Book Review: A Mom After God's Own Heart

A friend loaned me A Mom After God's Own Heart by Elizabeth George and I finished it last night. Interestingly, THIS is the book that I liked the way it approached praying for our children, much more so than The Power of a Praying Parent. The chapter in this book on praying for our children did a good job of simply outlining the things we should be praying for our children about, including simple short scripture prayers. Someday I'll get my own copy of the book just so I can refer back to things I know I won't remember. I took lots of notes as well, scripture is used throughout. And she really emphasizes the importance of MY relationship with God being the key to building my kids' relationships with God. She also emphasizes the importance of including God in the day to day of life. Some things are such a part of my own upbringing that it kind of surprised me that ALL Christians don't do this (since one would assume that a woman reading this book would be a Christian). Things like, having Bible stories to read to the kids, I still have Bible stories that my parents read to me! And have added plenty of others since having kids. But it's all good advice.

There were a couple things I disagreed with, her husband at one points compares being a good parent to being a drill sergeant, it probably won't surprise anyone that I disagree with that. And in the same chapter the author touches briefly on one of the "spare the rod" verses, in a way that implies, it's referring to corporal punishment, which I disagree with (both corporal punishment AND that the verses that refer to a rod in conjunction with child rearing were, in any way, encouraging corporal punishment, the actual words refer to either a king's sceptor or a shepherd's rod, neither of which was used to hit the subjects/sheep, but rather to teach, guide and protect).

She also advocates making sure your children are signed up for every. single. program your church offers, which I feel can be counter productive. For one thing, I strongly feel that having too many "activities" isn't healthy for kids (or adults, for that matter). One of the things I'm very conscious of, as a homeschool mom, is the danger of signing kids up for every class that comes along, we set limits on how many classes/activities the girls can be involved in, and I feel that applies to "religious" activities as well. Additionally, just because a program is endorsed by, or run by a church, doesn't mean it's a program that will be a good "match" for your child. Some kids LOVE Pathfinders, others can't stand it. I don't see any benefit (spiritual or otherwise) in force a kid to stay in Pathfinders if they're not enjoying it. I also witnessed plenty of non-Christian behaviors from Christian kids at church-run functions when I was growing up, and was ridiculed more than once for being "too religious" by those same kids. Just because it claims to be religious doesn't mean everyone there is there because they love God.

But overall, I truly enjoyed this book, it's easy to read, full of scripture, and reminders to make God first in our lives in a practical way.