Spiritual Parenting: A Guide to Understanding and Nurturing the Heart of Your Child [Hardcover]

Hugh Prather (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 3, 1996

A radical, new approach, Spiritual Parenting is a guide to caring for the naturally intuitive and spiritual core of every child. In the words of authors, counselors, and ministers Hugh and Gayle Prather, "This book reflects our deep personal conviction that parenting is a spiritual path, a form of worship."  In their characteristically warm style, the Prathers offer a book of principles and practices that parents can use to understand and nurture their children at home, at school, and in the world. While a belief in God isn't necessary to understand and apply this approach, parents are encouraged to learn how to focus on the spiritual aspects of child care amid the bewildering everyday complexities involved in guiding children toward adulthood.

With humor and realism, the Prathers tell stories and anecdotes about their own children and the children of families they have counseled to help today's parents break through conflicting ideas, emotions, and impasses. Through Spiritual Parenting, they will learn how to cherish and enjoy their children at all stages of their growth.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

A radical, new approach, Spiritual Parenting is a guide to caring for the naturally intuitive and spiritual core of every child. In the words of authors, counselors, and ministers Hugh and Gayle Prather, "This book reflects our deep personal conviction that parenting is a spiritual path, a form of worship."  In their characteristically warm style, the Prathers offer a book of principles and practices that parents can use to understand and nurture their children at home, at school, and in the world. While a belief in God isn't necessary to understand and apply this approach, parents are encouraged to learn how to focus on the spiritual aspects of child care amid the bewildering everyday complexities involved in guiding children toward adulthood.

With humor and realism, the Prathers tell stories and anecdotes about their own children and the children of families they have counseled to help today's parents break through conflicting ideas, emotions, and impasses. Through Spiritual Parenting, they will learn how to cherish and enjoy their children at all stages of their growth.

About the Author

Hugh and Gayle Prather are the authors of eleven books, including Notes to Myself  (which has more than five million copies in print), Notes on Love and Courage, and A Book for Couples. The Prathers live in Tucson, Arizona, where they are resident ministers at St. Francis in the Foothills Methodist Church. Their greatest happiness is their three sons.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 292 pages
• Publisher: Harmony; 1 edition (June 3, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517703858
• ISBN-13: 978-0517703854
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,175,872 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent spiritual approach to everyday interaction, September 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Spiritual Parenting: A Guide to Understanding and Nurturing the Heart of Your Child (Hardcover)

This book has started me on a path of child rearing I had only hoped to achieve with the birth of my first daughter. Having begun motherhood in my forties, it is especially important to me to become the mother I believe in. The Prathers have pointed me toward my goal. On the worst of days in the most stressed situations, there is always the perfect paragraph to help me adjust moods; better interaction with my little one undoubtedly follows.

Thanks to the Prathers, I believe I have an opportunity to forge a deeper, more long lasting relationship with my child and to approach my spiritual self at a much higher level.

If you are a parent, you need this book. If you have the book, read it. Refer back to it regularly. You couldn't give a better gift to friends and family.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book with one reservation..., July 5, 2002

By 

D. J Heater "djheater" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Spiritual Parenting: A Guide to Understanding and Nurturing the Heart of Your Child (Paperback)

The Prathers work is one of true insight and striking sincerity. I was touched deeply by it and continue to be as I refer back to it. One thing of minor note (and what prevents the fifth star) that is not mentioned in any review I read is that this book delivers a strongly Christian message. I am not a Christian, I do however keep an open mind and do not let my personal understanding of spirituality interfere with my acceptance of the wisdom this book delivers.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If we all could be parents like this, February 9, 2001

By 

J. Lyda (Raleigh, North Carolina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Spiritual Parenting: A Guide to Understanding and Nurturing the Heart of Your Child (Paperback)

Or, what if I had had parents like this?? After sitting on my shelf for almost 4 years, I listened to the cassette tape version of this book several weeks ago. Somehow that was OK because I'm not sure that I really could have unederstood and taken this book to heart until recently (I was well prepped by reading Alice Miller's 'For Your Own Good' just before). I liked the tape because I could hear the Prather's own voices. And what they say is wonderful and loving for children. Unfortunately, what they recommend is not the norm in our culture. They recommend love, compassion and total respect for our child's identity. Our culture, on the other hand, increasingly speaks to discipline, punishment and abandonment. The world is changed one person at a time, and if only a few people become loving parents because of this book, then the world will be blessed with more stable, loving and creative children. - - If you want the other side of this paradigm, how socially accepted child-rearing, what most of us have been taught is 'normal,' frequently involves abuse and cruelty, then pick up anything by Alice Miller. Miller's work over the past 20 years underscores the value of the Prather's approach.