Parenting: 14 Gospel Principles That Can Radically Change Your Family

Have you read parenting book after parenting book and still struggled with establishing some harmony and consistency at home? I know I have. I was excited to read Paul David Tripp’s book Parenting: 14 Gospel Principles That Can Radically Change Your Family but, I’ll admit, I was still a little skeptical as to whether it would be helpful. I continued to feel like nothing was working at home.

However, then I read Tripp’s book, Parenting: 14 Gospel Principles and feel that we are FINALLY on our way to some positive changes. (Don’t forget to read to the bottom – there is a giveaway!)

The Book

I know what you are thinking? It’s just another parenting book telling me what to do and not do and frankly, nothing has worked in the past so why would this? Right? Well, that’s exactly how I was feeling when I started to make my way through Tripp’s book. What I found that was a fresh perspective and some great reminder about what parenting should be and how to do it effectively.

Let me tell you what this book is NOT:

It is NOT a ‘how to book’ on parenting
It is NOT a “if your kids do this, then do this” book
It is NOT a book on sneaky ways to train your kids.

What is the book about then?

It IS a book on how God wants us to parent
It IS a book on Biblical principles on character
It IS a book on how to show grace in your parenting

I think the most important part of the book that I learned was that I probably don’t show enough grace in my parenting. I am not perfect. Jesus died for our sins so we can be forgiven of them; however, he is the ONLY perfect person and we only live to try and live by God’s word and do the best we can in a sinful and imperfect world. Then we expect our kids to obey our every order and command. Tripp says in his chapter on grace:

Way too many Christian parent have a great big, trouble-causing gap in their understanding, celebration of, and reliance upon God’s grace. … There is nothing more important to consistent, faithful, patient, loving, and effective parenting than to understand what God has given you in the grace of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Principles

The chapters are varied throughoutParenting: 14 Gospel Principles and each of the 14 chapters or 14 principles for parenting such as:

Law – Principle: Your children need God’s law, but you cannot ask the law to do what only grace can accomplish.

Process: Principle: You must be be committed as a parent to long-view parenting because change is a process and not an event.

False gods – Principle: You are parenting a worshiper, so it’s important to remember that what rules your child’s heart will control his behavior.

Character – Principle: Not all of the wrong your children do is a direct rebellion to authority; much of the wrong is a result of a lack of character.

And the other 10 principles as well like Calling, Process, Identity, and Mercy.

Tripp states that we, as parents, are ambassadors. Ambassadors, by definition,represent the message, methods and character of the leader who he work for. In this case, we are ambassadors for God – God called us to be parents and we are His ambassadors. It really is a great word to represent what we should be as parents. Tripp discusses how, today, “ownership parenting” is what most parents practice – this is where the parent is driven by what we want out children to be or what we want out of our children in return. This is now what God wants. Our children don’t really belong to us; they are God’s children and our job as parents is to be good agents of God to these children that have been entrusted to us to raise.

The Take Away

Overall, Tripp focuses on the principle of grace throughout all 14 principles as being the key to good Godly parenting. He doesn’t give you a list of punishments or consequences, yes’es and no’s for parenting, he give some foundational examples from the Bible and highlights answers and explanations of God expectations of parents. In essence, he points out what God says we should be doing as parents.

I think the biggest thing I learned about myself while reading this book is that I may be expecting a little too much from my kids at times and not showing them the grace that I would hope would be shown to me. I look forward to working in my imperfect world and my imperfect family to remember grace and apply these principles in my parenting.

You can purchase your own copy of Parenting: 14 Gospel Principles That Can Radically Change Your Family by Paul David Tripp on Amazon. And thank you to FlyByPromotions for this review opportunity.

The Giveway

Would you like to WIN A COPY OF Parenting: 14 Gospel Principles That Can Radically Change Your Family by Paul David Tripp? Enter a comment below about this blog post or the book and one winner will be chosen at random. GIVEAWAY CLOSES NOVEMBER 4th, 2016 at midnight EST.

Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway. If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller /FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win. Or if you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.