Books

Learning from Our Kids

Fresh insights and conversational style makes Sacred Parenting ideal reading.

Sacred Parenting
Sacred Parenting
Sacred Parenting: How Raising Children Shapes our Souls by Gary L. Thomas Zondervan 240 pp., $19.99

If it was going to be easy to raise kids, it never would have started with something called labor” is the anonymous quote that kicks off this book by Gary Thomas (Sacred Pathways, Sacred Marriage, Authentic Faith).

Thomas looks at kids as “holy teachers” but knows they can be holy terrors as well. “Parenting,” he writes, “will disappoint us, wound us, and frustrate us.”

He believes parenting is spiritually formative: it teaches us to sacrifice, to cope with guilt, to laugh, to grieve; it forces us to our knees in prayer. “We cannot be the same people we once were,” Thomas writes. “We will be forever changed, eternally altered.”

He mixes personal stories, Scripture, and excerpts of other parenting works, particularly Rachel Cusk’s A Life’s Work: On Becoming a Mother, to make his points. But this is no “five steps to better parenting” program, and he eschews guilt trips. Rather, Thomas invites parents to “purify ourselves, to use the process of raising kids to perfect holiness, and to do this consistently, every day, out of reverence for God.”

Thomas’s fresh insights and conversational style make this ideal reading for parents interested in reflection, rather than a how-to book.

Copyright © 2004 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere:

Sacred Parenting is available from Christianbook.com and other book retailers.

More information is available from the publisher.

Also in this issue

India Undaunted: Escalating repression can't dampen the church's growth.

Our Latest

Review

Needing Help Is Normal

Leah Libresco Sargeant’s doggedly pro-life feminist manifesto argues that dependence is inevitable.

Review

Don’t Give Dan Brown the Final Word on the Council of Nicaea

Bryan Litfin rescues popular audiences from common myths about the origins of Trinitarian doctrine.

News

Died: John Huffman, Pastor Who Told Richard Nixon to Confess

The Presbyterian minister and CT board member committed to serve the Lord and “let the chips fall where they may.”

The Pastor Who Rescues People from Japan’s ‘Suicide Cliff’

Yoichi Fujiyabu has spent three decades sharing God’s love to people who want to end their lives.

An Ode to the Long Season

Why fans love a game designed to break their hearts.

Is This Heaven? No, It’s Banana Ball

What baseball’s most amusing team gets right about joy in sports.

News

Black Clergy and Christians Grapple with Charlie Kirk’s Legacy

Many say the activist’s inflammatory statements on race should inform how we remember his life.

Apple PodcastsDown ArrowDown ArrowDown Arrowarrow_left_altLeft ArrowLeft ArrowRight ArrowRight ArrowRight Arrowarrow_up_altUp ArrowUp ArrowAvailable at Amazoncaret-downCloseCloseEmailEmailExpandExpandExternalExternalFacebookfacebook-squareGiftGiftGooglegoogleGoogle KeephamburgerInstagraminstagram-squareLinkLinklinkedin-squareListenListenListenChristianity TodayCT Creative Studio Logologo_orgMegaphoneMenuMenupausePinterestPlayPlayPocketPodcastRSSRSSSaveSaveSaveSearchSearchsearchSpotifyStitcherTelegramTable of ContentsTable of Contentstwitter-squareWhatsAppXYouTubeYouTube