The Warren & the World is Story Warren’s weekly newsletter, providing a round-up of our favorite things from around the web as well as a review of what was on our site over the past week. We’re glad you’re here!
Around the Web
Create Conference
If you’re in the mid-Atlantic region and have high school students (or if you know someone who is) here’s a great opportunity for exploring creativity. Hosted by Cairn University and Harvey Cedars Bible Conference from April 8-10, this weekend conference has tracks in Studio Art, Photography and Filmography, and Creative Writing.
- The CREATE Conference is a weekend arts retreat for high-school students, focusing on the celebration of creativity, the Christian faith, and its integration across various artistic disciplines. Staffed by Cairn University’s faculty, staff, and professional artists, this weekend is jammed-packed with lively discussions, hands-on workshops, and opportunities to fellowship with like-minded young artists. Participants may choose one of three break-out tracks for the weekend: Studio Art, Film and Photography, and Creative Writing.Young artists of all experience levels are invited to join us!
Boys Need their Moms
Tim Challies has a post at his site about the importance of the mother-son relationship in the lives of boys and young men.
- Boys need their moms—I am convinced of it. Even teenaged boys, boys who are nearly men. I see this when I look back at my own life. It wouldn’t be overstating it to say that my mother was my primary counselor and most trusted companion through those turbulent teenage years. It’s not that I didn’t have peer friendships, but that none of those friends influenced me as much as she did. I would often spend that time between school and dinner chatting with her while she prepared our meal. I would come along with her on errands just so we could talk. I confided in her and depended on her wisdom and her interpretation of my thoughts and feelings.
Saying No to Cheap Gratitude
Jessica Mesman Griffith challenges us to think about gratitude and our current obsession with finding it in 10 easy steps.
- But when I complained about my kids being ungrateful I hadn’t meant they were ungrateful to God—something I can’t know—I meant they were ungrateful to me. I meant they did not appreciate all the wonderful blessings I bestow upon them all day long, all the sacrifices I make. I wanted them to acknowledge me. I wanted them to appreciate me. I wanted them to validate me: an eight-year-old and four-year-old.
What to Do When Someone is Mean to Your Child
Sandy Cooper writes at The Scoop on Balance about how to teach your child about the Mean Kid.
- This sounds neither motherly nor Christiany, but here’s the deal: I hate mean kids. I do. I hate them. I want to gather them all up by the nape of the neck and flick them in the head, one by one. And then I want to lock them all up in a room, so they can leave my children alone and, instead, live out the rest of their days being mean to each other with sore neck napes. But, that would be wrong and bad. And also, illegal. And not at all like Jesus.The other night my 12-year-old walked off the basketball court with his head hanging low because a mean kid on his team was mocking him.
“Every time I complimented someone on my team or said, ‘Nice shot,’ this kid imitated me and laughed at me. He just kept doing it even when I asked him to stop. I don’t understand why kids always make fun of me. Sometimes I just feel like the whole world hates me.”
One Mean Kid can make him feel like the whole world hates him. Mean Kids carry a lot of power.
Around the Warren
The Lion Is Real
James Witmer helps us remember that the bad guys are real.
- I think it’s because, in our favorite stories, we see clearly that the antagonists are formidable and real. That jab of Apollo Creed’s would stop a plough horse. No wonder Rocky’s eyes are swelling shut. Miss Steele has social leverage and a spiteful, cruel streak. No wonder Elinor cannot be simply sensible.
We don’t look down on these characters. We sympathize with them, and we admire them. We root for them to overcome their weaknesses and, thereby, to overcome their foes.
Three Cheers for Frances
Helena Sorensen introduces us to one of my all-time favorite characters, Frances the Badger.
- I love Lillian Hoban’s simple, cheerful illustrations, and I love Russell Hoban’s Frances stories. Frances works through childhood challenges with energy and intelligence. She writes witty little songs about her feelings, and her parents listen and respond like adults. They allow her to make choices and face the consequences of her choices (a parenting skill much needed by our generation), and they’re unruffled by her childish outbursts. In all her exploring, all her discovering, there is a sense that the world is unshaken, that things are secure.
“…love them for what they are…”
Words by Robert Capon. Graphic by Paul Boekell.
Well Done, You Can Do Better
Gina Smith introduces us to Sally and Sarah Clarkson’s new book, The Life Giving Home.
- I’ll be truthful from the get-go here and say that it’s been a long time since I’ve read a “self-help”/mothering/wifing/home-making type of book. I’ll even admit to steering clear of them because the constant evaluation and analysis often just exhausts and discourages me. Enough with analyzing. I know my shortcomings. They are many. I need to hear someone who has already been through it say to me, “It’s going to be hard, but it’s going to be alright. You don’t have to be perfect.” That is exactly what I experienced as I sat in a quiet hospital room in the fall, waiting for my husband to have knee surgery. The encouragement throughout this new book from Sally and Sarah Clarkson served to both affirm and also to challenge what I’m doing in my home on a regular basis.
Something to Do with Your Kids
I’m pretty sure I’ve shared this before, but the dark winter months are prime indoor fort building time and you might need some ideas again.
And Something to Watch
I really don’t care if Amazon can deliver a package in my driveway via drone. I firmly believe the primary purpose of recreational drones should be to take gorgeous video of coastlines.
Thank you for reading. We’re on your side.
Carolyn Clare Givens is a displaced Northerner exploring the foreign ways of the South. She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with her literary cat, Lord Peter Wimsey. She's the author of The King's Messenger and Rosefire and in her free time helps run Bandersnatch Books.
You can find her at carolyncgivens.com or on Facebook or Instagram at @carolyncgivens.
You can find her at carolyncgivens.com or on Facebook or Instagram at @carolyncgivens.
Latest posts by Carolyn Clare Givens (see all)
- The Warren & The World Vol 13, Issue 16 - May 10, 2025
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