The families in your church and community have a lot going on. Some days are a nonstop hustle from breakfast to bed time, with meetings, school, extracurriculars, and more sandwiched in between. But regardless of the pace they keep, every family has a natural rhythm parents can lean into in order to invest in the spiritual and emotional lives of their kids.

On Episode 48 of the Think Orange Podcast, we’re joined by Carey Nieuwhof, father, pastor, and author of the book Parenting Beyond Your Capacity, as well as Orange’s own Holly Crawshaw, part of our Parent Cue team. Together we finish a conversation on five timeless principles that every parent can use right now. We move from big ideas to practical advice, focusing on the actions of Creating a Rhythm and Making It Personal.

Topic Timeline:

There’s approximately 936 weeks from the time a child is born to when they graduate from high school (3:40)

Part 2 of Dave and Holly’s interview with Carey Nieuwhof (4:43)

What it looks like to create a rhythm in your parenting (7:05)

Every family has a natural rhythm for having spiritual conversations, and Deuteronomy 6 gives us a hint as to what some of them are (9:38):

• When you sit at home (meal time)

• When you lie down (bed time)

• When you walk along the road (drive time)

• When you get up (morning time)

Explanation of the Parent Cue app (13:35)

The average parent has over 3,000 hours of unstructured time a year (14:56)

The importance of making it [your faith] personal (18:06)

The tension parents feel that taking care of yourself is selfish (21:49)

Practical advice for how to find margin in a busy life (23:04)

Recap of the five principles of Parenting Beyond Your Capacity (29:51)

Dave’s final thoughts (31:11)