Monday, January 19, 2009

Book Review - If You Take My Hand, My Son

Book Summary

This book sets forth a model for Christian parents to follow in raising their sons to be men of God. This book is focused particularly on boys, although large parts of it could be applied to girls as well. The book covers various character traits that we want to see developed in our sons at a pace of one per chapter (e.g. the title of chapter 5 is “Leading a Boy to Be a Man of Grace”, chapter 10 is “Leading a Boy to Be a Man of Discipline”, etc.). In each chapter the author shows the biblical necessity for the character trait and then gives practical advice about developing this type of character in a young boy so that he will own it when he becomes a man.

Book Review

Overall, I would recommend this book because I think that it correctly focuses on character formation. This is important. So much is written about behavior and how to get children to act right and grow into good citizens. Character formation takes care of behavior.

There were a few drawbacks to this book. I’ll just mention one. I think what was written in 220 pages could easily have been scaled down to a more manageable 130-150 pages. There’s just a lot of extra stuff in the book that didn’t need to be there. This is not a big problem.

Let me leave you with a few quotes that were memorable for me.

“Wisdom does not suddenly overtake our sons.” – p. 45

“We need to remind our sons, every day of their lives, how much we love them. We must convey that they are wonderfully and fearfully made. They are created in His perfect design, in God’s very image. They are significant just on the basis alone.” – p. 64

“Church is the hub of our social life and we made it clear to our children that church was important to us. Please hear me loud and clear parents: If you make church a priority, your children will see that priority and come to understand its importance. If you yourselves whine about it or try to make excuses for not attending, so will your children later on in their lives.” – p. 116

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