Sam Crabtree
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Articles by Sam Crabtree
Jack Crabtree obituary
My father, Jack Crabtree, who has died aged 87, was a figurative painter whose work gave dignity to people whose lives were often overlooked. He developed a distinctive form of social realism, rooted in his working-class upbringing and driven by a belief that every person had a story worth telling. He painted miners, steelworkers, industrial communities and ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances.
48 Ways to Show Thankfulness
Ideas for Expressing Gratitude Why do we need suggestions on how to express gratitude? Shouldn’t a truly grateful heart just naturally overflow in expressing that gratefulness, without needing to be prompted by tips? Well, yes. But recall that while the Bible speaks of acts of love bubbling over from transformed and loving hearts, it nevertheless gives us lots of instruction in how love might behave, including exhortations and commands to do it this way or that.
A Father’s Guide to Family Vacations
As vacation season approaches for many families, godly fathers aim to plan time off with holy intentionality. They look to lead their family so that vacation serves God’s purposes, not the American Dream’s. But wait — isn’t holy intentionality at odds with taking vacations? For that matter, what makes something like a vacation holy? Holy things, including holy vacations, are set apart for uncommon use.
How Do I Raise Grateful Kids?
It’s Not Natural Perhaps you’ve already discovered the bad news: our kids are not naturally grateful, but are naturally born self-preoccupied ingrates brimming with an attitude of entitlement exemplified by whining, sourpuss looks, and eruptions of “Mine!” This is because they inherited hearts like that from us. From the moment they are born, they think only of themselves. Not one infant in the nursery is crying because some other baby is wet or hungry.
7 Tips for Young Adults to Improve Their Relationships with Their Parents
This article is part of the 7 Tips series. Estranged Children Family sociologist and researcher Karl Pillemer1 believes that one in four American adults have become estranged from their families. If one were to include the number of adult children who have stopped short of completely cutting off their folks yet have effectively ended nearly all contact, the stats climb even higher.
Our Children Raise Us: Lessons from the School of Parenting
As moms and dads, the odds of being perfect parents are the same odds of being perfect human beings: nil. We’re not omniscient. The parent who thinks he has learned all he needs to learn and is finished maturing remains immature. We have much to gain, and our children can be a way for us to grow up. I used to think the sequence was this: Grow up. Get married. Have children. But no. You get married, grow up a bit, have children, and then grow up lots more. Our children help to raise us.
What Will Your Home Teach? Cultivating a Christlike Family Culture
Children absorb. They learn their way around the world not only from what others explicitly teach them, but also from the kind of culture or atmosphere in which they live — especially in their home. The old adage “more is caught than taught” applies. By God’s design, children soak up values without even knowing it. For example, children don’t pick up their mother tongue because someone stands in front of them with a pronunciation flip chart.
A Leader for the Long Haul: The Legacy of Enduring Pastors
Legacies are multigenerational. For good or evil, your influence has the potential to span generations, even eternity, impacting individuals you may or may not meet in your lifetime. As we’ve learned again and again, it only takes one scandal, one Judas-like betrayal, one failure or gross inconsistency to damage the legacy we leave. And it takes a lifetime of God-enabled faithfulness — a grace he loves to give — to create a beautiful legacy worthy of emulation.
Why Do Children Disobey?
Learned Obedience Our children can sometimes astonish us with how quickly and repeatedly they disobey. Shouldn’t they just naturally know better? We look at them and think, What’s the matter with you? Well . . . sin, of course, is the matter with all of us. Including children. Even the most adorable little tyke is a naturalborn sinner.
What If God Were Happy?
If the world is a mess (and it is), and if God is in charge of this mess (and he is), then how is it rational to be satisfied with a God who let things get so messy? If he’s ultimately responsible for all of this, how could we trust in him, much less delight in him? Several answers come to mind. My own satisfaction with God springs from a number of places, including: His steadfast love in Christ. His drawing near to me instead of remaining far off.
13 Passages to Read on Father’s Day
This article is part of the Passages to Read series. 1. Proverbs 4:1–15 2. 1 Timothy 6:11–16 But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
How Thankfulness Increases Your Capacity for Wonder
To Marvel at the Marvelous Thankfulness greatly intensifies one of life’s most precious capacities—namely, the capacity to marvel. We are created for it. We love to marvel. Marveling is perhaps our highest pleasure. Practicing thankfulness can enhance your perspective, and thereby make otherwise ordinary things sizzle with the extraordinary wonders God has hidden inside them.
