Do you ever feel as a parent you are not respected or does your child sometimes feel unloved? I would venture to say the answer in every household would be, ‘Yes’.
I know sometimes I don’t react in the best way I can to my children, or to my husband for that matter, and alot of times it comes down to the fact that at that moment I either don’t feel loved or respected. Is that the same for you?
I have heard of Dr. Emerson Eggerichs for a long time now, but since my reading has either been the Bible or Green Eggs and Ham, I had not had the chance to read any of his books. When I was offered the opportunity to be part of the BookSneeze review team, I jumped at the chance. Maybe this was God’s way of getting me back to what I used to be… a reader. Out of all the choices of books, this one popped out at me. I think it was God’s way of saying, “Read this.”. I am so glad I did.
I won’t get into the specifics of the book because I think the best part of reading a book is having those a-ha moments as you read it. I can’t tell you how many times that happened to me during the course of this book. Dr. Eggerichs (and his wife, Sarah), use their real-life examples of raising their children as a way to explain how family cycles work and how to correct them. He explains so clearly how God wants us to parent our children and gives guidelines and examples on how to do that. He also explains the difference between parenting a boy and a girl. It all makes perfect sense.
The book is not even just about parents and children, you can take it a step further into your marriage and how you and your spouse communicate. There was one particular paragraph, one of those a-ha moments, that stood out for me. It explained the role of a mother and how and why we do what we do. I literally placed the book in front of my husband and asked him to read the paragraph because it so eloquently said EXACTLY what I had been trying to say for years. Except this time, it was coming from a man. This was big for us. For me.
There is a small, but so important section at the end of the book where Dr. Eggerichs guides you with how to explain things to your young child or your older child. This part of the book has really transformed how I interact with my children! Our prayer time is so much more meaningful, now that I started implementing some of the ideas. Our family life has been so busy that we had gotten away from the most important aspects of our day, praying together. I honestly cannot remember the last time we did pray together, other than a holiday meal. Yet, it’s so important. After the bedtime prayer I said with our son (using the guidelines suggested), he came out of his room and said, “I think we need to pray as a family, every night.”. He’s 7. Out of the mouths of babes. Something clicked in him when I said that bedtime prayer, something that had not clicked when we said prayers every other night before. Now, every night, we are praying as a family. Thank you Dr. Eggerichs!
If you have been struggling with some of the same issues in your house, I highly recommend this book!
*I received this book in exchange for a completely honest review as part of the BookSneeze team. My thoughts are completely my own and not influenced in any way by the publisher. Read my disclosure for more details.*
