It's summer! I enjoy having my children home, but when they become teenagers, summer time equals money making time for them. They use this money to fill up their savings accounts and pay for extra curriculars throughout the school year. But more than that, I feel it's also vital for them to learn marketable skills that will one day be worth more than minimum wage and to experiment with different professions.

Today I'm going to share how we found my two teenagers jobs this summer without looking at a single "Wanted" ad or doing internet searches. These jobs are teaching them valuable skills-- with no burger flipping involved!

Can I make a confession?

I yell at my kids sometimes. I've never taken them to Disneyland. Often, my house is a wreck. At one son's last baseball game, he had to play outfield instead of his normal first base, because he missed two practices in a row--because I forgot to take him. My teenage son often doesn't like me. I'm not the "fun" mom, my daughter is often better with her younger brothers than I am, and I could go on and on.

Sometimes it's easy to feel like a complete failure when you are a mom. There is nothing like taking complete responsibility of another human being (or two or three, or...) that makes us see all of our own weaknesses so clearly. We certainly rub the rough edges off of each other.

But lately, I've learned a lesson that has completely changed my paradigm. Our family has been helping with two foster children recently, and it's made me rethink what it is to be a "good mom".

When I heard that the story of a woman who was a Planned Parenthood clinic director turned pro-life activist was coming to the big screen, I was intrigued. Soon after, I learned that the movie was unexpectedly rated R- purely for abortion violence. I was even more intrigued. This meant that teenagers who were able to legally have an abortion by themselves, could not enter the movie without an adult. Hmmm.

Then I learned that ad networks and some social media companies were refusing to air ads for it simply because they did not agree with the position the movie takes on abortion. THAT'S when I decided that I needed to see this movie.

You know me, I"m pretty careful and picky about what I watch, but I felt this was an important film to see. I went with my husband this weekend, and here is a brief recap and my thoughts about it.

Losing stinks. Especially when you put your heart and soul into something and it seems like something unfair happened to make you lose. How do we help our kids through this?

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February is Individual Worth month- focused on loving ourselves and others more fully. If you missed week one of Individual Worth resources, you can find them here. 
If you want find other resources for specific Character Traits of the month, you can click here.

by Jennifer Zumbiel

I used to teach high school social studies. I can remember two students, in particular, who would each stay after class to talk to me or stop by after school. As the school year went on, they would open up and come to me about more important subjects: what to do for college, how to talk to their parents, what to do with friends. These weren’t students who were natural talkers. They were maybe even a little more introverted, but something made them feel comfortable with me. We had created a relationship built on trust and comfort and they knew that they were welcome in my classroom at anytime free of judgment.

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It's February! It is sometimes called "The Love Month" or "Single Awareness Month" among other things. But at Raise The Good, Individual Worth is the Character Trait of the Month, and I've got some great resources for you to share with your family about loving ourselves and others better.

I've listed two resources for every age group for this week because this seems do-able and no one one likes to be overwhelmed. Check back every week for more Character Trait of the Month resources to use with your family!

by Jessee Stewart

My motive in sharing these thoughts is to bring peace, not to inflame the issue. My message is one that I hope will bring healing and hope.

Life is messy, complex and imperfect. All of our lives have messy portions, and perhaps messiness that our closest loved ones don’t know about. I haven’t lived your life, your pain, and you haven’t lived mine. I feel like acknowledging that we are all coming from different places is necessary to have an open conversation. I hope we can agree in the end, but if we don’t, let’s not hate the other.

I have given birth to four children. Two of those wonderful children are buried in a peaceful cemetery near my parent’s home. Two of those wonderful children are healthy, funny, energetic, and challenge me as a parent daily.

If you've been following along lately and have been using these resources to teach your kids self discipline, this object lesson will be a perfect activity for your family. It's also great if you want to teach your kids that choices have consequences. Plus, it's customizable!

I've done this activity a couple of different times with teen girls in my church youth group and it's been fantastic. Think of a traditional make-your-own-ice-cream-sundae party. . . with a twist! (To give credit where credit is due, I heavily leaned on this post from Dirty Dishes, Messy Kisses as I was planning my own activity. I changed the questions to suit our purposes, but it provided a lot of great inspiration. Check it out!

It goes without saying, that self-discipline is one of the most vital character traits that we can teach our children. It's also one of the hardest!

But never fear, I've compiled a list of 24 plug-and-play, no preparation needed, resources to help you do it! These feature books, movies, video clips and/or other resources to help elementary age children, teens, and YOU focus on developing self discipline all month long.