Learning to Listen

I've probably read fifty different books on child training. I could tell you how Ted Tripp would handle a discipline problem, and give you Sally Clarkson's opinions on discipline. There are so many voices, so many opinions out there on how to raise up the next generation that sometimes I feel numb to what the Holy Spirit is telling me to do in raising my children. Instead of looking to the Bible and praying for wisdom and direction in child training, I start looking at books or blogs to tell me how to raise my kids!

And isn't that ridiculous? The authors of blogs and writers of books don't know my kids, but God knows them better than anyone. He knows me better than anyone. And yet in my laziness I run to the latest book I'm reading to tell me how to raise my kids. And if I don't do things the way the author recommends I feel condemned. Like I'm a failure as a parent, and my children will never walk with the Lord(Hello, pressure! And also Romans 8:1, anyone?)

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with reading parenting books. In fact I've found many to be extremely helpful and encouraging, I'm just saying that they should never replace what you feel like the Holy Spirit is telling you to do. In the book, "Give Them Grace," by Elyse Fitzpatrick(yes another parenting book, ironic huh?) she makes the point that up until fifty years ago Christian parents simply loved their children, disciplined them, and told them about Jesus. Other than the Bible, there were no other books on parenting around.

I'm thankful to live in a day and age where older, wiser men and women are willing to share their wisdom in parenting. But I also need to be careful.  Parenting books were never meant to replace personal prayer and Bible study in how we raise our children.

Linked to A Wise Woman Builds Her Home.