Ever wonder how or why T Bar M publishes articles on the topics we do? Today will give you an insight into the inner workings of “Family Matters” and T Bar M’s heart behind it.

These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7

Family Matters began 9 years ago out of T Bar M’s desire to come alongside families in the trenches of raising kids to love God and love others in our culture encouraging so much in opposition to God’s ways.  For the first four years we had two authors only…Johnny Polk (who retired last year from T Bar M) and Dudley Callison (our current President, but at the time he was a camp dad who discipled some of our year-round staff). Then we transitioned into our current model of full-time staff contributing their biblical perspective on topics parents are facing.

This year the topics were gathered from two different audiences. We surveyed you (yes, the parents reading the Family Matters articles) asking what you would like to see addressed.  You gave us great insight, and several ideas overlap with what our staff suggested as well.

The second method we used was surveying our college summer staff with the following questions (most frequent responses listed as well):

• While growing up, what are you thankful your parents:
  • Provided for you?
    • love and acceptance, opportunities for extra curriculars, & support in endeavors
• Did with you?
  • Quality time (by a land slide!) … be it one on one, at bedtime, in the car, or family dinners
• Taught you?
  • Perseverance, hard work, faith
  • What issues have you faced while in college that you WISH you would have been equipped for?
    • Dealing with loneliness in college (Something new that has popped up in the last two years)
    • Time management
    • Finding community

All these topics will be addressed with scripture as the banner.  We hope to be an encouragement to you and your family with practical, biblical helps as you aim to love God and love others while raising kids to do the same.

Thank you for the honor!

Jen and your T Bar M family