book report - The Shaping of a Christian Family
Elisabeth Elliot, former missionary and prolific author, weaves a wonderful account of her family from her grandparents to her grandchildren. The focus is mainly from her parents' courtship through the raising of 6 children to seeing them marry and raising their own children. It has taken me a long time to read it. My dear wife commended it to me last winter. Although it follows a chronological theme, it doesn't flow like a novel. It reads like a devotional. The nuggets of wisdom lay all over the pages and a quick read will not do the book justice. I can hardly think of an audience that wouldn't benefit from it. In fact, I'm about to thrust it on my 11 year old daughter. It covers dating, courting and adolescence. My only quibble with Ms. Elliot is her assertion of the fallacy of teenage-dom. She and her brothers were sent off to distant Christian boarding schools in their teens, where they behaved very well. My quibble is that she does not speak from experience necessarily regarding the teen/parent home life. However, she does make the case of Christian boarding school very appealing in this parent's eyes.
As a crop of new babies have sprung up in our church I'm intrigued with a book she recommended called My First 300 Babies, by a mid-wife. Most parents thought us cruel for putting our babies on a feeding/nap schedule, but impressed with how well we slept and kept our relationship a higher priority. I also enjoyed her references to Ryle's book The Duties of Parents written in 1888, full text here. The older I get, the more I appreciate the lack of new stuff under the sun.
What then is the old stuff then when it comes to parenting? Train a child up in the way they should go and when they are old they won't depart from them, Proverbs 22:6. Check out this mom of 9's thoughts on the subject. It starts from day 1 and ends when they fly the nest. Don't wait on training until they are a little older. A regimen with expectations above what other children their age are doing will go a long way. One recent highlight from our family. We rent movies, but if possible we make the kids read the books before viewing the movie. They have an incentive to read. My older 2 thoroughly enjoyed reading Eragon, and were terribly disappointed in the movie. I'm teaching them the value of the text over the television and they are getting it.
As a crop of new babies have sprung up in our church I'm intrigued with a book she recommended called My First 300 Babies, by a mid-wife. Most parents thought us cruel for putting our babies on a feeding/nap schedule, but impressed with how well we slept and kept our relationship a higher priority. I also enjoyed her references to Ryle's book The Duties of Parents written in 1888, full text here. The older I get, the more I appreciate the lack of new stuff under the sun.
What then is the old stuff then when it comes to parenting? Train a child up in the way they should go and when they are old they won't depart from them, Proverbs 22:6. Check out this mom of 9's thoughts on the subject. It starts from day 1 and ends when they fly the nest. Don't wait on training until they are a little older. A regimen with expectations above what other children their age are doing will go a long way. One recent highlight from our family. We rent movies, but if possible we make the kids read the books before viewing the movie. They have an incentive to read. My older 2 thoroughly enjoyed reading Eragon, and were terribly disappointed in the movie. I'm teaching them the value of the text over the television and they are getting it.
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God is good
jpu