Book Review: Full-time Parenting

Full-Time Parenting: A Guide to Family-Based Discipleship Authors: Israel Wayne Pg # 160

Counter Cultural

Many Christian writers have a tight rope that they try to walk. They want to be both faithful to God's word and culturally relevant. This means that they want to both encourage and challenge faithful believers, while also making someone who randomly picks up their book in a Barnes and Noble feel welcome to read.

Full-time Parenting by Israel Wayne is purposefully counter-cultural. No mixed bones here, Israel sets out to show you that what is "normal" in this world is not "normal" for the Christian. This is both brave and refreshing in the world of Christian literature.

Israel Wayne is a writer and speaker who runs a ministry called Family Renewal. He speaks on all kinds of topics ranging from Home discipleship and Home Schooling to Biblical worldview and Christian Apologetics.

Full-Time Parenting

This book was a convicting read. In many ways Israel Wayne is calling all parents to giving greater and greater effort for the sake of raising Godly young men and women. This is more than just a beautiful calling, it is also a biblical one. God has given parents the task of raising children, that were created by His hands, to be faithful and passion worshipers of Him.

The current parenting culture encourages parents to leave the raising of their children to someone else so that they can pursue their career or greatest hobby. This means that parents are not longer the greatest influences of their children. Perhaps that is the reason that so many children who have Christian parents do not return to the church after leaving the home. Full-time Parenting is a call for Christian parents to fight against this parenting culture and take responsibility for raising their children.

Because every child is given to us as a gift from God, Israel Wayne is right to call parents to higher view of the role that God has given them. We are all accountable to Him for the way that we raise our children, and that means that we should give maximum effort to raise them as God has instructed. We are indeed called, by God, to be Full-Time Parents.

Practical

This book was also a very practical read. Israel not only addresses problems and difficulties of parenting, but he also gives great ideas to try as solutions. He is very candid and willing to let the readers have a view into how he and his family have pursued righteousness and holiness together.

I found the chapter on "The Fathers Role", "Helping a Hyperactive Child", "Living on One Income", and "Passing the Baton" to be extremely helpful. We even began using a method of discipline that Israel suggested in one of the early chapters to help smooth out a family frustration in that department. Israel has written this book to help families and it really shows by how practical and real the advice in the book is.

Every parent need tools to accomplish the job of parenting. Full-time Parenting offers many helpful tools that the reader can use as they continue in their parenting journey.

Final Thoughts

Full-time Parenting is a wonderful call to parents to give their lives to the job of parenting. Though at times the book does not have a seemly cohesion, it offers the reader intensely practical tools and overall vision that is close to the heart of God.