Books Re: Raising Your Children in a Christian Home

Books are nice, but kids follow example more than they do books......I suggest doing things that show them what you want them to learn.....

Take care and good luck.

My fav is "Loving Our Kids on Purpose" Danny Silk. Changed our home, our parenting style and the way we thought about teaching our child about God's unending love.

Hi A.!

There are two books that have really helped me as a parent that I would recommend to anyone looking to train up their children in the ways of the Lord. "Teach Them Diligently" by Louis Priolio and "Shepherding a Child's Heart" by Ted Tripp. May the Lord bless you and your efforts to raise your children to know and love Him!

In Christ,
C.

Our pastor just recommended a book last Sunday, "Spiritual Parenting" --the author's last name is Anthony. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet, but he is a youth pastor, so I would think he's read quite a few.

Oh, I forget his name...on the tip of my tongue! Arrgh! Anyway, there is a famous pastor in Texas who has a TV show on Sundays...he's young, extremely friendly, always smiling, I think he carrys a rep for being the "happy go lucky" pastor or something like that...Joel Osteen! That's his name. His wife Victoria Osteen wrote a series of books entitled "Hooray for Today," "Hooray for Me," I think, and a third one, it comes in a packaged. It is basically a cute rhyming prayer that I have read to my son for over a year now, and he loves it. I think it is nice way of simply introducing God to children, teaching gratitude and demonstrating God's influence in everything we do (Hooray for Mommy, for my friends, for my nana and pop-pop) and so on. I think it is just right for a toddler who may not understand the real meaning of certain Biblical stories and may interpret them as nothing more than a story or nursery rhyme.

You might want to browse your local Christian book store for ideas.

One of my sons has a children's Bible which is wonderful - has lots of kid-friendly vignettes placed strategically throughout the Bible.

Good luck and God bless you guys!

Hi A.,
It's such a huge task we have raising our children to know the Lord. And, I totally agree with you about legalism. However, we do have to remember that we don't want to be antinomians (against the law), meaning that we don't ignore God's law as though He doesn't find it important that we obey Him. We do want to stay away from thinking our works make us righteous (legalism)! It is a delicate balance. In our home, we have a time of family worship. Sometimes it is in the morning, others at night. It all depends on our schedules for the day. We all gather together, and take turn reading verses in whatever chapter in the Bible we are on. (We pick a book and read it, discuss it until we are finished, then pick a new book.) After we have read the chapter (or less if it is a long chapter), my husband discusses what it means to the kids. We talk about how it relates to their lives. Then, we sing a song or two from they hymnal or Psalter (book of Psalms for singing), and then we pray. This whole process doesn't have to take a long time. It can be done in 15-30 minutes, or you can take longer if everyone is enjoying the discussion and learning lots. The Proverbs are excellent for teaching children how to live a righteous and wise life. If you want help with teaching it, there is a great family worship study guide written by Kevin Swanson called Proverbs Study Guide. http://generationswithvision.com/Store/Product/141
He covers just a few verses each lesson, discusses it a little, and has questions you can ask pertaining to what was covered.
Other wonderful resources are
Future Men by Doug Wilson
Standing on the Promises by Doug Wilson
(both of those can be found at canonpress.org)
When You Rise Up by RC Sproul, Jr
Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham
You can probably get all of these at amazon.
These books will not give you a step by step approach of raising children. However, they will show you your role as mother (and your husband's role as father) in raising them in the fear and admonition of the Lord. They will open your eyes to your responsibility, and shed some light on how to move forward. There is much hope presented in these books. You will be blessed. Most of them are very short books, which do not take a large amount of time to read. Blessings to you as you embark on this very important journey with your kids!

I completely agree with Denise. Find ways to learn about and help in your community and explain that we are to "love one another" at home and in our communities... that kind of thing. Veggie Tales are neat kids videos if your kids watch them with good messages.

For starters, The Holy Bible lays it all out for us.

Try http://www.joycemeyer.org and http://www.intouchministries.org

They have a lot of study guides and books for self and family.

Compass by James Stenson is wonderful - much more deep theory than practical. His shorter works have been great, too - Successful Fathers, Preparing for Peer Pressure.

Denise could not have said it more perfectly.

Children learn by example.

Anything that Dr. James Dobson has written is awesome.
Focusonthefamily.com is awesome.

"BIBLE" I like the NIV (new international version) or the NAS (new american standard)!!!

I don't have a title of one that teaches me about how to raise my kids, (i could definitely use one so if you find a good one, let me know) but i wanted my daughter to have a book that teaches her how to accept Christ as her Saviour. I found a really good one called "The prayer that makes God smile".
http://www.christianbook.com/the-prayer-that-makes-god-sm...
I also want a good kid movie (she's only 2) that teaches her that too, but i haven't found any.