How to raise godly children in a godless world Do you feel like you’re fighting a losing battle? Against the culture, against the busyness, sometimes even against your spouse and kids… Often it seems like everything is against you as a parent, and your everyday life can feel far from joy-filled. But it doesn’t need to be that way. Parents Rising will show you eight cultural trends that parents are up against today and what you can do to claim victory. This book is about growth not guilt. It’s not a pep talk, or a “try harder” speech. This is real help for real problems that every parent faces. It’s a way to focus your efforts so that they’ll be more effective and you’ll be less exhausted.
"Christian families today often find themselves stuck between two stories—their own family’s story and God’s story. It’s like they’re living two lives: their Christian life and their “real world” life. The trick is figuring out how to get your family’s story to line up with God’s story in the world around us, helping you raise children who have the character, values, and mission that allows them to go out into the real world and live out a real faith.Real World Parents is a parenting book that helps you to be proactive, rather than reactive, when it comes to raising Christian kids in a world that is filled with contradictions to a life of faith. Rather than trying to raise kids who are “good Christians,” you’ll find the tools to help you live out a faith that allows your children to see what it means to live as a Christian. As a result, your kids will learn about real faith by living it out with you.Culture expert and veteran youth pastor, Mark Matlock, will help you explore issues such as:• Helping your child make decisions• The importance of failure• Knowing God’s story for your family• Changing the story your family is in• The pursuit of wisdom, and much moreGod has placed us here to interact with and represent him to the world by engaging with the culture—not retreating from it. Rather than trying to isolate your children from the world or draw lines that keep them from truly engaging in the world God calls us to help and heal, you can learn how to lead your family towards an integrated life where your story and God’s story come together to make a difference in the world around you."
We live in a visual culture. Today, people increasingly rely upon visuals to help them understand new and difficult concepts. The rise and stunning popularity of the Internet infographic has given us a new way in which to convey data, concepts and ideas. But the visual portrayal of truth is not a novel idea. Indeed, God himself used visuals to teach truth to his people. The tabernacle of the Old Testament was a visual representation of man's distance from God and God's condescension to his people. Each part of the tabernacle was meant to display something of man's treason against God and God's kind response. Likewise, the sacraments of the New Testament are visual representations of man's sin and God's response. Even the cross was both reality and a visual demonstration. As teachers and lovers of sound theology, Challies and Byers have a deep desire to convey the concepts and principles of systematic theology in a fresh, beautiful and informative way. In this book, they have made the deepest truths of the Bible accessible in a way that can be seen and understood by a visual generation.
A new examination of how and why American religious parents seek to pass on religion to their children The most important influence shaping the religious and spiritual lives of children, youth, and teenagers is their parents. A myriad of studies show that the parents of American youth play the leading role in shaping the character of their religious and spiritual lives, even well after they leave home and often for the rest of their lives. We know a lot about the importance of parents in faith transmission. However we know much less about the actual beliefs, feelings, and activities of the parents themselves, what Christian Smith and Amy Adamczyk call the "intergenerational transmission of religious faith and practice." To address that gap, this book reports the findings of a new national study of religious parents in the United States. The findings and conclusions in Handing Down the Faith are based on 215 in-depth, personal interviews with religious parents from many traditions and different parts of the country, and sophisticated analyses of two nationally representative surveys of American parents about their religious parenting. Handing Down the Faith explores the background beliefs informing how and why religious parents seek to pass on religion to their children; examines how parenting styles interact with parent religiousness to shape effective religious transmission; shows how parents have been influenced by their experiences as children influenced by their own parents; reveals how religious parents view their congregations and what they most seek out in a local church, synagogue, temple, or mosque; explores the experiences and outlooks of immigrant parents including Latino Catholics, East Asian Buddhists, South Asian Muslims, and Indian Hindus. Smith and Adamczyk step back to consider how American religion has transformed over the last 100 years and to explain why parents today shoulder such a huge responsibility in transmitting religious faith and practice to their children. The book is rich in empirical evidence and unique in many of the topics it explores and explains, providing a variety of sometimes counterintuitive findings that will interest scholars of religion, social scientists interested in the family, parenting, and socialization; clergy and religious educators and leaders; and religious parents themselves.
This total child care book offers Christian- centered, medically authoritative advice on every aspect of parenting, from choosing an obstetrician to disciplining teenagers. As parents of eight children, William and Martha Sears draw on thirty years of practical and professional experience, resulting in a valuable reference book no family should be without.
