I read a buddy of mines blog the other day about parenting books and how he has no use for them and never reads them. 2 Months earlier I would have agreed with him flat out. I had never spent any real time reading parenting books. I started a Focus on the Family book called Bringing up Boys once because a group at our church was reading it but I don't think I made it even 1/4 of the way through it.
However I was at a bookstore/coffee shop a few months ago waiting for a friend and a book entitled Good and Angry: Exchanging Frustration for Character in You and Your Kids caught my eye. I'm not sure why but I bought it, it just seemed to fit how I'd been parenting lately. It sat around for a couple months until it got moved to the bathroom. As with any good man, I'll read anything while sitting on my throne, and so I picked it up. It's very good (I wish I had read it years ago), I'll blog about it at a latter date.
So today I came across a blog iamhusband.com (women don't go check it out. But if you must, please don't start commenting on the posts and ruin it as a place for us guys to hang out.) and on it links to a few other marriage/husband blogs. The thought hit me-I've spent a lot of time reading about every topic concerning any job I've ever held, but I've spent very little time reading about parenting or marriage. I read about development, vision, and leadership when I was at a development consulting firm–design and creativity when I was at a creative agency–small groups, discipleship, evangelism, outreach etc when I was on staff at a church and church planting, leadership and entrepreneurship as a church planter. So why would I not be reading about parenting and marriage? If the saying "show me your wallet and your calendar and I'll show you what's important to you" holds any truth, certainly my reading list would also reflect to some degree what I value.
I agree with my friend that every child is different and no one book can address how to parent every child; however I also recognize that I've never read a book that fully addressed any topic I was interested in, but I've also never read a book that didn't have at least some insight and wisdom I could use.
I guess all this has lead me to believe I really need to spend some more time reading up on marriage and parenting.
So I have a great parenting book that I'm just finishing, any suggestions for a book on how to love my wife better? or another parenting book?
5 comments:
i like 'creative correction' & started reading 'make chilren mind without losing yours.' I'll let you know if it's any good.
Hadn't been to your blog in months, always checking in on y'all through your wife's blog. But I just couldn't resist commenting about books....
My favorite marriage book of all time (though not typical of these sorts of books) is Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas. I love anything by him actually. But Sacred Marriage was/is absolutely life-changing for me.
I think we're in the same camp on this one... but I like Romancing Your Child's Heart. It's more about paradigm shifts rather than "practicalities." I think you and Becky would like it.
Mike and I recently read Love and Respect by Eggerich Emmerson. It is a great book on marriage and does exactly what you requested...tells you how to love your wife better. It also covers respecting husbands for the wives. It gave us a whole new perspective on how God designed us so differently and showed us how we can meet each others unique needs.
so much for regular blogging again ;)
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