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PODCAST

A Time to Sharpen

Axel Liimatta & Brandon Maxwell

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 without

kids & family parenting

All Episodes

00:33:50

No Place Like Home

A Time to Sharpen ·

2022/10/13

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 healing balm that God intended it to be. At times it is a battlefield, pitting husband against wife, parent against child, brother against sister. There are tangled barbed wire lines we’re not supposed to cross, and buried landmines that we know nothing about. It is a feat, some evenings, to even survive the ordeal of dinner. All of us feel this

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00:34:53

Back to School

A Time to Sharpen ·

2022/09/21

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 how you roll. It’s also time to fill in the spreadsheet with data about who needs to be where and when along with what. And time to figure out a way to pay for it all. It's stressful for everyone. And for families that are already struggling, going back to school can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. On this episode of A Time to

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00:31:13

Faithful with Little

A Time to Sharpen ·

2022/09/08

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 hospital as new parents. Most of us get a few years to learn the ropes through sleep deprivation, and diaper changes, and playdates. We have few years to grow into the role of being responsible for another human being. God usually gives us something small to take care of before entrusting us with something big. At Whetstone Boys Ranch, this verse

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00:32:16

Picking your Battles, Part 2

A Time to Sharpen ·

2022/08/18

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 with our teenagers. We know that maintaining the relationship is more important than winning every battle. But what’s next? What is our exit strategy? How do we drop the rope without abdicating our responsibilities as parents, teachers, and counselors? Can Chris Farley and David Spade in Tommy Boy provide us a roadmap for success? Spoiler

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00:27:23

Picking your Battles, Part 1

A Time to Sharpen ·

2022/07/28

“Winners never quit; and quitters never win.” Or so the old saying goes. But I think we can all admit that there is a time to reassess our situation. You might call it “charging in another direction”, or “changing gears,” or “hitting the reset button,” but whatever metaphor you choose, the fact remains that sticking with the original plan is sometimes the epitome of foolishness. The tricky thing is knowing when to quit. When have we moved from perseverance into stubbornness? Sometimes as parents,

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00:40:10

Aftercare

A Time to Sharpen ·

2022/07/04

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 graduate. Regardless, we try to keep in touch with all of them – whether through social media, phone calls, letters, texts, their parents, word of mouth, etc. Every boy who has spent a single day here is a part of our large and unorthodox family. We love them all, whether their time here was considered a “success” or not. But what kind of

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00:40:09

Adventure Week

A Time to Sharpen ·

2022/06/09

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 plan, order supplies, rearrange schedules, pack, and then travel hundreds of miles in a van with all of our equipment. But once we’re there, and we’ve set up camp, we remember that it’s always worth the effort. Lifelong memories are made. Relationships are born and strengthened. And God, well, He’s everywhere. All we had to do was show up. On

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00:39:41

More Cowbell

A Time to Sharpen ·

2022/05/19

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!” Just 2 words, but their impact is, dare I say, profound. One for the ages! Just in case you’ve been living under a rock for the last 20 years, it’s from a classic Saturday Night Live skit, starring the great Will Ferrell. I can’t even begin to describe how hilarious it is, so if you haven’t seen it recently, as in within the last 24 hours, do it

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00:40:57

Cowboys

A Time to Sharpen ·

2022/05/05

Cowboys. We love’em. We hate’em. We love to hate’em; and then we hate the fact that we love’em. Maybe it’s best to say that America has a complicated relationship with cowboys. Whetstone Boys Ranch, even with its strong Western roots, is no different. We could argue about the reasons why and what these reasons tell us about ourselves, but one thing is for sure. Everyone seems to like Danny Glover’s portrayal of Joshua Deets in the television miniseries, Lonesome Dove. Rarely has a fictional

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01:10:51

Use Your Words

A Time to Sharpen ·

2022/04/19

Words, according to Albus Dumbledore, are “our most inexhaustible source of magic - capable of inflicting injury and remedying it.” Nowhere is this more true than in therapy. One might even argue that it is impossible to heal past wounds without assigning them meaning through language. It’s not exactly magic, but learning how to communicate is like crossing an invisible bridge you never knew existed. For this episode of “A Time to Sharpen,” we invited one of our first graduates to speak with us

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00:46:53

Good Medicine

A Time to Sharpen ·

2022/03/29

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 go wrong.” Or as the late 20th century American philosopher, Mike Tyson, once said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Whetstone Boys Ranch can’t tell you what to do when your son or daughter is spiraling out of control. We can however, provide some guidance that will keep you from doing the same. And it starts with a

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00:28:13

Bread upon the Waters

A Time to Sharpen ·

2022/03/09

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 toast…although a good piece of sop with a beefy stew is one of greatest pleasures in this life. That and a nice MLT, to quote Miracle Max from The Princess Bride - mutton, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, where the mutton is nice and lean and the tomatoes are ripe. No, I’m pretty sure “bread upon the waters” is a metaphor. But what does it mean? And

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72 results

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