americans are fascinated by the quality of their relationships with family and friends and whether these bonds fray or remain stable over time. With so many voices heralding the demise of personal relationships, it's no wonder that confusion on this topic abounds. An engrossing and accessible social history, Still Connected brings a much-needed note of clarity to the discussion. Americans' personal ties, this book assures us, remain strong.

What Your Child Needs From You is a book for busy parents who need some simple, practical hints to make parenting easier.

People have always lived in families, but what that means has varied dramatically across time and cultures. The family is not a "natural" phenomenon but an institution with a dynamic history stretching 10,000 years into the past. Mary Jo Maynes and Ann Waltner tell the story of this fundamental unit from the beginnings of domestication and human settlement. They consider the codification of rules governing marriage in societies around the ancient world, the changing conceptions of family wrought by the heightened pace of colonialism and globalization in the modern world, and how state policies shape families today. The authors illustrate ways in which differences in gender and generation have affected family relations over the millennia. Cooperation between family members--by birth or marriage--has driven expansions of power and fusions of culture in times and places as different as ancient Mesopotamia, where kings' daughters became priestesses who mediated among the various cultures and religions of their fathers' kingdom, and sixteenth-century Mexico, in which alliances between Spanish men and indigenous women variously allowed for consolidation of colonial power or empowered resistance to colonial rule. But family discord has also driven - and been driven by - historical events such as China's 1919 May Fourth Movement, in which young people seeking an end to patriarchal authority were key participants. Maynes's and Waltner's view of the family as a force of history brings to light processes of human development and patterns of social life and allows for new insights into the human past and present.

The authors provide a smorgasbord of fun, easy and practical ways for readersto connect with their families.

"A must read! I wish I'd had this book when I was a young parent." Roger Palms, author of fourteen books, and twenty-two years as editor of Billy Graham's DECISION magazine "I am recommending that Jim & Lynne's teaching be embraced by our denomination as core teaching for parents." Greg Braly, Director of Evangelical Free Church of America's Family and Children's Ministries "This material is brilliant! It equips parents with a concrete, easy to learn framework for flexible, creative parenting. What a spiritually smart system! Jim and Lynne's practicality and authenticity simply ooze of God's grace. Charlene Ann Baumbich, well-know speaker and author of twelve books "I truly believe that I have never read anything by anyone that so thoughtfully melds solid scriptural doctrine with sound psychological principles. This is a resource of pure parenting and teaching gold." Warren Watson, Clinical Psychology Director If you desire to have a strong, connected family, grounded in Biblical principles for thriving in today's challenging world, this book is for you! How to Grow a Connected Family teaches four compelling principles that become a guide for life and relationships. These simple but profound ideas will fuel authentic love and faith at home and beyond. Through real life stories, engaging teaching, and reflective questions, you will learn to: Be peaceful and wiser for the challenges of parenting. Keep your love and God's love for your children alive in their hearts. Integrate Biblical teaching in every day life, and effectively train your children in respect, responsibility, faith, and a sense of calling. Discipline in ways that strengthen your children's character and relationships. Families that learn these principles find more joy and peace at home, AND they contagiously share their love with the world around them! James Jackson is a twenty-two year ministry professional with a focus on high-risk children, youth and their families. Lynne Jackson, OTR/L is a therapist specializing in children with sensory and behavioral challenges. As co-founders of the ministry Connected Families they coach parents, teach classes and seminars, and partner with churches and community organizations to strengthen families. The Jackson family includes three lively high school and college age children who have thoroughly field tested their parents' ideas about parenting.