Spiritual Parenting

May 17, 2010
Parenting books can be preachy—readers often feel like the children of the erstwhile parent turned author. This one is different. The Ph.D. mom-author’s conversational style is rarely preachy and more narrative than didactic as she describes her “Aha!” moments, when she moved from attempting to control her children’s behavior to putting them into environments where they can know God and be changed by him. This is not a “how to” parenting manual, but a guide for developing as a spiritually minded parent who asks, “Who did God create my child to be?” Attractive to many readers is the author’s mix of competence and vulnerability: “It frustrated me that some punk kid down the street had more credibility than I did.” Her writing is vivid, terse, and revealing—a story of a boy who grew up without a father to become a great father himself is the heart of a chapter on love and respect. The book speaks to the journey that all parents must learn to accept: to hear God’s voice and change along with their children.