Spiritual Parenting: An Awakening for Today's Families [Paperback]

Michelle Anthony (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2010

In Spiritual Parenting parents learn to create a home environment that God can use to work in their children’s lives. It’s a biblical, innovative fresh approach to parenting—and one that’s long overdue.

 

It’s hard enough to train kids to behave, but good behavior isn’t what Jesus calls for in the Bible. He wants hearts and souls that are shaped in vibrant faith and love toward God and others. How can parents cultivate this in their children? In this book Dr. Michelle Anthony shares practical examples and biblical insight on the spiritual role of parenting. 

 

Spiritual Parenting introduces the simple, but revolutionary concept that parents are, by the power of God’s Spirit, to obey and depend on God in order to create an environment God can use to beckon their children to Him.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Parenting books can be preachy--readers often feel like the children of the erstwhile parent turned author. This one is different. The Ph.D. mom-authorÖs conversational style is rarely preachy and more narrative than didactic as she describes her £Aha!¥ moments, when she moved from attempting to control her childrenÖs behavior to putting them into environments where they can know God and be changed by him. This is not a £how to¥ parenting manual, but a guide for developing as a spiritually minded parent who asks, £Who did God create my child to be?¥ Attractive to many readers is the authorÖs mix of competence and vulnerability: £It frustrated me that some punk kid down the street had more credibility than I did.¥ Her writing is vivid, terse, and revealing--a story of a boy who grew up without a father to become a great father himself is the heart of a chapter on love and respect. The book speaks to the journey that all parents must learn to accept: to hear GodÖs voice and change along with their children.
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About the Author

Dr. Michelle Anthony is Pastor of Family Ministries at ROCKHARBOR Church in Costa Mesa, California. A former professor at Biola University and Talbot School of Theology, Dr. Anthony has written over a dozen resources for Christian Education and Family / Youth Ministries. She is also the Family Ministry Architect for David C. Cook. Michelle and her husband, Michael, have two children and live in Orange County, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: David C. Cook; New edition (June 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1434764478
• ISBN-13: 978-1434764478
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #294,155 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Resource for Parents November 25, 2010

By Kristen Stewart VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Spiritual Parenting by Michelle Anthony stands out amongst the crowd of Christian books by grounding parenting in discipleship. Instead of focusing parental energy on sin management, Anthony urges parents to share their lives transformed by the gospel. "The goal of spiritual parenting is that our children would learn to hear and know God's voice, desire to obey it, and obey it in the power of God's Spirit, not their own strength."

With a goal of passing down a vibrant faith, Anthony describes environments and values that we should consciously cultivate in parenting: storytelling, identity, faith community, service, out of the comfort zone, responsibility, course correction, love and respect, knowing, and modeling. I found each chapter encouraging. Though Anthony is not coming from a covenantal perspective, I found her ideas and examples compelling and easy to comport to a reformed theology of children.

As twenty-first century evangelicals reconsider how to do church, the way we raise children in the faith must be part of that conversation. Anthony's book is a good start for parents to consider some of the fundamental concerns of raising children who share an authentic and transformational faith. It also serves as a necessary reminder that parents are responsible for the spiritual formation of their children, and how they live is much more important to that development than anything that happens for an hour or two a week.

It is a temptation for parents to look for someone to tell them just what to do, and this book is not structured to feed that. Anthony encourages parents to know their children, embrace the way God made them, and parent them as individuals. Without a formula to follow, parents are better reminded of their eternal focus. "What is our job then? The joy of parenting can be spent on cultivating environments for our children's faith to grow, teaching them how to cultivate a love relationship with Jesus as we cultivate our own, living our lives authentically in front of them so that they become eyewitnesses to our own transformation. " (8.5/10) [I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes.]

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Focused on Character Not Behavior February 21, 2011

By Karl Bastian

Format:Paperback

[...]

Not since Parenting is HEART Work has there been another parenting book that I really liked. Most parenting books annoy me. Why? Because I find them gimmicky or filled with tricks and cliche's that don't treat children as unique creations of God wired by Him for a purpose. I'm passionate about this because as a boy I was one of those boys that drove my teachers crazy - I wasn't rebellious, disrespectful, mean or insubordinate - but they might have called me a "bad boy" when I was out of ear shot. Because I didn't come out of a cookie cutter. But if they could see me now, they'd understand, I'm a leader, a visionary, a creative innovator, inventor and initiator. An entrepreneur. A mover-and-shaker. I still can't sit still.

That is why I was hesitant when I was offered a free copy of Spiritual Parenting to review, because it was a new "parenting" book, and I hate parenting books! Parenting books teach parents how to get their kids to behave, and if you've been to any of my discipline workshops, you've heard me say,

"I have absolutely NO interest in children behaving."

After the shocked faces recover, I assure them, behavior will improve, but what I'm interested in is shaping their character and their hearts. If you change their behavior - you succeed in making little Pharisees out of them. Training them how to "act" when adults are around. And what happens when the adults are no longer around. Uh, huh. Exactly!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Spiritual Parenting October 2, 2010

By MYDADDY

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Very easy read, and filled with good spiritual foundation, common sence, that helps bring daily living to a managable level.