Timeless Parenting podcast

Prayer and its place in our families

On 15/11/2025

Prayer is an essential part of the Christian life—but it can be challenging for parents and children alike. How can we make prayer a part of our routine throughout the different stages of family life?

In this episode of Timeless Parenting we got practical about prayer with our guest, author and mother-of-three Wendy Lin. We spoke about how we experienced (or didn’t experience) Christian prayer in our families of origin and how we decided to approach it with our own children. We set the scene by discussing the questions ‘What is prayer?’ and ‘Why should we pray if God already knows everything?’. We then shared insights and practical ideas about:

How can we practise both routine and spontaneous prayer?
How does God answer prayer?
How can we do family prayer when we’re not confident?
What should we do if our spouse is not a keen Christian?
How can busy parents find time for personal prayer?

This conversation is insightful, practical, encouraging and full of grace for families in every season of life! You won’t hear a lot of ‘shoulds’, but rather a whole range of ideas that you could try out with your family.

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You can also find our podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other platforms.

Mothers Union Sydney runs an annual seminar about Christian life and parenting: The Joy of Enough, February 27, 2026.

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Timeless Parenting is brought to you by Growing Faith, a ministry of Youthworks Media and Mothers Union Sydney.

The what, why and how of discipline

By Harriet Connor

On 14/06/2025

In Recordings

Discipline is probably the most difficult—and divisive—area of parenting, even among Christians. At some point every parent wonders: Are we disciplining our children enough? Or perhaps too much? Are we too lenient? Or perhaps too strict?

Our society usually equates discipline with punishment—a response to bad behaviour. But the Bible’s definition is much broader than that. Understanding biblical discipline begins with knowing God, the only perfect Father, who lovingly disciplines his children for their growth in godliness. In the light of this, the Bible describes parental discipline in terms of a loving, intentional, wholistic and long-term process that involves modelling, encouraging, teaching, training and correcting our children to help them mature towards godliness.

In this episode we speak with author and mum of five, Jocelyn Loane, taking a deep-dive into what biblical discipline really means.

We talk about:

What is discipline, according to the Bible?
Why do parents need to discipline their children?
How can discipline go wrong?
Is it OK for Christian parents to smack (or not to smack) their children?
How should we understand the ‘rod of discipline’ described in Proverbs?
How can we best respond to our children’s bad behaviour?

This conversation will be valuable for any Christian parent who wants to better understand the what, why and how of biblical discipline.

How conflict offers opportunities for growth

By Harriet Connor

On 17/05/2025

In Recordings

Christians are meant to be people of peace, right? We follow the Prince of Peace; he calls us to be peacemakers; the fruit of the Holy Spirit includes love, joy and peace. And yet, we still seem to experience conflict in our churches and families. Our kids fight, we have arguments with our teens, and conflict plagues our marriages too. Sure, the neighbours may not hear us, but we know that our homes aren’t always places of peace.

We tend to default to the way that conflict was managed in the families we grew up in. Were difficult issues avoided and swept under the rug? Did one person always get their way? Were voices often raised? These patterns can shape our own response to conflict.

In this episode of Timeless Parenting our guest Jane Gibb, an experienced life and conflict coach, helps us to consider a Christian approach to conflict, especially within marriages and families. In particular, we talk about the opportunities that conflict offers—it can be a catalyst for personal growth and stronger, deeper relationships. We cover questions like:

What is conflict?
Is it normal for Christians to experience conflict?
What are the different ways people naturally respond to conflict and why?
Where do we experience conflict in our families?
What steps can we take to work through personal conflict in a healthy way?
What are some principles for managing conflict in our marriages?
How can we teach our children to manage conflict well?

This is a very insightful, practical and wide-ranging conversation—you might even want to take notes! You can find further resources for you and your children at Peacewise.

You can also find our podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other platforms.

Mothers Union Sydney runs an annual seminar about Christian life and parenting. Listen to talks from previous seminars on Soundcloud.

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If you want to get in touch with us to offer some feedback or suggest a topic, you can write to us at: timelessparenting@youthworks.net

Timeless Parenting is brought to you by Growing Faith, a ministry of Youthworks Media, and Mothers Union Sydney.

How can we help our kids stick with Jesus?

By Harriet Connor

On 20/07/2024

In Recordings

Introducing ‘Timeless Parenting’ Episode 3.

As Christian parents, our deepest desire is for our kids to know, love and follow Jesus along with us. We want them to enjoy being part of our local church family with us. And as they grow towards adulthood, our great hope and prayer is that they would continue on in the faith, making it their own for life.

Did you know that sociologists have studied ‘faith retention’ in children? Researchers have tried to work out what are the factors common to children who go on to share the faith of their parents. Of course, there are no guarantees or ‘silver bullets’. Ultimately, our children’s faith is a gift of God. We need to remember the words of Scripture:

‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.’ (Ephesians 2:8–9)

Keeping this in mind, there are certain things which the research suggests are common to children who retain the faith of their parents. Surprisingly, having daily family devotions is not one of them! And neither is having a group of Christian peers. While these things have an important role to play, they don’t make the top of the list.

In the third episode of the Timeless Parenting podcast, you can listen to our conversation with Al James from Youthworks on the topic: ‘How can we help our kids stick with Jesus?’

Listen, be encouraged and share it with your friends.

You can also find our podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other platforms.

Mothers Union Sydney runs an annual seminar about Christian life and parenting. Listen to talks from previous seminars on Soundcloud.

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If you want to get in touch with us to offer some feedback or suggest a topic, you can write to us at: timelessparenting@youthworks.net

Timeless Parenting is brought to you by Growing Faith, a ministry of Youthworks Media, and Mothers Union Sydney.

Harriet Connor

Author of Big Picture Parents

Tag: Timeless Parenting podcast

Prayer and its place in our families

The what, why and how of discipline

Further reading:

How conflict offers opportunities for growth

How can we help our kids stick with Jesus?

Harriet Connor

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