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Susan Alexander Yates

Susan Alexander Yates

Wisdom for Every Season

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It’s Time to Celebrate Family! Advice for Planning Your Time Together

It’s Time to Celebrate Family! Advice for Planning Your Time Together

by Susan Alexander Yates

Spring is in the air, the pandemic is lessening, we are longing to be with family again!  Finally, it’s time…
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How NOT to Raise Entitled Kids: 27 Practical Ideas

How NOT to Raise Entitled Kids: 27 Practical Ideas

by Susan Alexander Yates

We have a big problem in our culture and none of us can avoid its reach. It impacts every one…
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Wild and Crazy Family Camp: Worship, Food, and Fun

Wild and Crazy Family Camp: Worship, Food, and Fun

by Susan Alexander Yates

We are getting ready! They are about to arrive!!! Yes, the wild and crazy “Yates Family Camp” is just a…
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Freebie: 100 Fun, Creative Ideas for You to Do With Your Kids!

Freebie: 100 Fun, Creative Ideas for You to Do With Your Kids!

by Susan Alexander Yates

Looking for fun, creative ideas to do with your family this summer? Maybe you feel like . . .  It’s…
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Don’t Miss This Rare Opportunity to Reorient Your Life

Don’t Miss This Rare Opportunity to Reorient Your Life

by Susan Alexander Yates

COVID protocols are easing, summer’s here, hope is finally in the air!  It’s been a long season of isolation, teleworking,…
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Want to Plan a Fun Family Get-Together? Here’s Help!

Want to Plan a Fun Family Get-Together? Here’s Help!

by Susan Alexander Yates

Have you ever wondered at God’s timing? I have. Last March, just when the world was about to go into…
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What I Most Admire About My Husband

What I Most Admire About My Husband

by Susan Alexander Yates

John and I will celebrate 52 years of marriage this August! I know, that seems crazy to us because we…
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How to Do Secret Valentines: A Fun ‘Family Builder’ Idea

How to Do Secret Valentines: A Fun ‘Family Builder’ Idea

by Susan Alexander Yates

Many of us have not been able to be with our family members during this pandemic season. Adult children haven’t seen each other, cousins often can’t be together. Saddened by being apart, we wonder, “What can we do to build the closeness that we long for?”

Here’s one easy idea!

Use Valentine’s Day to re-connect with one another.

Many of us have been a part of “Secret Valentines” (or “Secret Santa”), maybe at the office.

It’s always fun and creates a sense of camaraderie. Let’s use this idea in our families this year.

We have 21 grandchildren ranging in age from 9-23. Their families live in different cities. It’s a challenge to help them grow close to one another, particularly this year.

As parents more than anything we want our kids to love the Lord and each other. And this is true for our grandkids as well. But how can they love each other when they rarely see each other? As parents and grandparents, we can create opportunities for them to bond. 

To foster this, here’s one thing we are doing this year:  assigning each cousin a “Secret Valentine.”

Three Crucial Things to Pray for Your Kids (and Grandkids) in This New Year

Three Crucial Things to Pray for Your Kids (and Grandkids) in This New Year

by Susan Alexander Yates

Hope, fear, anticipation, disappointment. A roller coaster year. It’s easy to enter 2021 with mixed emotions. We are exhausted from…
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How to Engage in Meaningful Conversations in a Superficial World

How to Engage in Meaningful Conversations in a Superficial World

by Susan Alexander Yates

Recently a friend asked me,  Susan, I often feel like our conversations with our adult kids and extended family members…
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Hello, I’m Susan.

Susan Alexander Yates

I’m a wife (of 50 years), mom to five children (including a set of twins), and grandmother to 21 (including a set of quadruplets!). My favorite time of the year is when all my kids and grandkids are together for a week of “cousins and family camp” in the foothills of the Shenandoah Mountains of Virginia.

Read more…

Recent Posts

  • 5 Things We Know for Sure, No Matter What
  • Raising Your Kids to Leave Well: 6 Things to Consider
  • Confronting Evil: 2 Sin Traps to Avoid and 5 Truths About Our Enemy
  • It’s Time to Celebrate Family! Advice for Planning Your Time Together
  • Two Dangerous Phrases That Can Keep You Trapped in Fear and Regret

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One Word: Sufficient

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Cousin Camp

Cousin Camp
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Barbara & Susan’s Guide to the Empty Nest: Discovering New Purpose, Passion & Your Next Great Adventure

Barbara & Susan’s Guide to the Empty Nest: Discovering New Purpose, Passion & Your Next Great Adventure
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Eleanor and Campbell are learning 5 things they ca Eleanor and Campbell are learning 5 things they can know for sure about God and having fun doing it!

