Deb Koster

My parents need more support, but my siblings don’t want to help. How can I get them to step up and honor their father and mother? It’s disorienting and emotional to see our parents needing increased support, and all sides might struggle to see the needs and the best way to meet them. Needs constantly change as parents age and their health declines, and it’s a role reversal on both sides for children to care for their parents.

My married kids don’t want to have children. To me, this is a self-centered decision. How can I convince them to be fruitful and multiply? Decisions about starting a family, how many kids to have, or when to have them don’t involve a family vote. They are personal decisions that couples make prayerfully. Couples should prayerfully discern how they can honor God in all the decisions they make in their marriage, but as adults, they are free to make their own choices.

We are a community of churches that has chosen to do ministry together. I had a good laugh recently when I learned that one of my teenagers was peppering her teacher with unwelcome “whys” about mathematical formulas and theorems. When worn down by their pupils’ questions, even the most patient pedagogues will eventually concede: “Because they are!” For a person like me, whose math skills are subpar, that answer works—but it doesn’t work for everyone.