Parenting can be difficult even in the easiest of times and how we react in difficult situations can differ from household to household.

Wendy Speake says in many situations, the knee-jerk reactions and blow-ups parents are facing are often a result of a bigger set of “triggers.” Some of these she says are external, like a child’s disobedience, backtalk, or selective hearing, while others are internal, like an overflowing schedule, sleep deprivation, or perhaps a parent's own painful experience from childhood.

Triggers: Exchanging Parent’s Angry Reactions for Gentle Biblical Responses examines common parenting issues that cause us to explode inappropriately at our children. 

"If we look back and we just calm down, sit down and maybe even jot down our triggers, we'll see that they really are recurring," explained Wendy. "Once we can pinpoint our triggers we can start crafting a better response."

Moving beyond simple parenting tips on how to change a child’s behaviour, authors Amber Lia and Wendy Speake offer biblical insight and practical tools to equip and encourage parents on the journey away from anger-filled reactions and toward gentle, biblical responses.

Today on Connections, Wendy helps us figure out our triggers and how we can exchange our anger-filled reactions for a more gentle response when interacting with our children.