God-Given Wisdom for Parents

In "God-Confident Kids," Cyndie Claypool de Neve combines Scripture, psychology, and personal narrative in order to offer beneficial instruction to parents who seek to raise their children in Christ. Claypool explores personality theory, Erik Erikson's developmental theory and other psychological ideologies and deftly combines them with Christian principles. Throughout the text, Claypool offers parents Scriptures they can specifically apply to their children along with prayers in which parents can add their children's names. These prayers will assist parents in seeking wisdom from God as they raise their children, helping them navigate anxiety, screen addiction, education, future career choices and other marks of journeying toward adulthood in our society. As a parent who desires to raise up my children in God's grace so that they might live in Christ, I found this resource encouraging and helpful. Unfortunately, I often come across one struggle when reading parenting books that use Scripture. Too often the author does not explore the context of the passage when applying that passage to the Christian life and family. I desire more depth and a deeper understanding of these Scriptures. I feel this will add to the wisdom of any such texts. This book was given to me by Baker Books blogging program.

Learning From Faithful Millennials

Using the sound research typically produced through The Barna Group, David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock explore how millennials understand and live out their faith. Their previous book, "You Lost Me" considered those millennials who have left the faith and how the church should approach this reality. In "Faith For Exiles," Kinnaman and Matlock explore the opposite reality. While many millennials have left their faith in Christ, many still remain and they are living out their faith in positive and healthy ways. The church needs to consider the five areas of faith expressed throughout this book, learn from faithful millennials, and discover how faith is relevant for this generation. This young generation has much to teach the increasing aged church in the USA. The five areas of vitality in the faith of millennials are intimacy with Jesus, having muscles of cultural discernment, forging meaningful, intergenerational relationships, training for vocational discipleship (living out the Christian faith in the workplace), and engaging in countercultural mission. All of these principles are Biblical sound. The church should sit up and notice faithful millennials and truly consider how they challenge the church to live faithfully for Christ. I received this book as part of Baker Book Group's Blogging Program.