More books

I'm reading two books currently. Well really only reading one, kind of fed up with the other. The one I'm enjoying is Family Traditions. The thing I don't like about it is that the first 50 pages (not an over exaggeration) are all about the definition and importance of tradition in your family. You know, I wouldn't have bought a book called family traditions if I didn't think they were important! So the first 50 pages were convincing me of something I already believed...but now I'm past that and I'm really enjoying it. It's more practical now which is what I generally like. I read the chapter on Holiday traditions and really liked it. Did you know that St. Patrick was British? And he was kidnapped and taken to Ireland. He escaped and went back to Britain only to feel God's call on his life to return to Ireland and tell people about Jesus. That's sweet! So the book has really good ideas on how to incorporate things like that into fun activities for the family. I'm liking it.

The other is Shepherding a Child's Heart. I almost didn't put the link to it because you really don't need to buy it. Here's his entire message (keep in mind I've only read three fourths of the book though):

- the only worthy goal in raising your children is to do it all for the glory of God.
- if you consider yourself a Godly parent you must spank your kids.

While I agree with the first part, you really don't need to blather on about it for the first half of the book! I get it. It is very good to have that point reinforced, but geez, I was hoping the book would say a little more. And to be fair, I think he will go into just HOW to do that towards the end of the book, but so far it's just a mantra that he's repeated over and over again. And as for the second point, I'm still trying to decide what I think about it. I really don't believe that spanking is "mandated" by God as Tripp likes to put it again and again. OH! And AGAIN! He's a rather repetitive writer. That's annoying to me more than the fact that I disagree with him. I have, however, come to see spanking in a different light, so maybe that's a plus from this book. So...basically, read this book if you really want someone to beat into your brain the two points mentioned above:)

Maybe I should do another post just on spanking? I really need to get some thoughts out of my head. I don't know if it's something we should do or not? It's definitely caught a bad rep in our culture, but what does the bible say? I think the bible supports using disciplinary methods that are going to be painful for the child (physically or otherwise). But does that mean I NEED to spank? Not sure on that. Is it mandated by God? (laughing a little in disbelief) People use the "rod" verses a lot to support spanking, I'm just not sure they mean that we HAVE to as Tripp states...hmmm. And I'm not sure those verses are ONLY talking about spanking. It seems a little narrow for their purpose. I can thank Tripp for adding more confusion to my life. I don't say that sarcastically either. I'm really grateful to people who have different opinions than me, generally speaking. We need differences so we can learn from each other!