My Flesh and My Heart Did Fail: Learning from a Health Scare
Two weeks before Christmas, my heart stopped. Seated next to me in a congregational meeting, my wife sees me close my eyes and slump. After a few seconds, the old ticker providentially revives “on its own.” It happens four times during that meeting. Maybe I’m just too inactive, I think. Perhaps if I get up and walk around a bit, I can get the juices flowing, and whatever is going on will clear up. While I’m pacing in the church lobby, one of the elders says he doesn’t think I look quite right.
Fatherhood for Imperfect Dads
My wife and I raised perfect children. By the time they were ten years old, they had memorized the New Testament. They came each morning to the family breakfast table with cheerful songs on their tongues, the melodies caressing their freshly brushed teeth. At an early age, they volunteered to launder their own clothes and never once complained about their studies. They never used a whiny tone of voice with their mother, and they affectionately call me “dearest father” to this very day.
The Cost of Giving Thanks
Gratitude as a By-Product Expressing gratitude costs almost nothing. Anyone can do it, at any time. But it requires both the grace of God and our own obedient effort. Being genuinely grateful requires a work of God, a grace of wakefulness, a miraculous heart transformation. We are all born like puppies with our eyes closed, but God performs transformation.
God Loves a Persistent Pray-er
Each week is full of crises—in the world, in the church, and often in our own families. It’s natural to wonder: How should I have been praying about that? As Christians, we dream of having a prayer life that is fervent, fruitful, and on top of things. But so often, we end up dwelling on the prayers we neglected to pray and wondering if God is disappointed with our lack of spiritual fervor. For the anxious or hesitant prayer, the pointed two-word title of J. D.
How to Believe against Your Feelings
Fighting Dissatisfaction Some people stop believing Christianity not so much because they think it’s false but because they think it just doesn’t work. As they look around, they might begin to think that other groups or ideas or religions just work better. These groups might seem to be rich, deep, and full of life, even offering a better community, a deeper purpose, and a more compelling vision for the world. On top of this, other groups might just seem, well, more fun.
Children Grow Slow and Leave Fast
These are difficult days for parents. And not simply because of the world’s onslaught of deceptive claims, but also because of its pace. Increasingly, the clocks of modern society are synced to technological innovation and the pace of unmarried men and women idolizing their careers. Biblical childrearing, and the investment of quality time it demands — and the pace it takes — often feels at odds with our modern desires for efficiency and productivity.
Practicing Thankfulness during a Pandemic
Biblical Gratitude There are two biblical kinds of gratitude. One way to be thankful in the midst of a hardship is to be thankful that it isn't worse. This kind of thankfulness isn’t the best, deepest, richest kind of thankfulness, but it is legitimate nonetheless. Manasseh may not have as great a blessing as Ephraim, but he will have a great blessing nonetheless. (Gen. 48:19) Jacob may walk with a limp, but he will walk blessed nonetheless. (Gen.
Practicing Thankfulness
Christians are called to be thankful. What we believe about God is evident in how we exhibit thankfulness for all he has done. In this book, pastor Sam Crabtree encourages us to express glad-hearted thankfulness for God’s unending provision in all circumstances.
50 Ways to Be Thankful
Starters for the Hungry Heart Why do we need suggestions on how to express gratitude? Shouldn’t a truly grateful heart just naturally overflow in expressing that gratefulness, without needing to be prompted by tips? Well, yes. But recall that while the Bible speaks of acts of love bubbling over from transformed and loving hearts, it nevertheless gives us lots of instruction in how love might behave, including exhortations and commands to do it this way or that.
How Do I Talk to My Children About Sex?
God has given our children sex organs. They encounter these organs every day. As their organs develop, so should their understanding, with special acceleration at the onset of puberty. Wise parents serve their developing children by helping them grow in understanding of what God designed all this engineering for.
How to Pray for Your Kids This Summer
Though we generally delight in summer, summer also presents challenges for parenting. Prolonged daylight hours with delayed bedtimes, more loosely structured schedules, ticks and mosquitoes . . . such things introduce struggles into the mix, and as they say, What’s a mother to do? New Season, New Prayer Requests It helps to ask, Why did God invent summer?
8 Real-Life Questions about Children and Discipline
Biblical Help for Parenting The Bible teaches that a loving parent is one that disciplines his or her child. But the how can often confound well-meaning parents. Below, Sam Crabtree, author of Parenting with Loving Correction: Practical Help for Raising Young Children shares some practical advice for how to navigate some specific situations in the home. One Step at a Time You might feel overwhelmed by the amount of parenting advice that exists. Take a breath.
The kindness challenge
Is there a relationship in your life that needs improvement? According to Shaunti Feldhahn, kindness is the key ingredient to improving any relationship in just a matter of days. She speaks to the need for kindness in our culture today.
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