I'm just about to end my 4th year of being a women's small group leader through my church.
As a group, we've been focusing on books that have to do with parenting teens/college kids.
When I first saw this book (there is also a study guide book to go along with it), I was excited because I had read parts of her book about a praying wife but had never done an entire study.
I was greatly disappointed with this study, however.
Overall, the theme is wonderful. It is so important to be praying for our children.
Yet, in many of the chapters, she makes very generalized statements and some of them aren't really Biblical truth! When I attempted to reach out via her website to ask some questions, she never responded (I got a pop up box that said someone would answer my email but that never happened).
SUMMARY OF THE BOOK/STUDY
The book contains 32 very short chapters (perfect for a study group that involves working moms!) that coincide with study questions in the prayer/study book. However, the questions were mainly fill in the blank and writing out prayers based on a certain Scripture. They didn't have much depth to them so I found myself using other resources to keep a good discussion going.
The content areas for praying and the main reading book centered around the following (which I did enjoy):
- safety for our children
- character development
- peer pressure
- school success
- walking with God
- friends and family relationships
- the teenage years
- gifts and talents
- wise choices
- praying for adult children
MY THOUGHTS
I was disappointed that she didn't address children who wander from the Lord to any depth. She mentioned it a couple of times and did say to never give up on praying for them, but as a group, we were hoping for more in-depth study about this.
She comes across in the book, as being the "perfect" wife and mother and having children who are "perfect" with no flaws. I know she probably doesn't mean it that way, but most of us agreed that that is how the author comes across. One woman pointed out that it almost seems like she is saying that your children will fail or not follow Christ if you don't do a certain set of things or pray a certain way. And that is not the case. All children need to take ownership of their own salvation and many kids who are raised in Christian homes do decide to follow their own path or another path. There are no guarantees due to free will. This book doesn't do a great job in pointing that out.
One thing I did very much like were the prayers to pray over your children after each chapter. She worded them really well and many of them included Scriptures.
As a group, we actually did some past studies regarding parenting teens that were much better, according to the input I received from my group members. In the new school year (starting in September), we are taking a break from parenting books and just focusing on regular Bible Study books. This particular parenting book helped me decide to be done with the parenting focus.
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 21 and older.
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 7.
2 comments:
That's too bad. I know the last book our study did ranked as disappointing also and yet it was from a very well known teacher and author but no one liked it and were all glad when it was over. Lately we have just followed the questions for what was preached on Sunday that are sent to all the group leaders and it has led for great discussions and how to apply it to our lives.
I have Power of a Praying Wife and love it. Haven't read this one but thank you for the review :)
Post a Comment