“Spare the Child” is a great 18 minute long video produced by The Virginia State Bar Family Law Section to help parents understand how they can help to minimize the impacts of divorce on their children. It is a great video for parents, but it is also very useful for those who work with children of divorce as it provides a good understanding of what kids go through in the process of divorce. The video is based on interviews with judges, lawyers, mediators and adult children of divorce. You can find more information about the DVD at http://www.vsb.org/site/news/item/spare-the-child-new-dvd.
The video can be found at http://vimeo.com/16997474, and I have transcribed the video below for those who prefer to read the information rather than watch the video. A Spanish version of the video can be found at http://vimeo.com/17000006.
In addition to the video, the VSB has published a pamphlet to go along with the video which can be found at http://www.vsb.org/publications/brochure/spare.pdf.
As the adult it is imperative that you stay in control. Remember you are constantly modeling for the children in your groups and classes. Think about what you are modeling. When entering a confrontation are you remaining calm or are you exhibiting the very behaviors you’re trying to stop?
In this article, we present a hypothetical speech to a pastor or congregation about why your church should minister to children of divorce. In this speech, we are pitching the Divorce Care 4 Kids [DC4K] ministry.
He comes in with a haughty look on his face. His face says,
How many of us have ever used post-it notes? Post-it notes are cool plus they serve a purpose. They stick and they stick to almost any substance. Most of us use them to temporarily call attention to something such as a page in a book or stuck on the fridge so the entire family can be constantly reminded of something in particular.
From the 2010 Word & World Lecture Series at Luther Seminary, in this presentation Elizabeth Marquardt addresses The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce. This whole lecture is worth the time to listen to, but make sure you don’t miss the last half which is a Q&A session with the audience. Ms. Marquardt is an important voice, I would argue the most important voice, today on the topic of the impact of divorce on children’s faith.
In the story in Luke 5:1-7 the fishermen had been fishing all night and they were not successful in catching fish. Jesus told the fishermen to go back out in their boat and cast their nets again. Thankfully the fishermen listened to Jesus and did what he proposed. When they listened and acted on what Jesus said they filled their nets so full the nets began to break.
Two weeks ago, we began a series called “A New Way of Looking at the Spiritual Impact of Divorce on Children.” In that series, we started looking at a new report from Melinda Lundquist Denton of Clemson University titled, “Family Structure, Family Disruption, and Profiles of Adolescent Religiosity.” First, we talked about how divorce impacts a child’s spiritual development. Last week, we looked at 
When working with the child of divorce many people make the mistake of thinking these children are always sad, angry or confused. We forget that they are still children who want to laugh, run, jump, play and laugh. We tend to forget they need normal childhood activities.
Last week, we began a new series called “A New Way of Looking at the Spiritual Impact of Divorce on Children.” In that series, we started looking at a new report from Melinda Lundquist Denton of Clemson University titled, “Family Structure, Family Disruption, and Profiles of Adolescent Religiosity.” Last week, based on this study, we talked about how divorce impacts a child’s spiritual development. Today, we will look at a new typology used in the report when thinking about children of divorce (or anyone else) when it comes to their faith and religious practice and how it impacts your church. On Wednesday we will look at the results from the study based on this new typology.