Book Review: Give them Grace

I haven't read many parenting books mainly because I feel like what I am doing now isn't really parenting, it's care taking. Or maybe it's the easy part of parenting when kids don't talk back to you or hit other kids/siblings. I'm not in the thick of it yet I don't guess.

When I was given the opportunity to join a book study on this book, I said yes only because of the other moms I wanted to hang out with, not because I needed any help just yet. Or so I thought. This book has reminded me of the gospel and the need to speak it into all parts of life, especially parenting. Even in care-taking. So far, the message of this book is not to give the law only to our kids. It says that we are all hard-wired legalists and we really want to give the law to our kids because we want them to obey and be well behaved. But if we only give law, we are only giving them half of Christ. They are only seeing that they can't keep the law(well hopefully they see that), and in some case we can give them a God complex that if they follow the rules, God is happy with them. These women advocate that we give them both law and grace and that we begin to speak and pray the gospel with our kids.

I feel like this book has helped me know how to talk to myself, and then to my kids. And since I am not in the thick of parenting yet, I can practice speaking the gospel to Owen now while he doesn't understand, so when he does I might actually know what to say!