Friday, February 29, 2008

Book #10 Parenting the Heart of your Child

I finished Parenting the Heart of Your Child by Diane Moore. I found this book at the local Christian bookstore on the discount rack. The main idea of the book is that as parents we need to raise our children in a way that is shaping their character. We need to look at things from the bigger picture and not just "I want you to behave now because I said so." The author points out biblical comparisons for the road to moral maturity and explains how we can raise our children to be moral adults. With all the opposing messages coming to our children from the world, this is hard. One quote that really stuck out to me in this book is: "Issues change, what's 'normal' changes, but good principles do not change." Principles are something we can pass on to our children. The issues may be different for us as parents than they were for our parents, but the principles have stayed the same. For example: A previous generation faced the debate about slavery while today we face the issue of abortion. Both issues are related to the principle of the "value of human life."

This book has made me think about my parenting and gave me some ideas of things to do to improve. Why am I doing this? What are my motives in this? Is my son seeing me model my words with my actions? Can I see the big picture and how this event fits to the kind of adult we hope he becomes? How can I use this situation to model a principle he will need later in life?
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"For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations." Psalm 100:5

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