Thursday, May 13, 2010

Resources


Some of my favorite parenting resources besides the Bible are...



1. Shepherding A Child's Heart by ...This book is an incredible reminder that my goal as a mom is to get into their heart so that they will desire to fall hard after the Lord and make the right choices on their own as opposed to simply focusing on changing their behavior. Every poor behavior has a heart issue attached to it. Deal with the heart issue, and the behavior will most likely change itself. SUCH A GOOD BOOK!!!



2.Don't Make Me Count To Three by Ginger Plowman. This book started to make sense to me when my kids were three and four years old. It says a lot of the same stuff as Shepherding A Child's Heart does but it gives a lot more specific examples. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this book! It is my absolute favorite out of all the books that I have ever read about parenting. She writes in a way that makes sense to my brain and my heart.
(I love it so much that I loaned it to a friend so I don't have a picture of it...)

3. Ginger also makes this calendar called Wise Words For Moms that I LOVE! It's a two page calendar that has a list of behaviors that young kids might be struggling with. Next to the behavior it lists a few meaningful questions that you can ask your child about that particular situation and then it gives scriptures for the behavior that you want them to "take off" followed by verses for the behavior that you want them to "put on" instead.
When I first got it I would leave it in the bathroom and I would literally read word for word out loud to my kids whatever it was that they were struggling through. Now that I've read it so many times I am able to talk through some of the issues with my kids without having to use the chart but it has been EXTREMELY helpful to me as a mom who did not grow up in a Christian home. (Neither of my parents became Christians until I was a teenager, so I feel like I have had to start from scratch when it comes to figuring out how to raise my little ones in accordance with God's Word.)


4. Proverbs For Parenting by Barbara Decker... What I love about this one is that it is ALL scripture! It doesn't have anyones opinion in it. The author has come up with a bunch of topics that most kids struggle through and has found, and listed several scriptures that deal with each topic. Although many other books have been helpful resources, ultimately I want to raise my kids in accordance with the Word of God... This book does exactly that... It leads me straight to His Word!



5. The Heart of Anger by Lou Priolo... The funny thing about this book is that I got it because I thought it was a book about how to deal with a child who is struggling with anger. It turned out to be a book that the Lord has used to help me tremendously through my own anger issues (that I have shared about several times on this blog.) If there is anyone out there who has ever said, "I never really struggled with anger until I had kids," then this book will bless your socks off if you're willing to really hear what it has to say.

6.Priolo also wrote a book called Teach Them Diligently. It gives some practical ways on how to use the scriptures to train our children. It's got some good stuff in it but you have to be careful to not get overwhelmed by all it's "suggestions." Just take one idea at a time and once that idea is well implemented then you can add in another idea.




7. How To Be The Parents Of Happy Obedient Children by Roy Lessin. This book is farely similar to Shepherding A Child's Heart. It shares a lot of the same thoughts but just uses different examples. I appreciated the thoughts that the author had in this book.



8. The last book kinda through me for a loop when I first read it. Like all things that I read I just have to take some things with a grain of salt. This book has a good foundation and I know that the authors have a true heart for the Lord. Some of the ways that they put their ideas across didn't settle right with me. But the reason that I am putting this book up is because Michael and Debi Pearl have an INCREDIBLE website that I just LOVE.

nogreaterjoy.org

It has hundreds of articles about raising children of all ages! You can seriously look up any issue that you might be going through with any age kid and they more than likely have an article on it. And what I really like about them is that they know God's Word like the back of their hand and they support all of their thoughts with scripture!


These are some of my favorites... I hope that God uses this small list to bless some moms who might happen to stumble upon this blog sometime soon.... and maybe even bless one of the ones who stop by frequently. :)