Premeditated Parenting - Foundational Christian Parenting

Table of Contents

Title Page............................................................... i
Copyright Page and Thanks............................. ii
Forward ................................................................ v
Introduction ....................................................... xiv
Rethinking Parenting ........................................ 1

A Heart for Parenting ................................................................ 2
The State of the Family ............................................................ 6
Embracing Extreme Parenting ............................................ 10
Impact Parenting .................................................................... 13
A Call to Heroism ................................................................... 15
Premeditated Parenting ........................................................ 18
Precarious Parenting Patterns ............................................ 21
Forward Thinking Parenting ................................................. 29

Parenting with Confidence .............................. 31

Following Our Father ............................................................. 33
Getting Advice ......................................................................... 35
Why Do Bad Kids Happen to Good Parents? ................... 38
Does Free Will Contradict Confident Parenting? ............. 41
Where We Lack, God Supplies ........................................... 43
What Guarantees Do You Have? ........................................ 45
You Can Win ........................................................................... 48
Worst Case Scenario ............................................................ 50
God Is for You ......................................................................... 53
Making Sense of the Prodigal .............................................. 57

Winning Ways .................................................. 63

Get Them While They Are Young ........................................ 64
Putting it into Action ............................................................... 66
Passing the Life-baton ......................................................... 69
Setting an Example ................................................................ 71
Imitators ................................................................................... 72
Parenting under Pressure ................................................... 73
Humbling Ourselves to a Noble Call ................................. 74
Parenting with Purpose ........................................................ 77
Keep the End Product in Mind ............................................. 79
Critical Involvement ................................................................ 81
Sacrificing for Your Children ................................................ 84
Mr. Mom ................................................................................... 86
A Perspective of Thankfulness ........................................... 89
Give Them Something to Live For ...................................... 90
Being a United Force ............................................................ 92

Parenting in Love .............................................. 95

The Hearts of the Fathers ..................................................... 96
Strong Moms and Involved Dads ........................................ 98
Balance Correction and Positive Input ............................... 99
I Love You .............................................................................. 100
I’m Proud of You ................................................................... 102
This Is My Child .................................................................... 107
God-time, God-talk, and God-giving ................................. 108
Baseballs and Bike Chains ............................................... 110
They Want You! ..................................................................... 111
Eye Twinkles ......................................................................... 114
The Joy of Parenting ............................................................ 115
Quality Time .......................................................................... 118

Discipline ......................................................... 121

Discipline Introduction ........................................................ 122
Bonsai Parenting ................................................................. 123
Eli’s Unrestrained Sons ..................................................... 126
Interfere with Your Children ............................................... 128
What the Bible Says about Discipline .............................. 129
What Is Discipline? .............................................................. 131
By the Seat of Her Pants ..................................................... 132
To Spank or Not to Spank .................................................. 133
Is Spanking Abuse? ............................................................ 136
Does Spanking Breed Violence? ..................................... 139
Would Jesus Spank? .......................................................... 141
How Can Outward Pain Cause Inward Change? ......... 146
Time-outs .............................................................................. 148
Natural Consequences ...................................................... 149
When to Start Discipline ..................................................... 153
How Pain Relates to Training ........................................... 155
Immediate, Memorable, Consistent ................................ 157
Basics of Discipline ............................................................ 158
Some Practical and Simple Commands ........................ 162
Steps of Discipline .............................................................. 166
Anger and Discipline ........................................................... 168
Can Other Forms of Discipline Be Blessed? ................. 170
What to Do When Discipline Isn’t Working ...................... 172
Will Discipline Cause Rebellion? ..................................... 177
More on Spanking ................................................................ 179
A Whopper ............................................................................. 183

Teaching and Training ................................... 187

The Incubator ........................................................................ 188
The Invisible Parent
(The Power of Instruction) .................................................. 189
Making Training Effective
– Keeping Them in the Barrel ............................................ 191
Teaching Them to Sit and Play Quietly ............................ 193
Quickly, Completely, and Cheerfully ................................. 194
Teaching the Bible Stories ................................................. 195
Teaching with Intent ............................................................. 196
The School of Hard Knocks ............................................... 198
Directing Personal Choices ............................................... 201
Religion Crammed Down the Throat
(Teaching Religion).............................................................. 203
Negative Training
(Bad Influences) ................................................................... 205
Moonstruck ............................................................................ 207
Training for Life’s Temptations ......................................... 208
The Greatest Teacher
(The Stranger) ....................................................................... 210
Teaching for Their Good ..................................................... 212
Missionaries or Mission Fields ......................................... 214
Training to Love .................................................................... 217

Conclusion ...................................................... 219

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Copyright 2006, by Steve Nelson 801 37th Street, Evans, CO 80620

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted in any form, by means of electronic, photocopying, or otherwise, without prior permission of the author.