Monday, September 18, 2006
Books about children, books about parents.
Okay, this likely will not be the last post on this blog that mentions the adoption process that my wife and I are embarking on.
But it will not be entirely adoption-centric.
As we prepare for the arrival of Faith (the child's name -- the concept already resides in our home) we purchased the book "What to Excpect the First Year." A friend of ours gave us a copy of a book from the same series on the toddler years.
We are of course going to devour these and other books on child-rearing. And I have wondered how helpful, in my misspent youth, it would have been to have similar books on getting the most out of and living with parents. Lord knows I missed opportunities to learn things from my father and caused my mother undue stress and strain. But were such books to have been available to me, I am sure I would not have read them at that stage -- if only due to my own level of development and maturity.
There are myriad books on parenting, and those of us bracing for or the difficult process of parenting will read them, often paying good money for the opportunity to do so.
After all, others have walked this path of parenthood before us, and have gained wisdom that we could benefit from. They face the same challenges, trials and tribulations we will face, and if we are smart, we will take advantage of their memoirs and even scholarly research. Naturally, recommendations by these experts vary and tend to change over time. While no book on parenting can be the last word, we should do all we can to gather an understanding of the joyous task we face.
At the same time, we have the opportunity to read texts on others who have grappled with not their earthly parents -- but their Father in Heaven. And if we have put down the immaturity of our youth, we will read these scriptures, and put into practice what they say.
We should benefit from the experiences of others, in our earthly relations as well as in our relationship with the Lord. As is the case with books on parenting, the scriptures can not fully contain the Lord's intentions and communications for us, but they must be read and learned for the value they contain.
The point is that yes, the scriptures are imporant, and we should read them as a source of wisdom, encouragement and instruction in righteousness.
ON THE OTHER HAND, how much sense would it make to read books on child rearing and ignore the input, signals and attempts to communicate on the part of the child? The answer, obviously, is that it would make no sense whatever. Yet that is exactly what those who stress the scriptures over the Holy Spirit are doing. If we make the scriptures the begin-all and end-all of our understanding of the divine, we cut ourselves off from the continuing revelation of the Lord.
Okay, this likely will not be the last post on this blog that mentions the adoption process that my wife and I are embarking on.
But it will not be entirely adoption-centric.
As we prepare for the arrival of Faith (the child's name -- the concept already resides in our home) we purchased the book "What to Excpect the First Year." A friend of ours gave us a copy of a book from the same series on the toddler years.
We are of course going to devour these and other books on child-rearing. And I have wondered how helpful, in my misspent youth, it would have been to have similar books on getting the most out of and living with parents. Lord knows I missed opportunities to learn things from my father and caused my mother undue stress and strain. But were such books to have been available to me, I am sure I would not have read them at that stage -- if only due to my own level of development and maturity.
There are myriad books on parenting, and those of us bracing for or the difficult process of parenting will read them, often paying good money for the opportunity to do so.
After all, others have walked this path of parenthood before us, and have gained wisdom that we could benefit from. They face the same challenges, trials and tribulations we will face, and if we are smart, we will take advantage of their memoirs and even scholarly research. Naturally, recommendations by these experts vary and tend to change over time. While no book on parenting can be the last word, we should do all we can to gather an understanding of the joyous task we face.
At the same time, we have the opportunity to read texts on others who have grappled with not their earthly parents -- but their Father in Heaven. And if we have put down the immaturity of our youth, we will read these scriptures, and put into practice what they say.
We should benefit from the experiences of others, in our earthly relations as well as in our relationship with the Lord. As is the case with books on parenting, the scriptures can not fully contain the Lord's intentions and communications for us, but they must be read and learned for the value they contain.
The point is that yes, the scriptures are imporant, and we should read them as a source of wisdom, encouragement and instruction in righteousness.
ON THE OTHER HAND, how much sense would it make to read books on child rearing and ignore the input, signals and attempts to communicate on the part of the child? The answer, obviously, is that it would make no sense whatever. Yet that is exactly what those who stress the scriptures over the Holy Spirit are doing. If we make the scriptures the begin-all and end-all of our understanding of the divine, we cut ourselves off from the continuing revelation of the Lord.
