Parents: some good resources for you

Parents, are you feeling the need for some help? Perhaps you feel like an inadequate parent and are unsure of who to turn to for aid. The Bible is our authoritative guide in all of life, and it has much to say about godly parenting. I preached on Ephesians 6.1-4 on Sunday, and there are many other helpful Bible passages on parenting as well. As I said in the sermon, one of the best things you can do is get around Christian parents who are parenting well, and ask them all kinds of questions, watching how they parent their children.

Another great thing to do is read good Christian books on parenting children. Here I’ll point you to just a few very helpful resources for parents. Many of these books have been recently added to our church library in the back of the sanctuary.

One excellent and tiny booklet is called Short steps for long gains: family edition (this is in our church library). It is published by Matthias Media and contains 26 biblical topics that parents can discuss with their children, together with Bible verses to look up. Here’s a great story from the Introduction to this book: ‘When the evangelist D.L. Moody came home from a mission one night, he reported “two full converts and two halves”. When asked if this meant two adults and two children, he replied, “No, two with their whole life ahead of them and two with their life half over”.’ This story underlines how important it is to reach our children for Jesus.

Bruce Ware has written a book called Big Truths for Young Hearts: Teaching and Learning the Greatness of God (this is in our church library). The book grew out of Bruce Ware’s bedtime discussions with his two daughters as they grew up. I guarantee, parents, that if you read this book with your children, you will learn a lot about Christianity, too!

Tedd Tripp has a superb book on parenting called Shepherding a Child’s Heart. I read this book a year ago and its basic principle (that we should deal with the heart issues of our children, rather than just the surface, presenting issues) is shaping the way I pray for and parent Samuel, and also the way I pastor. This is a great book.

Irene Howat has written two series of books called Ten Boys Who Changed the World and Ten Girls Who Changed the World. We have both complete series in our church library. These are remarkable books. They are biographies of great Christians (e.g. Luther, Augustine, Billy Graham) written for children. I can’t wait until Samuel is old enough to read these. What a great way to talk about spiritual things with your child. After he or she reads a biography (they’re short) talk about what they learned and how it has pointed them to Jesus.

Those are some ideas. Remember, the gospel is for broken, inadequate people. That includes broken, inadequate parents.

Posted by Stephen Witmer on May 10, 09:21 AM