Far and away one of the best books I’ve ever read on child-rearing is Standing on the Promises, by Doug Wilson. If you were to ask to borrow my copy, I’m not sure it would do you any good because you probably wouldn’t be able to read the words from all my markings. It’s that good.
Yet, if you are looking for a “how to” book to help you raise your children, you will no doubt be very disappointed indeed. While the book is not without practical application, Wilson is far less concerned with giving you twelve easy steps to parenting godly kids as he is to giving you a firm foundation upon which to do so. But, I hasten to add, the book is anything but abstract and impractical. It is encouraging, instructive, and even inspiring. I heartily recommend it to any and all parents who are seeking to raise godly children in this ungodly age.
Here are a few choice quotes from the first chapter that I think are worth passing on…
The Fountainhead of Culture
The biblical family is an instituted government, established by God at the very beginning of human history. The constitution for this government was written by him, and revealed to us in his Word.
Parents bring up their children to be colonists at the proper time, planting families of their own.
Consequently, each family is designed to be a culture – with a language, customs, traditions, and countless unspoken assumptions. God has made the world in such a way that children who grow up in the culture of the family are to be shaped and molded by it. The duty of the husband and father is to ensure that the shaping is done according tot he standards of the Word of God.
[A common problem among modern Christians] is that of forgetting the family is a culture at all, and allowing, by default, outside cultural influences to take primacy in how the children are shaped. When the biblical cultural mandate for the home is abandoned in the home, the vacuum will not be there for long.
By nature, children are malleable. They will either be shaped lawfully, by those commanded by God to perform the task, or they will be shaped unlawfully, by outsiders. But as children, they will be shaped.
Stay tuned for more gems from Wilson’s book.
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Lord, make me to know thine end and the measure of my days that I may know how frail I am. Another year of my pilgrimage has passed. I am a year nearer to my death, nearer to Judgment, nearer to eternity to come. Whither shall I flee as the sins of the past year and the transgressions of the years rise to condemn me? Lord, to Thee I flee for refuge in these last hours of the waning year. For the sake of Thine own Son, whom Thou has sent to be the Savior of all men, be gracious to me, and pardon mine iniquity. 
