A second book that I’ve greatly benefited from as a growing parent is Ted Tripp’sShepherding a Child’s Heart. It builds on the same foundation as Voddie Baucham’sFamily Driven Faith, but goes further in describing what parents are up against as they strive to train up their children in the way they should go.
It is broken up into two sections: foundations for childrearing and shepherding through the stages of childhood. Each section contains multiple chapters. The first section was to me the most important. Whereas Baucham explains the importance of training your children in the ways of the Lord, Tripp explores what it means to shepherd a child. It doesn’t start with the methods but in developing a God-saturated focus in parenting rather than selfish focus (and the latter is not as easy to distinguish as you might think). This section contains chapters on developing a godly orientation in your child, discussion of parental authority, developing godly goals for parenting, biblical communication, and discipline. Overall this section helps parents develop a godly view of their task and requires investigation of one’s heart and motives for doing what we do as parents.
The second section is more practical and teaches about how parenting differs by various ages. There are three stages mentioned: infancy to childhood, childhood, and the teenage years. There are two chapters for each stage, one on the training objectives and the other on training procedures. These are quite good but more detail would be good.
This book will hit you in your heart. Tripp’s message stood out: methods are important but not as important as why you are using those methods. Your kids will discover the real reason you parent the way you do, and they will imitate it. If you parent with the sole purpose of pleasing God, most likely they will seek to please Him as well. But if you parent to please yourself, they will copy that also, and it will come easier because it’s what their flesh wants to do anyway. If you want to honor God in your parenting, this book will greatly help.
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