Even so, parenting is hard. We’re dealing with little lives–individuals with sin natures, and we’re coping with our own selfish hearts at the same time.
Scripture should be our guide when it comes to parenting. It’s where we find the answers to loving our children as ourselves, and to correcting their foolish choices. Scripture is where we point our kids, because it’s in the written Word of God that our children will find the Living Word of God, Jesus Christ.
And yet, the Lord set up a system of mentorship to help us live out Scripture in our homes–in our parenting and in our marriages.
Titus 2:3-5 (ESV) says: “Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.”
Christian Family and Parenting Tips
I enjoy reading Christian parenting books because, for me, they are like having tea with a good friend.
I gain a new perspective and encouragement and I return to my work as a mom refreshed. Sometimes just a few minutes of reading can help me solve a problem, or help me get my head on right so I can go back to the important task of raising my children with a new vigor.
Books can provide a unique form of mentorship. I hope Thinking Kids also is a form of encouragement in the Titus 2 tradition as well. We grow in strength together as a community of parents seeking Christ in our relationships with our children.
In that vein, I’m excited to share two Titus-2-style books I think you’ll enjoy. Jay Payleitner is a father of five and an author and speaker on marriage, family, and parenting. He and his wife, Rita Ann, have also fostered ten children. In Moms Bringing Out the Best in Dads, many of tips come straight from Rita to you.
Both books are a great way to spend a little time getting to know a Christian family and incorporating some of their best tips for parenting, family, and marriage into your home.
Grab your FREE Bible Study Tool Kit–over 130 pages of Bible resources for your family!
Quick Tips for Busy Families: Sneaky Strategies for Raising Great Kids
(Christian family and parenting tips!)
Mr. Payleitner’s new book, Quick Tips for Busy Families: Sneaky Strategies for Raising Great Kids, is an encouraging read. The book shares 144 tips for parents in a conversational voice.
I want to thank Bethany House for providing a copy of Quick Tips for Busy Families in return for my honest opinion.
Some of Mr. Payleitner’s tips are unique and fun ideas, like “Candy Land Penance”–a way of helping children get along, and “Personalized Pancakes”. Other tips offer advice on issues common to all parents, like “Be the Bad Guy” and “Open-Door Policy.” Still more of Payleitner’s tips take a more serious tone, offering guidance on parenting issues both practical and spiritual.
The book is 233 pages, but the tips each begin on a new page, so there’s a lot of white space. That made for a quick, interesting read. The topics vary widely, and even after raising four kids (with number 4 still at home), many were ideas I hadn’t heard before. Some of the ideas were things we probably won’t implement as we homeschool and we don’t have traditional office jobs, but I still found each idea thought-provoking.
If you’re looking for some new Christian parenting tips, along with encouragement, Quick Tips for Busy Families may fit the bill. I know I enjoyed it.
Moms Bringing Out the Best in Dads
(How to encourage your husband!)
I really like Moms Bringing Out the Best in Dads. I think, as moms, it can be easy to see parenting from our own perspective. This book is a gentle reminder that we are playing on the same team with our husbands. When our husbands succeed, we all benefit.
I want to thank Harvest House Publishers for providing a copy of Moms Bringing Out the Best in Dads in return for my honest opinion.
In just 2 or 2 1/2 pages per tip, this easily consumable 192-page paperback has some great ideas. It may also help remind you to maintain a biblical mindset toward your husband. Rather than being frustrated when our spouse doesn’t live up to our best ideal of him, we can help him succeed–as both a dad and a husband. Let’s be honest, that is kind of dicey territory for a male author (even a parenting and marriage speaker) to wade into. Yet, Jay Payleitner does so with humility, empathy, and great care.
You’ll find Christian family and parenting tips to help with communication, celebrating each other’s strengths, looking out for ways to help each other in weakness, and reminders to watch out for the ways we subtly undermine each other as parents.
You’ll come away from Moms Bringing Out the Best in Dads encouraged, challenged, and with some new ideas.
More Books by Jay Payleitner
Bible Resources for Your Kids
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Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible
You want your kids to learn and love the Bible.
You want to teach the Bible…
As parents, we deeply desire the best for our kids. We look for the right schools, we make them eat right and exercise, and we get them involved in extracurricular activities. We take our job as parents seriously.
But are we also putting our time and energy into
teaching them the Bible? Giving them the life-changing, soul-nourishing words of Scripture is not only doable, it’s an essential part of parenting kids for Jesus. And the good news is, studying God’s Word as a family doesn’t have to be difficult!
2 Timothy 2:15, ESV, says:
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved,
a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
Our job, as parents who love Jesus, is to help our kids become approved workers, unashamed and rightly handling the word of truth.
The good news? Teaching the Bible isn’t hard. Your family can learn the Bible together.
…and you can!
A Crash Course in Teaching the Bible to Your Kids
Danika Cooley’s book, Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible, will give you the tools and confidence to study the Bible as a family. It will help you identify and overcome your objections and fears, give you a crash course in what the Bible is all about and how to teach it, and provide the guidance you need to set up a family Bible study habit.
You will finish this book feeling encouraged and empowered to initiate and strengthen your child’s relationship with the Lord through His Word.
Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible will equip you with everything you need to know to teach the Bible to your kids!
Grab the autographed Reformation Family Bundle!
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