Author: MacArthur, John
Genre:
Tags: Christian Living / Cross / Discipleship, Parenting / Family
Series:
Rick Shrader‘s Review:
John MacArthur wrote this book in 1998 but it remains one of the most thoroughly biblical catalogs of Scriptures and topics on the Christian family. It is subtitled, “Raising your child with care, compassion, and common sense.” His proposition might be summarized in this short paragraph: “In other words, children do no go bad because of something their parents do. They are born sinful, and that sinfulness manifests itself because of what their parents do not do.” What they do not do is apply biblical principles of instruction and discipline in the home. Parents cannot do what they need to be doing without their own walk with God and maintaining a biblical husband/wife relationship. They cannot raise godly children without understanding the biblical nature of the human beings and their need for God’s grace and continued guidance. This is one of the best books for laying the foundation for these relationships. The book contains a good chapter on corporal punishment and also an interesting discussion of why many of the proverbs are to be seen as “truisms” (“Train up a child in the way that he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it”) but “not necessarily invilable rules.” I would recommend this book as a starting place for reading on this subject.