Did You Miss These Top 10 Blogs from 2017?

If you are like me and like to browse Top 10 lists, here are the top 10 blogs from 2017 on my website. I don’t include blogs written from earlier years in the top 10, but I will put links to the top 3 at the bottom of the blog if you are curious.

For newbies to my site, I write and podcast about topics that will encourage, equip, and compel you to live a life on mission. Categories include Foster Care/Adoption, Local and International Missions, Discipleship, and Lifestyle.

1. What Happens When One Person Stands Up? – November is National Adoption Month. As you know I am an advocate for foster care and adoption. Do you know how many kids are waiting in the foster care system in your state to be adopted? In Texas it is around 4,000. Thousands more need a safe, temporary home. These children should not have to wait or be placed in unsafe homes. It is time we stand up and meet this need.
2. 7 Ways You Are Making Parenting a Foster or Adopted Child Hard – This is the perfect blog to follow-up number one. If you do stand up and meet the needs of vulnerable children, it will be one of the hardest things you will ever do. It is important to learn about trauma informed care, to build a support team, and slow your life down so you can do this well.
3. When You Feel Like Tapping Out – If you step outside of yourself and choose to live a life on mission, whether it is to foster or adopt a child, invest in a local ministry or a neighbor, or travel to foreign countries to share Christ with others completely different than you, you will feel stretched. In this blog I share 3 secrets to help you stay in the game.
4. Taking a Closer Look at Empowerment – Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) is a parenting model taught by the Karen Purvis TCU Child Institute. The 3 basic principles are Connection, Empowerment, and Connection. I dive a little deeper into what Empowerment is all about.
5. Your Foster or Adopted Child Needs Space to Heal – When a child comes to us from a background of we need to allow them space to heal. This isn’t just physical space. It is also time. Check out the 6 ways you can give your child space to heal.
6. What Is God’s View on Racism? – Occasionally I blog about current events, and with the racial tension high in our country, I share my thoughts about what I think is the main solution.
7. 5 Areas of Need in Foster Care and Adoption – Okay, maybe you aren’t called to foster or adopt a child. Read this blog to find out other ways you can meet a need in foster care and adoption.
8. Why Your Prayers Won’t Get Off the Ground – I blog some about prayer because I think it is vital to living a life on mission. Are you like me and wonder why sometimes it feels that your prayers go nowhere? This blog answers that question.
9. Why Won’t Your Foster or Adopted Child Look You in the Eyes? The behavior of our kids from a hard place can easily push us away. What they need is just the opposite. They need for us to “get in the boat with them”. Find out what that means.
10. Do You Know How to “Be With” Others? – We don’t know how to be present with others anymore. Our attentions span is non-existent. Learning to be with others well will help us to live a life on mission that greatly impacts the lives of others.

Thank you for being a reader and follower. I hope that my content helps you to live your life on mission. I greatly appreciate those who interact and let me know about their passion. It encourages me!

Oh yeah…here are the top 3 blogs this year but written pre-2017:

9 Warning Signs that Toxic Shame Is Preventing a Life of Freedom

How Many Times Does A Child in Foster Care Move?

Three Principles of Trust Based Relational Intervention