If you weren’t online right now, what would you be doing?
When you aren’t scrolling through news, emails, and social media feeds, are you watching television? Working out? Cleaning your house?
What about reading – as in actual books? Is this on your agenda? Brave Parenting believes one of the BEST goals for a New Year is for less technology and more reading.
We’re talking about today’s tech-obsessed kids – right? Well, not this time.
Reading books instead of scrolling through the net is a behavior and habit that begins with YOU – the parent and role model!! Children demonstrate what is modeled for them and there is no better influence than that of reading books!
To help you achieve this goal we have comprised a fantastic list of parenting books that will encourage, inform, and challenge you as a parent in 2018.
Managing Media Creating Character: Using the Technology Kids Crave to Develop the Character God Desires
by Kelly Newcom
This book sets the standard for healthy and safe media and technology use. Each chapter focuses on a character strength which can be honed and developed through the technology children crave. There is sound backing why this boundaries are imperative and practical methods for every family to successfully implement these standard in their home.
This book is packed with testament after testament of proving IT WORKS! Kelly shares with readers the highs and lows of Bravely Parenting against a culture of unlimited media and smartphone use.
A fantastic resource for community/small groups or reading group because every Brave Parent needs an accountability partner. Grab a friend or a get a group together and start parenting bravely together. [Buy on Amazon]
The Disciple-Making Parent
by Chap Bettis
This is the best, most comprehensive Biblical parenting books on the market. Every single page is edifying. Chap is a seasoned father of four grown children. His heart is helping parents raise the next generation of children who will love and follow Jesus. In a head-on fashion, Chap challenges parents to be counter-cultural through suggested practices. This is not a cookbook, however. Children are souls not products and it is the parent’s job to CONVINCE them that following Jesus is the most satisfying way of life.
This is a perfect book for a community group or reading group to start off the New Year with because of the discussion questions built into the end of every chapter. [Buy on Amazon]
Mingling of Souls: God’s Design for Love, Marriage, Sex, and Redemption
by Matt Chandler
Courting is a lost art but one that should still be taught to teenagers. Most of us know its good, but if we didn’t do it ourselves, how do we teach it? Matt Chandler biblically walks through the why and how of courting. If you have teenagers, this book will enlighten you in ways to help your child navigate romantic relationships. In a culture which overwhelms our young adults with ideas contrary to God’s plan, this book fights back!
A secondary challenge with this book: Have your teenager read it. Whatever it takes – pay them, feed them their favorite snacks, gift cards for them to have these truths poured into their soul! It will help cultivate discussions of how healthy relationships start & function. [Buy on Amazon]
Swipe Right: The Life-and-Death Power of Sex and Romance
by Levi Lusko
Purity? Fidelity? Those sound like ancient words in a world that worships quick and easy. Levi doesn’t mince words. He shares raw, honest testimony of his own life and tears apart the lies of the hook-up culture. It is refreshingly straightforward. These pages show how God’s way will always be more satisfying, gratifying, and the best way to be in relationships.
As with Mingling of Souls, this book comes with the same challenge to have your teenager read it! If for whatever crazy reason you have no intention of discussing the difference between the world’s idea of sex and romance versus God’s idea with your children, then please buy this book and make them read it. [Buy on Amazon]
A Practical Guide to Culture: Helping the Next Generation Navigate Today’s World
by John Stonestreet & Brett Kunkle
It is difficult to gain a perspective of the different facets of culture when we are swimming in it. Stonestreet and Kunkle pull a part the messy tangle of pervasive pornography, the questions of sexual orientation, addiction, and more in order to give parents a Biblical perspective that is not only relevant but desperately needed. [Buy on Amazon]
American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers
by Nancy Jo Sales
While an equal number of teenage boys and girls use social media, their experience is vastly contrasted. In the most beautifully unfortunate way, this book will give validation to every concern or worry you’ve ever had about your daughter on social media. Sales toured the country interviewing girls of various ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and ages and reports their experiences navigating life on social media. Each chapter focuses on one age (the first chapter is Thirteen) which makes it a great reference to go back to as your daughter ages. Best read by moms (although husbands need this information as well), this book will open your eyes to the heartbreaking truth of the world young women are growing up in. [Buy on Amazon]
iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy – and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood
by Jean M. Twenge
iGen is defined as those born between 1995 and around 2012. If you have a child born within these years, this book should is essential. Twenge has combed through years of research, surveys, and data to deliver ten trends which are shaping today youth and the Nation at large. Knowing the trends not only helps understand a child’s perspective on cultural issues, but also promotes parents to discerningly parent either for or against the trends. [Buy on Amazon]
We want to challenge you to pick TWO books off the list and read them before summer. We believe the messages and information in these books can be life changing for any parent.