As Christian parents, we strive to apply God's word in all areas of our lives, but what if we have been misinterpreting His word this entire time? In Gospel-Based Parenting, we will: (1) look deeply into our own hearts and honestly reflect on our practice as parents, (2) look deeply into the Word of God and examine our cultural biases and preconceived ideas that have impacted our interpretation of His Word, and (3) look deeply into the heart of God as our Heavenly Father and be transformed by the gift of grace that He has freely given to us through Jesus Christ. Each chapter includes a list of discussion and application questions that can be used with your spouse, your small group, or your church. May our lives and our parenting be transformed by the Gospel of God's amazing grace.
With advice on parenting coming from several angles, what do you listen to and what do you ignore? Develop your own biblical philosophy of parenting and use it to filter the many ideas that come your way. In this book you’ll learn how to: Identify character qualities to address problems Build internal motivation Transfer responsibility for change to the child Teach kids to be solvers instead of whiners Use creativity to teach your kids spiritual truths Avoid the “boxing ring” Envision a positive future And much more! With these strategies you’ll be able to move from behavior modification to a heart-based approach to parenting. Instead of relying on rewards, incentives, threats, and punishment, you’ll learn how to identify heart lessons to teach your child and implement them in practical ways. The Christian Parenting Handbook by Dr. Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller, founders of the National Center for Biblical Parenting, compiles fifty parenting principles that use heart-based strategies to teach you how to face daily challenges. When parents focus on the heart, kids learn to ask different questions about life. Instead of asking, “What’s in it for me?” they learn to ask, “What’s the right thing to do?” You’ll soon see how a heart-based approach to parenting looks deeper and brings about greater, lasting change. The daily interaction you have with your children can impact them for the rest of their lives. With these fifty heart-based strategies, you’ll develop your own biblical philosophy of parenting and gain perspective, greater motivation, and confidence that you’re moving in the right direction. As you envision a positive future for your children, they’ll experience hope and direction and you will too. Start applying these principles today!
Parenting today’s teens is not for cowards. Your teenager is facing unprecedented and confusing pressures, temptations, and challenges in today’s culture. Mark Gregston has helped teens and their parents through every struggle imaginable, and now he shares his biblical, practical insights with you in bite-size pieces. Punctuated with Scriptures, prayers, and penetrating questions, these one-page devotions will give you the wisdom and assurance you need to guide your teen through these years and reach the other side with relationships intact.
How do you walk with your children during times of struggle and crisis? Do you feel as if nothing you do will be enough? In Mary's Way, a heartfelt book for moms who struggle to guide children through the various stages of their lives, Catholic speaker and teacher Judy Landrieu Klein shows how her own crisis of faith helped her release her children to the care of the Blessed Mother. In doing so, Klein shows you how to find the love, joy, and peace of Our Lord as you surrender your will to him. Judy Landrieu Klein struggled with her faith as she lived through her son’s near-fatal addiction to drugs and her daughter’s painful anxiety. She discovered she couldn’t handle the relentless pressure of life not measuring up to her expectations and it was eating away at her family. Klein considered Mary’s reaction to the events in the life of Jesus. She meditated on Mary’s fiat and her prayer of total surrender to God’s will and saw how this act of obedience carried on throughout Mary’s life as she witnessed the life of her son. As Klein focused on her devotion to the Blessed Mother, her life and faith were transformed. In Mary’s Way, Klein reflects on the Annunciation and describes her own to struggle to embrace the will of God by surrendering control of her family planning. She meditates on Mary’s powerlessness during the Crucifixion, finding a place of calming surrender during her own son’s escalating battle with addiction. Klein shows how you can become a more powerful intercessor for yourself and your children. When you finish reading this book, you’ll find yourself turning to Mary and surrendering yourself and your children more fully to God.
"As you take God's Word and apply its eternal principles to the everyday issues you face with your family, you will begin to create a godly heritage - a legacy that will impact that generations to come in ways you never dreamed possible." -Ken Ham Christian families are struggling in a culture hostile to Christian values, and increasingly find themselves searching for answers and strategies to be more effective. Parents also face a disturbing trend of young people leaving home and leaving the church - and want to insure their children have a strong foundation of biblical faith and understanding. Discover how to create an incredible faith legacy in your family! Raising Godly Children in an Ungodly World presents empowering insight for: Surviving the culture wars as a family Educating children - the Bible offers guidance Practical tips for raising spiritually-healthy children Solutions to the root cause of dysfunctional families Discovering biblical authority as a parent Discipline - necessary and lovingly administered Ken Ham is joined by his brother, Steve Ham, in presenting this powerful look at how the principles and truth of Genesis are vital to the strong and lasting foundation of a family. Sharing their own stories of growing up in a "Genesis" family and sharing this legacy within their own families, it is an intensely personal and practical guide for parents.
