Daddy Dates: Four Daughters, One Clueless Dad, and His Quest to Win Their Hearts
Greg Wright
Thomas Nelson, 2011, 208 pages, $16.99
The Smart Stepdad: Steps to Help You Succeed
Ron L. Deal
Bethany House Publishers, 2011, $13.99
Faith Conversations for Families
Jim Burns
Regal Books, 2011, 192 pp., $12.99
Church + Home: The Proven Formula for Building Lifelong Health
Mark Holmen
Regal Books, 2010, 224 pp., $17.99
The task of raising children can be daunting for any parent. How do we show our children the love of God? How do we authentically teach them about their Creator? There are tons of books on these topics, but the task of choosing one book among the multitude can be even more overwhelming than parenting itself! Of the following resources, two are great for dads; one is a great resource for families; and one is an impassioned plea for churches to re-think family ministries.
If there is a daughter in your life, Greg Wright has something to teach you in Daddy Dates. As a boy, Wright always dreamed of being surrounded by beautiful women, but he had no idea his dream would be fulfilled through a wife and four daughters. When his youngest entered kindergarten, Greg decided that, now that his girls weren’t so little, his shoot-from-the-hip approach to parenting needed to become more intentional. His solution? To pursue his girls—to show them how it feels when a man truly has their best interests at heart—through dates. His story and insights peppered with lots of humor that dads can appreciate are found in Daddy Dates. Men with date deficit disorder need not fear; Wright’s expertise will leave you feeling equipped rather than inadequate.
However, what if you are one of the millions of stepdads out there? When a man becomes a stepdad, he enters into a potential minefield of relational problems. Ron Deal, a counselor experienced in serving stepfamilies, has provided a thorough guide for men marrying into families in The Smart Stepdad. This is a book thick with applicability as Deals’ wealth of experience and compassionate tone assist stepdads with the process of connecting with stepchildren, being a godly role model, handling discipline, managing biological dad scenarios, and avoiding common pitfalls. Stepdads will receive not only applicable tips, but valuable insights into what their stepchildren are going through.
Both of these books give practical advice for the relational aspects of fathering, but what about the spiritual training for which Christian parents are responsible? Statistics have shown us that children raised in homes where faith is only expressed on Sundays are highly likely to abandon the church upon leaving home. Despite this motivating fact, many parents feel unequipped to bring Christ into the very center of their daily family life. In Faith Conversations for Families, Dr. Jim Burns provides a year’s worth of weekly discussions for families to work through. Each discussion gives families a focus, a passage of Scripture to explore together and several application and reflection questions. The full year’s study takes families through spiritual disciplines, theology, cultural hot topics, lifestyle decisions and common questions that kids have about God. Families get a year’s worth of diverse conversations for the price of a book—not a bad investment!
Mark Holmen’s Church + Home, on the other hand, is not designed to help individual families; rather, it is a plea for church leaders to rethink programmatic, church-based youth ministries. Rather than aiming to provide programs for parents and children to come to, Holmen, who speaks on behalf of the Faith@Home movement, believes churches do much greater service to the gospel by equipping families to make “the home the primary place where faith is lived, nurtured and shared.” Gratefully, Holmen doesn’t just leave his readers with that point—he provides practical advice for churches seeking to make this transition. He also points to free online resources compiled by churches who are already implementing the concept. If you would rather learn what help Holmen offers for individual families, check out the Faith Begins @Home Series.
