Raising Kids in the Way of Grace (Paperback) by Bob Kellemen

As Christians, we have first-hand experience of God's amazing grace and love. However, as parents, we can often be unsure of how to communicate this to our children.

Experienced writer, counselor, and father Bob Kellemen blends practical principles with a focus on God-dependent living to explain how we can bring our knowledge and experience of God’s love and grace to bear on the daily joys and challenges of family life. He explains how we can mirror our Heavenly Father through 5 marks of grace-focused parenting. Short enough to read in one sitting but packed with biblical wisdom, you’ll want to keep this little book handy to dip into for advice, encouragement, and support on your parenting journey.

"Honest, balanced and biblical, this short book will be a profitable read for any imperfect parent out there." ~ Ann Benton, Speaker and Author of several books including Parenting Against The Tide

“No matter what stage your parenting journey is at, Bob Kellemen’s sound and practical parenting guidance will nourish and encourage you. The biblical parenting model in Raising Kids in the Way of Grace is true and time-tested. Someday your children will thank you for reading and living this book." ~ Pastor Steve DeWitt, Senior Pastor, Bethel Church, Crown Point, Indiana

“Raising Kids in the Way of Grace is a powerful summary of biblical parenting that will encourage and equip to every parent. The acronym of GRACE provides excellent talking points for the biblical counselor and relevant checkpoints for parents. Dr. Kellemen's work offers a quick access tool that parents need to help them deploy a Christian parenting style that will enable them to establish and maintain a connection to their children and keep their children connected to Christ.” ~ Dr. Howard Eyrich, ACBC Fellow, BCC Council Board Member, Director of Doctor of Ministry Program in Biblical Counseling at Birmingham Theological Seminary, Biblical Counselor at The Owen Center

"Bob Kellemen has produced a concise, but thorough book for parents looking for biblical wisdom for parenting. In Raising Kids in the Way of Grace, Bob walks alongside parents and offers wisdom and counsel drawn from the pages of Scripture and lived out in his own parental journey. Personally, Bob is the guy I’d want to sit down with and learn from in my parenting journey; now you have the opportunity to do so as you read and drink in this grace-filled perspective on a perennially important topic." ~ Jonathan D. Holmes, Pastor of Counseling, Parkside Church; Executive Director, Fieldstone Counseling

“Bob Kellemen has a uniquely helpful way of organizing practical, biblical truth that will be valuable to parents trying to find their way. Raising Kids in the Way of Grace is not a system, instead it’s a gospel primer to inspire and direct parents to model for kids how to see God in their world and to love him in their hearts.”~ Dr. Jeremy Pierre, Associate Professor of Biblical Counseling, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

“This book is small in size, but immense in hope-filled wisdom. Though it could be read in one sitting, it offers months’ worth of biblical insight for personal reflection, meditation, and application. Bob Kellemen masterfully moves his reader from the ‘how-to’ of parenting to the ‘Whose am I?’ of gospel-fueled, grace-driven living that will empower parents to love their children and influence them for God’s glory.” ~ Betty-Anne Van Rees, BCC Council Member; Canadian BCC Board Member

Title

Raising Kids in the Way of Grace
Author(s)

Bob Kellemen
Series

Raising Kids
ISBN

9781912373321
Format

Paperback
Publisher

10Publishing
Topic

Parenting
Audience

Parents
Pages

96
Published

01/08/2018

Download a sample

Overall rating

4.5 based on 6 reviews

Raising Kids in the Way of Grace

It is easy to feel condemned by parenting books, but Kelleman encourages Christian parents to seek grace from above. He encourages us to put on the whole armour of God as the real enemy is Satan, not our children. In discipling them, we are to be firm but loving at the same time. He also encourages us to relate all aspects of daily life to God, quite difficult to do in practice. A short book, but grounded on the core doctrine of the grace of God.

