I have had this book a while… It is not a quick read, and I have read every single word carefully. It has lurched around in my bag for weeks… because every time I said I must write a review tonight I have read a bit more and thought – “Shew, I need to remember to take that on board!!!” The sort of book where you want to make notes in the margin so that you can remember all the little tips. I guess it just took me forever to actually get into this book and when I did I found it to be packed with information that I might know, common sense even, but not the sort of things that I had necessarily spent time thinking about.
There are so many books on parenting and mothering that it is hard to know what to read and what not to read, we can only really rely on the recommendations of our friends. As a friend to our readers I am recommending this one!!! This is not a parenting book per se. It is a mothering book, you may want to tell your husband what you are learning as you read but the author is addressing moms. When I started reading this book I immediately thought: “This is the mom I want to be” loving, kind, thoughtful, intentional… Turns out there is no perfect mother – no surprises there – but there is a lot we can do to be better moms. An interesting point that this book makes is that it that raising children isn’t all about our children, but it is a lot to do with us as the mom. Isn’t that the truth, all the issues that arise in our lives as a result of motherhood.
One of the key points of this book is to have a plan… and to be honest when you are in the thick of “day to day” se7en+1 kids it is quite hard to stop and think about the kind of adult you want your child to grow into, but lets be honest if we don’t know where we are going then how are we going to get there. So stop and take a breathe and think about the path you would like your child to be traveling along. I have written this before: I know I want my kids to grow up happy with who they are and willing to serve the Lord with all their hearts. But this book is packed on how to reach that destination rather than “I hope my kids get to that place one day…” and practical ideas so that you won’t spend your time worrying about every single decision you make.
I like that at the end of each chapter she has a couple of questions for the reader, and in my case the mother person… to think about and mull over. What sort of insights did you gain from reading the chapter. Followed by two or three action posts… practical things you can do this week and implement today to apply what you have learnt in the previous chapter. I like that she ties the action points to Biblical teaching and that the purpose of having a plan in the first place is that God had a plan… A plan for us and a plan for our children. I liked that the book addressed all ages and stages and took time to write about parenting teens – it is never too late to get intentional about parenting your kids… I’m all for books that have ideas about teens and relating with them and encouraging them. I am also all for books that don’t dictate but provide ideas, because really no one knows our kids as well as we do. The book is somewhat idealistic… as I read my way through the book I sometimes felt quite overwhelmed at the perfect parenting of the author, but I think that may be her style of writing rather than the truth!!!
Probably the most important take-away for me from this book was that having an idea of where we are aiming our kids… out into the world as responsible and God-fearing adults, means that we can pray for our kids intelligently. Not just: “Dear Lord, please bless my kids. Amen.” As we crash into bed at the end of the day. Our kids are part of God’s plan and we need to pray for them as such.
I received this book, to review, for free from BookSneeze, through Thomas Nelson Publishers.