As a mom to 4 children, it can sometimes be a dating task trying to think of ways to motivate my children to do what they need to do without being a nag. Most of the time, I fail. I was given the opportunity to review Motivate Your Child, a book written by Dr. Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller, RN, BSN, founders of the National Center for Biblical Parenting.
I was so stoked for this opportunity, because in our area, most people will just tell you to spank your children to make them listen, but I don’t want to resort to that all the time. I want them to realize that everyone has to do things we don’t want to do, we just have to be motivated to do it. This book teaches you to get to “the heart” of the matter, where it’s most important. Teaching your children to obey is so important, but it’s also important to reach their heart, and teach them how to be motivated to do their work on their own.
Let’s face it, most children are going to grow up, move out, and have families on their own. Are you going to go to their home and tell them what needs to be done, or will they see the need on their own and have the initiative to do it themselves? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to have to tell my grown children what they need to do. They will either grow to rely on that, or it will push them away. We as adults aren’t required to obey our parents any longer, so being told “what to do” isn’t really constructive for us anyway, unless our boss is paying us to, right? Children need to learn initiative at a young age.
Motivate Your Child is 266 pages, and 21 Chapters, along with a book and scripture index. It’s broken down into 2 parts: Moral Development in Children, and Spiritual Development in Children. Everyone has some sort of conscience that tells them what’s right and wrong, and what they should and shouldn’t do. The authors of the book also give you scriptural tools to develop the spiritual side. The moral side is already there, it just has to be more developed, but the spiritual part has to be shown and taught. Motivate Your Child is a great little tool to help get you started.
I’ve been reading through the book for a few weeks, and wow, it’s really an eye-opener. The book teaches you how the Bible shows the best way to parent, and how to internally motivate your child to do what’s right. I can already tell that this book is going to be a great help to so many families. Motivate Your Child can be found on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback versions. I will be working diligently to motivate my children, will you?
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