Spiritual Parenting: An Awakening for Today's Families

I like books. No, I really like books and usually have three going at a time. This past week though, one captured my attention so much that I dropped the other books to finish it.When David C. Cook invited me to review this book for my blog, I jumped at the chance. I'm always interested in checking out books on Christian parenting. In all honesty, I usually find myself skimming them just to get through them, but Spiritual Parenting was different.Michelle's take on being a Christian parent was honest and refreshing right from her purpose statement in the first chapter: "It was not my job to merely control my child's behavior and by doing so somehow create a spiritual life for him or her...my goal was to pass on a vibrant and transforming faith."And with this purpose statement, she's calling parents to a radical way of life.In order for parents to pass on that "vibrant and transforming faith" they have to model it, live it out in what they say and do, and become proactive with the experiences they offer their kids. What's great about Michelle's book, however, is that she understands the reality of the messy lives of families. She shares some of her worst parenting moments as well as success that remind us that if we keep at this thing called parenting, good will come of our efforts. God will bless our families as we seek after him and make a home where he is the focus and the drive for what we do.She walks parents through ten environments they can create in their homes from storytelling to serving together to moving our families out of our comfort zones. The advice is practical yet visionary. I can't wait to get this book into the hands of our families at church. I believe it could radically change the way we raise our kids in faith. I especially loved her chapter on the environment of service where she has families ask the question "What needs to be done?""Creating an environment where your children from the earliest days as a very important question is critical for their faith development. The critical quest that service asks is simply, "What needs to be done?" This is one of the best questions you can teach your children to ask. To have them walk into any room, situation, or relations and ask this will change the way they see their world."I loved that vision for family.... for life really. I'm excited to try this out with my own family.I highly recommend this book to parents just starting their journey and to those who need a shot in the arm for the next chapter of their family's life.

I could try to summarize this incredible book for you in a paragraph, but Michelle Anthony does it so much better that I could hope to do.In her words:"In this book we will explore what it means to seek God as our primary audience-to please Him alone with our parenting and seek Him alone for the strength and power to do so. Spiritual parenting is not perfect parenting-it's parenting from a spiritual perspective with eternity in mind. It's a way of parenting that declares, 'I want to parent the child or children that God gave me in such a way that I first honor God, and then second, create the best environment to put my children in the path of the Divine.'"This book was an awakening for me in many ways, but I want to share with you about the part that really impacted me the most. Michelle talks about blessing our children with our words. Now I have always prayed for and with my sons, but really hadn't given much thought about speaking those words of blessing over them and to them out loud.Michelle wrote,"A blessing is a beautiful gift to give our children. This is a unique privilege-to pray over your children, to affirm their identity out loud. Oftentimes we pray in silence for our children, but if we speak a blessing to them faithfully, God can use these spoken words in ways that will bring them confidence in their identity as we give language to the work that God is doing in their lives."Michelle spoke directly to my heart as I so want to encourage my sons to be all that God has created them to be and to be confident in all that God has planned for their lives. I have already begun to share words of blessings with my sons and am so thankful to Michelle for her guidance.Spiritual Parenting is a book that I highly recommend to parents everywhere.

Clearly written she marries practical content with real life examples so believers can learn to do just what the title says, spiritually parent. With biblical truths in each chapter Anthony provides ten environments that parents should attempt to create for their children. These environments include: storytelling, identity, faith community, service, out of the comfort zone, responsibility, course correction, love and respect, knowing, and modeling. Anthony's books' theology is based upon the premise that when we create these environments for our children, it puts them in God's path and allows the Holy Spirit to do the work from there. The goal of spiritual parenting is that our children would learn to hear and know God's voice, desire to obey it, and obey it in the power of God's Spirit, not their own strength (p.194). Such is one all people would profit from obtaining.Feel free to check out other reviews of mine at [...]

Love this book! Been meaning to order it for a couple years now and glad I finally did. Readable and practical and straight forward. Nice insight how to parent with Christian values that resonate with our beliefs.

Super good book for those wanting to let the Lord and his Spirit lead the parenting of their children.This left a huge impression on my perspective and outlook of parenting.It helped take the onus off of me to merely raise good kids and believers to taking on a posture of shepherding these children (who are ultimately his anyway) back into his fold.I'm glad I found this book while my kids are young so I could utilize some of these ideas and approaches in my parenting style.Very sound logic throughout and more importantly than that a lot of scripture (adding a firm foundation) to base her thoughts and ideas off of.It will be a blessing to your family.

This book is so much more than the average Christian parenting book. The perspective of investing in our personal relationship with God (as parents) is central to the message that our children watch us and learn from us - the author describes 'environments' we can cultivate in order for our children to learn more about why a saving and restored relationship with God is the most important thing in this life. The book is practical and honest. I'm halfway through reading it a second time and will read it again with my hubby during our holiday later in the year so we can discuss it. Being a new mum to a baby boy, it feels daunting to have to 'try' and raise him as a Christian in this messy, scary world, but this book has helped me gain a better perspective :)

Very insightful book, though I am struggling to finish it at the end

Excellent resource for families who want to instil Christian faith in their children. I used the DVD parenting course by the same title - I loved that it really stuck with the parents who participated. Highly recommended.

Great book with a lot of content unpacked in a clear manner.

This is a book to not only read once. You keep going back to it and it is ever fresh.