Shepherding a Child's Heart is a Christian's guide to parenting, in a sense. Tedd Tripp breaks the book into two parts:
1) Foundations for Biblical Childrearing
Here, Tripp starts by discussing the importance of the heart, and how parenting techniques that focus on behavior miss the point- people behave out of what's in their heart, and if you don't address the heart, you can have serious problems. He goes on to discuss shaping influences, Godward orientation (we all worship something- either God or idols), the authority of parents, goals, discarding unbiblical (and embracing biblical) methods, the importance (and aspects) of communication, the role of punishment, and how to appeal to the conscience.
2) Shepherding Through the Stages of Childhood
Here, Tripp looks at training objectives and procedures for the three phases of childhood- infancy to childhood (birth-age 5), childhood (5-12), and teenagers (13-18).
This book is excellent. The first part is especially quotable and amazing. Informative, encouraging, humbling, biblical, and challenging, it made me question a lot of techniques I use (and have seen used). Some things in here may surprise even 'seasoned' Christians- and that's a good thing. There are many sections worth reading over and over. This is one I recommend to Christian parents everywhere- I may even buy several copies to hand out.
Rating: A
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