Shelly Wildman is the author of First Ask Why: Raising Kids to Love God Through Intentional Discipleship. She holds an M.A. in English Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago and was a Visiting Instructor at Wheaton College for over 20 years—the same school where she met her husband as an undergrad. Shelly frequently speaks to parents' and women's groups and spends much of her free time mentoring young women. When she has time, she loves to cook, read, and travel. Shelly and her husband, Brian, live in Wheaton, IL and have three adult daughters. You can find Shelly at her website (www.shellywildman.com) or on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.

Help Kids Become Culturally Aware

A simple cheddar cheese sandwich on white bread, purchased from a cart on the street near our hotel — this was my first meal in England circa 1984. Simple, yet wholesome, and perfect for a hungry college student just off her first international flight.

Five Reasons to Travel with Your Kids

Written by Shelly Wildman January 1, 2017 parenting Shelly Wildman travel

The first time I traveled internationally—I mean, really traveled, not just stuck my toe over our northern or southern border—was in 1984. I went to Oxford, England, to study for the summer and came back changed. My world had opened up, and I saw everything through ...
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What Love Looks Like

Written by Shelly Wildman January 5, 2016 Shelly Wildman

I fell in love with Charleston the first time I set foot there, probably because it was so different from where I grew up and now live, the flat plains of the Midwest. I had never been to a place with such character, beauty, and history all wrapped into one quaint package, complete with horse-drawn ...
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The Ugly Truth About ‘Life’s Not Fair’

Written by Shelly Wildman September 24, 2015

Yesterday I got a knock on my office door. A young man from one of my classes stopped by for some help with a paper, so, as is my personality, I tried to break the ice by asking about his weekend.

“Oh, it was O.K.,” he said with a slight grin. “One part was a little hard, but the rest ...
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He Takes My Hand

Written by Shelly Wildman September 24, 2015

R.C. Sproul recently said that he regretted that he didn’t hold his wife’s hand more often when she was alive, and that admission is what prompted this post.

Letters to My Daughters: God’s Word

Written by Shelly Wildman September 24, 2015

Dear Daughters,

From the day each of you was born, I felt a deep responsibility to prepare you for the world in which you will live. I’ve tried to model for you what I believed to be best for your life, but, on occasion (OK, many occasions), I have failed. Oh boy, have I failed. If you were ...
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Let’s Talk About Plagiarism

Written by Shelly Wildman September 24, 2015

I don’t write much about my classes or about being a professor or about my life at an academic institution. Some of that is because I’ve never been comfortable being called “Professor”-anything and some of that is because the stories from my classroom are just that—from my classroom and ...
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