Stephen Ayre

Confession time. I have mostly avoided reading any parenting guides for the last 20 years. Why? Is it the fear of being exposed as a substandard parent? Or do I resist the challenge of having to think about tackling difficult family issues in a new way? Or would I prefer to draw on the advice of family & friends rather than reaching for the advice of a stranger? But now I find that I’m wholeheartedly recommending this excellent wee book – Raising Kids in the Way of Grace. This book encourages grace–focused, God–dependent parenting. It is a small book, only 79 small pages long. Even if you’re a new parent and you don’t have much time to read, it’s divided up into short paragraphs so that you can dip in & out easily. The main take home message is that instead of desiring a parenting how–to manual, we should parent our kids (of any age) by being teachable disciples of Christ ourselves. I’ll just share a couple of helpful insights from the book. When tension arises at home, our temptation is to see the other family member (unruly child, angry husband) as the enemy. The author paraphrases Eph 6 to remind Christian parents that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces of evil. So our role as parents is to unite the family against a common spiritual enemy, rather than fighting against each other. Also, grace–directed parenting will never mean that we act as if our kids are perfect. Grace is based on Christ’s relationship to us, not on our goodness – “while we were yet sinners Christ died for us”. So we deal realistically with our children, admitting our own sins, faults and imperfections. We remain strongly involved with them and filled with hope. As God is to us (holy & full of shepherding love), so we seek to be to our children. And always remember that even God’s perfect discipline can be responded to either wisely or foolishly. This book is full of good advice, thought–provoking questions & Biblical wisdom. Every congregation should have at least ten of these.

Ann Macrea

Ok, so I’ll be honest here. I didn’t get this book to start off with. It took me a while to understand the authors way of writing, and although it says you can read it in one sitting, I was struggling just to get through a page before I was confused or distracted. But I persevered. I knew that this was a book that I wanted to dig deeper into, and so I managed to find a few half an hour slots where I could read a bit more, and soon the nuggets of pure gold started coming out. As a parent, I often struggle with this internal battle of loving my kids but them being so annoying and rude and naughty that I just don’t know what to do with them!! I look to the bible and I see verses about how a child should not be “disobedient or wild” and that you “shouldn’t spare the rod”, but also that the gospel is one of second chances, and I just can’t weigh up the right thing to do. This book has really helped to clarify that. It has helped to clarify my role as a parent, as mouth-piece of God in their lives, a role model and it has reminded me that parenting is a spiritual battle I need to prepare for. There is lots of wisdom and advice in this book that I haven’t even begun to digest yet. On the back cover it says “Short enough to read in one sitting but packed with biblical wisdom, you’ll want to keep this little book handy to dip into for advice, encouragement and support on your parenting journey”. I agree that this is a book I will be coming back to again and again until I fully grasp how to parent with grace. This book isn’t quite as easy a read as “Parenting Kids in a Screen-Saturated World” which I absolutely loved. But I guess its not as simple or easily applicable as that. You have to mull over the things taught in this book and really get to grips with the biblical principles behind it. So despite not being a fan to start off with, I am falling in love with this. So far my favourite line is this: “Parents are God’s moral ambassadors. Our role is to fill the time delay between human disobedience and diving consequences. In parental discipline, we’re making the long term consequences of God’s spiritual rule more immediately felt.” Available at the bargain price of £2.99 over on the 10ofthose.com website, there really is no cheaper way to invest in your parenting. What is there to lose?! Like me, you might just find a really valuable resource for the rest of your parenting years.

Rachel Ridler

This is a short book on parenting, but it covers a lot of ground and gives a lot of encouragement and instruction. Based on Ephesians and using the acronym GRACE, this book gives some grace filled advice for parents, straight from the Bible. This books is perfect for parents who want some encouraging help, but don't have the time or energy to wade through a big book.

Jonathan Thomas

As with many of his books, Kellemen utilizes a simple teaching method to help the principles of the book sticks with the reader. Here he utilizes the mnemonic device of an acrostic (GRACE) to focus each chapter and simplify the principles. The short book centers around “5 practical marks of grace–focused parenting.” Each chapter, then, corresponds to one letter in the acrostic and aims to provide one of these marks. The benefit of the book is its blend of theological foundation and practical application. It is not uncommon to find parenting books that do one or the other, but to find both in an accessible format is a bit more difficult. Raising Kids in the Way of Grace is a wonderful and simple tool for parents. It avoids silly formulas, and proposes principles rooted in Scripture. Bob Kellemen has written yet another wonderful tool for the church and I highly recommend this encouraging read to any struggling parent. Review first published on https://pastordaveonline.org/2018/10/22/a–review–of–raising–kids–in–the–way–of–grace–by–bob-kellemen/

Pastor Dave Dunham

Parenting is difficult, and parenting while constantly trying to point children to Christ is even more difficult. Every parent that I have spoken to has explained how becoming a parent was and still is the most difficult thing that they have ever done, but at the same time children are also one of the greatest gifts from God. This is a great little book, full of Biblical truth and practical help on how to raise children and point them to Jesus. Whilst this book is written specifically to parents, even if you are not a parent don’t let that stop you from reading it. The principles laid out in this book are relevant for every Christian, we all want to live the GRACE filled lives put forth in this book.