One of the most profound parenting books that I have read to date is a book by Dr. Ted Tripp called Shepherding a Child’s Heart. An introduction to the book says: Drawing on more than 20 years of experience as a pastor, counselor, school administrator, father and grandfather, Dr. Tripp shares valuable insights and suggestions for communicating directly to your child’s heart through the various stages of his/her life.
The book was written in 1995, but is still very applicable today, and the older publishing date means that you can buy the books used for less at Amazon.com or win it in an Ebay auction.
The most helpful statement in the book for me was:
“If you are going to understand and help your child understand himself, there are skills you must develop. You must learn to help your children to express themselves. You must learn to facilitate conversation. You must know how to comprehend behavior and words. You must strive to discern matters of the heart.”
After reading this I realized that I should be continually learning how to be a better parent. Now if only the community college would give Continuing Education Credits (CEU’s) for parenting.
I really appreciated that in explaining his point of view, Dr. Tripp is less concerned with teaching how to control and constrain behavior, and was far more concerned with explaining how to deal with the heart issues that push and pull behavior.
I mentioned in a previous post that I normally take notes when reading a book like Shepherding a Child’s Heart, but I was unable to do so with this particular book. The text and content is so rich that I could barely put it down let alone stop to take notes. I have put this book back in my pile of materials waiting to be read because I realized that I was only able to glean a small portion of what it offers, and I want to read it at least several more times to really gain a fuller understanding of what it means to care for another person at such a deep level.
This book contains application questions at the end of each chapter that would be great for a single parent small group study or an individual study. In addition, the book contains practical tips for reaching your parenting goals, and I highly recommend it.