A Father's Gift

It is almost August; just four days away!  This means that Christmas is only four months (and a couple of weeks) away!  Now I know that some of you super organized and expert planners have already started your Christmas lists!

What is on that list?

What is the very best gift you can think of to give your children?

That's the very question Kenneth Wingate asked himself on Christmas morning 1996 as he watched the wrapping paper fly around his living room.  He felt something very empty about all the bows and pretty wrapping paper.  As he thought about his answer to his own question, his book A Father's Gift:  Lessons from Proverbs began to take shape.

From the back cover of the book (and from Sinclair Ferguson's foreword):

"Many young parents today are beside themselves with anxieties about their children, and, sadly, confusion too about how to nurture them.  The ongoing addiction of our times to the heresy of modernity and its proud rejection - and ignorance - of the tested and tried wisdom of the past, inevitably leads to dysfunction in home and family life.  Sadly, the older, wiser counsel of God's Word, and especially of the book of Proverbs, is unknown or neglected.  Yet Proverbs was composed specifically as a manual for home and family instruction, and to prepare us for life in the world.  It is a divinely given handbook to help parents.  Here then is a book for parents to read on their own; for teenagers to read on their own; for parents and teenagers, who are willing to take the family challenge, to read round the table after dinner or on other occasions.  It points us to God's way.  It promises us God's grace.  What could be better for us than that?"

The book has 19 chapters, each ending with a one sentence Key Principle easy to commit to memory along with scripture.  There are two appendixes at the end of the book; one contains Key Principles for Abundant Living and the other breaks down the book of Proverbs by subject.

Here's an example of the Key Principle for Abundant Living concerning our words:

"Speak only the F.A.C.T.S.  Let your words be Few, Apt, Calm, True, and Sweet.

I have three children, ages 13, 5, and 2, and I've read my share of parenting books.  A Father's Gift rises close to the top of my parenting library.  I'm so glad Mr. Wingate has chosen to share his gift to his children with us.  If you read only one book on parenting outside of your Bible, make sure it is this one!  But the beauty of the book is that it is not meant to be just read by you, but an endless gift of biblical treasure to share with your children, and their children, and their children, and their children, and....

Banner of Truth was so kind to send me a complimentary copy of A Father's Gift for the purpose of review.  You can order your copy from them by  going HERE.  Or if you frequent Amazon.com, the book can be ordered by following the link provided below:














Blessings,
Jennifer