Book Review: Raising Kingdom Kids

Raising Kingdom Kids
By Tony Evans
Focus on the Family, 2014
English, 272 pgs

Description:
From the bestselling author of Kingdom Man and Kingdom Woman, Raising Kingdom Kids equips parents to raise their children with a Kingdom perspective and also offers practical how-to advice on providing spiritual training as instructed in Scripture.

Dr. Tony Evans begins with an overarching look at the need for Kingdom parenting, our roles and responsibilities in raising God-following children, and how to prepare children to take on the assignments God has for their lives. He then takes a practical turn, with examples and illustrations to help parents understand and provide specific training for kids in the power of prayer, wisdom, loving God’s Word, getting through trials, controlling their tongues, developing patience, the surrender of service, and much more.

This book is for every dad or mom who wants to fulfill the parenting role God has given them—not just in raising healthy kids intellectually, physically, and socially, but in contributing to their child’s relationship with God and alignment under His plan.

From the Inside Flap:

“Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.” MARK 10:14 (ESV)

Kingdom parenting is purposeful parenting—helping children learn to live under God’s divine authority, both today and in the future.

No parent does it perfectly, and most of us have regrets about the past and poor decisions we’ve made along the way. But wherever you are in your journey, it’s never too late to start anew, applying biblical principles to parenting and trusting God to bring about the growth.

In this inspiring and practical book, Dr. Tony Evans comes alongside moms and dads with understanding and affection, offering his own hard lessons learned, and easy-to-apply strategies for raising your children in the knowledge that they truly are royalty, children of the King.

No matter what challenges your kids will one day face, raise them so that their hearts will remain open toward home—and the values and principles they learned there.

Review:
This is the third in a Kingdom series from Dr. Evans, and the second I have read (after Kingdom Woman). This is focused on being a good parent and raising your children to love the Lord and serve only Him. This is not a book that should be read quickly. Dig into it. Take your time. There is truth dripping from every page and you don't want to miss any of it.

The book is divided into three sections: Establishing a Kingdom Mindset, Cultivating a Kingdom Atmosphere and Instilling Kingdom Virtues. Each section is further divided into chapters with it. The chapters are a little longer at the beginning at shorter in the last section. 

Dr. Evans is a master at story telling and pulling you into what he's saying. I've seen that in his preaching and speaking but can even feel it reading his written words.

He emphasizes that you need to look forward to not only your kids but your grandkids and future generations. What we teach is passed on and it's up to us to make sure it's the "good stuff" that makes it through to our kids.

He tells one story about how dinner time is family devotional time. We always have dinner together, but we usually talk about our days and just generally chit chat (in between telling the kids to eat their veggies or meat) about trains, school or games or nothing of consequence. My husband and I have been more intentional lately about speaking love and truth into their lives at that half hour we have their (mostly) undivided attention.

There are stories scattered throughout the book by Dr. Evans' children and I found those really interesting. It's one thing to be a person who can write a book. I appreciate that Dr. Evans has lived the life before he put the ink on the page. He writes from experience.

I actually loved the book so much, and honestly, read it pretty fast to get this review out on time, that I'm starting over and reading it with my husband so that I do not miss a single drop of truth.

I received a copy of the book in exchange for a review on this blog and a commercial bookselling site. No additional compensation has been received and I was not required to write a positive review.