Parenting

Parenting: 14 Gospel Principles That Can Radically Change Your Family
By: Paul David Tripp

I thought this was a great book. I'm new to parenting so I'm sure I will need to read it again once my kids are older and I've forgotten these principles. It does a great job of helping us understand why kids say and act as they do- that it's a heart issue.

It’s awesome that God chose parents to be part of our kids' redemptive story by leading them to Christ in every conversation or disciplinary action we take.

My one thing with this book, which I'm assuming wasn't really the aim of the book anyway, was that I wish he had provided more practical and specific answers to some of the situations he presents. He does a good job of telling us what NOT to say or do or react and why, but a lot of times I wondered- 'hm, so what would you actually say to your child? Or how should I actually handle that situation?' He gives the principles you should display and the general attitude you should have when responding but I would have liked more specific phrases or worded responses that we can utilize. Maybe he has another book for that.

Overall great book that I will definitely be revisiting!

Here are some quotes:

“Your children must come to learn early that their lives don't belong to them. They must understand early that they have been given life and breath for the purpose of serving the glory of another. They must learn that they do not have the right to follow their own rules or write their own laws. They must surrender to the fact that their lives are meant to be shaped, not by what they want, but by what God has chosen. They need to know early that they are worshipers whose capacity to worship is meant to be owned by the one who created them with this capacity.”

“You cannot make your children love, believe, surrender, respect, confess, forgive, serve, speak the truth, be pure of heart, and worship God. Only God can do these things. He would never call you to produce what you can't produce. No, he simply called you to be faithful, to do good toward your children day after day after day, knowing that the results are in his infinitely powerful hands.”

“Mercy is parenting with a tender heart. Mercy is not taking your children spell years personally, but viewing their struggles with compassion. Mercy is about blessing your children with your patience. Mercy is about being firm and unyielding and loving at the same time. It is about refusing to indulge your irritation and your anger. Mercy is about always being ready to forgive, not making your children pay today for the sins of yesterday. Mercy is about being willing to do things again and again without throwing it into your children's faces that you have to repeat yourself. It's about refusing to motivate your children by shame and threat.”