Shows / A Time to Sharpen
A Time to Sharpen
A bi-weekly podcast that examines how working with teenagers can make us better versions of ourselves: better teachers, better counselors, better parents…better people. Join two of Whetstone Boys Ranch's co-founders, Axel Liimatta and Brandon Maxwell, as they discuss what twenty years of serving struggling teenagers and their families has taught them about how to address the most challenging of behaviors. You'll find answers without dogma, encouragement without false hope, and sharpening…
Episodes
- A Time to Sharpen
The Myth of Quality Time
Twice a year, Whetstone Boys Ranch hosts a father-son retreat here in Mountain View, Missouri. Dads travel from all over the country to spend a weekend with…
- A Time to Sharpen
Close Quarters
Summer is coming. The kids are going to be underfoot for the next three months, and there is nowhere to hide. If you home school, you might be thinking, “get…
- A Time to Sharpen
Paying Attention
God is never not communicating with us. If we can’t hear him, it’s not His fault. We need to pay closer attention to the signs and signals he unceasingly sends…
- A Time to Sharpen
Youth-Driven Culture
Elvis. Chuck Berry. The Beatles. Young people flocked to hear them sing. Boys and girls bought their records by the millions, lined their rooms with posters…
- A Time to Sharpen
The New Kid
We’ve all been the new kid on the block. We all know what it feels like to have “all eyes on you.” You’re in a fish bowl, and there is no way out. The faces of…
- A Time to Sharpen
Celebrate Success
Change usually happens slowly. Our minds and our bodies are not capable of handling too much all at once. It’s actually kind of unhealthy. Yes, there are…
- A Time to Sharpen
Making SMARTr Goals
A mental note is a lost note. A short pencil is better than a long memory. If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time. That last quote is from Zig Ziglar…
- A Time to Sharpen
Enough is Enough
Timing is everything. This is true in so many areas of life. It’s true with hitting a curveball. It’s true about making a joke and about offering words of…
- A Time to Sharpen
The Struggle is Real
The story of Gideon has some serious ups and downs. He trusts God and then he doesn’t. And then he does. And then God decides that Gideon doesn’t trust Him…
- A Time to Sharpen
Born to Run
We are born to run. The human body is built for it – it’s a biomechanical miracle, allowing all of our muscles, bones, and joints to move in synchronization…
- A Time to Sharpen
A Ram in the Thicket
Jehovah Jirah! “The Lord Provides.” People of the book like to say this, sometimes without thinking. It’s a nice thought to adorn a coffee mug or a t-shirt…
- A Time to Sharpen
No Place Like Home
There’s no place like home. Seriously, there is no place like it for tension, and fighting, and feeling like you’ll never measure up. Home is not always the…
- A Time to Sharpen
Back to School
It’s that time of year again. Time to buy new shoes for the kids, and a Trapper Keeper, and a fresh pack of unsharpened pencils…or mechanical pencils if that’s…
- A Time to Sharpen
Faithful with Little
The Bible says that “whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.” Maybe that’s why we don’t take surly teenagers home from the…
- A Time to Sharpen
Picking your Battles, Part 2
So we’ve established there is a time to quit. We have laid the groundwork of humility and wisdom that needs to prevail in those stressful moments of conflict…
A Time to SharpenAftercare
Whetstone is a 6-12 program, meaning that most boys who graduate do so within that timeframe. We also have many boys who are here for far less time, who don’t…
- A Time to Sharpen
Adventure Week
Three times a year at Whetstone Boys Ranch, in the Spring, Summer, and Fall, we take our boys on a week-long adventure in the Ozarks. It’s a lot of work to…
- A Time to Sharpen
More Cowbell
You’ve seen it on a bumper sticker. You’ve probably seen a meme or a gif. Maybe it’s popped up on a slide during a sermon on Sunday morning: “More Cowbell!”…
- A Time to Sharpen
Cowboy Up!
America has a complicated relationship with cowboys. We could argue about the reasons why and what these reasons tell us about ourselves, but one thing is for…
- A Time to Sharpen
Use Your Words
Words, according to Albus Dumbledore, are “our most inexhaustible source of magic - capable of inflicting injury and remedying it.” Nowhere is this more true…
- A Time to Sharpen
Good Medicine
There is no script for how to help a struggling teenager. To paraphrase the 18th century Scottish poet Robert Burns, “the best laid plans of mice and men often…
- A Time to Sharpen
Bread upon the Waters
King Solomon said that if we cast our “bread” upon the waters, we will find it after many days. Something tells me he wasn’t extolling the virtues of soggy…