If you want to see what they're learning, check out my blog: 5 Things You Can Be Sure of in a Season of Uncertainty. Link in bio! (Or go to susanalexanderyates.com/blog)

#christianwomen #christianfaith #christianwoman #bedeeplyrooted #womenintheword #shereadstruth #womenoftheword #belovedlife #womenoffaith #gritandvirtue #choosejoy #lampandlight #biblestudy #bibleteaching #biblicaltruth #christianwriter #christianwriters #christianlife  #pursuewhatislovely #christians #sheislight
ONE WORD: New ONE VERSE: “Remember not the for ONE WORD: New
 
ONE VERSE:
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." Isaiah 43: 18-19
 
ONE THOUGHT:
Father, sometimes I get tired of me. Today, I ask you to do something NEW within me. I long to see YOU in new ways. Today I ask that you would give me an expectant heart that looks to you for new things in this season.
We have five children and I have been trying to we We have five children and I have been trying to wear out five Bibles. I am on my fifth and my goal is to have heavily marked and heavily worn Bibles for each one of my children when I am gone. 
I know you can read your Bible on your iPhones but there’s something very special about having a heavily marked Bible to share with your kids and grandkids so I encourage you to use paper Bibles and mark them up when you’re having your own quiet times. Use your cell phones for when you’re stuck in traffic or in an office or carpool line—just a thought.
If there was one word to describe our lives today If there was one word to describe our lives today it might be *uncertainty.*⁣
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We are uncertain about the potential of full-scale wars, economic upheaval, political divisions, racial unrest, school shootings, protest mobs, immigration crises, and the never-ending possibility of a new virus. Big issues which cause angst.⁣
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Closer to home we don’t know about our own finances, our job security, the health of those we love, our concern for a child who has strayed, or the uncertainty of a child’s future as he leaves home for the first time.⁣
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Uncertainty can cause us or our children to fear. To imagine the worst. To look for control that we do not have. To wonder if anyone understands.⁣
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We long for a sense of security, for something to hold onto. And so do our children.⁣
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Amid personal and international uncertainty there are *5 things that we can know for sure* -- and I'm sharing them on the blog this week! Link in bio or go to susanalexanderyates.com/blog to check it out!
My grand puppy Opie is a dog of the Word…sort of My grand puppy Opie is a dog of the Word…sort of! 😜
When your child leaves home, beware of falling int When your child leaves home, beware of falling into one of these two extremes:⁣
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A “helicopter parent” is one who is constantly texting, tweeting, emailing her child -- advising on daily activities and many decisions. ⁣
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Although she wants her child to be self confident she is actually undermining her confidence by making too many decisions and this communicates to the child, "You may not make the right decision so I will make it for you." This is not healthy for the child.⁣
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Another trap is that of a “hands off parent.” Her attitude may be, "I raised her to be independent and now she’s gone so I’ll wait until I hear from her. She now is on her own to make decisions." ⁣
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Weeks can go by without any communication. This is too extreme. You need to be involved in major decisions -- rooming, grades, and health. A weekly phone call is a good idea.⁣
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This is just a small piece of what I'm sharing in the blog this week -- 6 things to consider as you Raise Your Child to Leave Well. Check it out! Link in bio.
ONE WORD: Works ONE VERSE: The Lord works righte ONE WORD: Works

ONE VERSE:

The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. 
Psalm 103:6
 
ONE THOUGHT:

Even when I can’t see it, you are working while I am waiting.
Nature gives us so many pictures of God! Here’ s Nature gives us so many pictures of God! Here’ s a photo I took last week. 

Spring? Maybe not! We must persevere!            

“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” Hebrews 12:1-2
As college acceptances and denials arrive we are a As college acceptances and denials arrive we are a mix of emotions. And so is our senior!⁣
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Change is in the air whether it’s a job, a gap year or college looming on the horizon. Other parents have kids preparing to go in the fall to middle or high school or even preschool. Time does not stand still. Our kids are growing! And at some time in the future they will be leaving us.⁣
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How well I remember driving away from the dorm after leaving Susy at college. Just the week before we had left Libby, her twin and soul mate, at another college. These were the last of our five children. ⁣
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My husband John had planned a romantic night at a mountain inn on the way home. Not a good decision. Instead, I cried all the way home. My poor husband. It was not just the fact that my last were leaving it was also the pain of their being separated for the first time ever. It had been their decision and it proved to be a wise one in their maturity but at the time all I felt was grief.⁣
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From the time our child is born we know this day will come and part of raising them involves preparing them to leave - as healthy, confident adults. But most of us don’t factor in the sadness it will bring us!⁣
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Some parents coddle their children too much and others give too much freedom too soon. Our challenge is finding the balance. Raising kids who will be ready to leave involves intentional planning at each stage of their development. ⁣
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On the blog this week, I'm sharing 6 things to consider as you Raise Your Child to Leave Well -- check it out! Link in bio.

Copyright © 2022 · Susan Alexander Yates · All Rights Reserved
Calligraphy by Jessica Blanchard · Paintings by Christen Yates
Blog and Ask Susan Photo by Natalie Puls Photography · Books Photo by Cambria Elizabeth

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