As soon the doctor confirmed my first pregnancy, I sent my sweet husband to the bookstore straightaway. The poor man was instructed not to come home until he had purchased What to Expect When You’re Expecting. (I was not usually so dictatorial but we were beginning to realize our lives would revolve around my nausea for the next 3 months, so he was all too happy to oblige.) And so began my earnest quest to educate myself about parenthood, which for me meant reading every trustworthy source I could find about being a godly, loving mom. Those were the days- when I thought what I needed to know could be contained in the pages of a mass market paperback.
Twenty-six years later, most of what I have learned about being a mom has come either on my knees in prayer, in conversation with a wiser mom than me, or from interacting with my actual kids. But there’s still great value in some parenting books, and here at Rooted we want to share the best ones we can find with you. Here are the best new Christian parenting books of 2022!
Honorable Mention
Humble Moms: How the Work of Christ Sustains the Work of Motherhood by Kristen Wetherell.
Humble Moms by Kristen Wetherell reminds moms, both new and seasoned, that when we align our hearts with Jesus, parenting will be more purposeful and beautiful. Wetherell is honest about her failures as a mom and brings up the hard truth that we often find it hard to serve our kids with glad and willing hearts. She does not offer practical do’s and don’ts to help soothe these ugly moments, but rather, she gently points us to Jesus to find our rest in him.
Moms live in a world with constant interruptions, and so these short chapters serve as natural breaks. Also, her thoughts for reflections and prayers at the end of each chapter are helpful for the weary mom in need of encouragement or struggling to find the words to pray.
Throughout her book, Wetherell points us to familiar verses and passages from Scripture but illuminates them in a way that helps us see Jesus more clearly. One of my favorite insights comes when she reminds us that Jesus prays for us from John 17:9-10. She then asks questions: Why does Jesus pray for us now? Isn’t his work finished? His work on the cross is absolutely finished but Jesus prays for us, “because he is committed to seeing us all the way home.” (p.129) Jesus is for us! Remembering that Jesus is behind us and rooting for us helps me to get back up and receive his grace and continue to parent after my failures. We can give our broken selves to Jesus and ask him to lead.
Written for the weary mom or group of moms who want to journey together, Humble Moms is wonderfully encouraging.
Winner
Special Grace, Prayers and Reflections for Families With Special Needs by Elrena Evans
Special Grace, Prayers and Reflections for Families with Special Needs by Elrena Evans is a needed resource and encouragement for families with special needs. It is clear these prayers came from a deep and treasured understanding of God’s grace. Evans has spent many hours on her knees. Though the book is targeted towards families with special needs children, Special Grace is an important book for ALL families. This short read teaches families who don’t bear the extra burden of special needs members invaluable lessons to better understand the daily unexpected struggles of families who do.
In her prayers, Evans provides language for overwhelming moments such as, “When Starting a New Medication” or “A Prayer for a Meltdown.” She also includes some beautiful prayers of thanksgiving that really make this book full of hope. Many of the prayers are simply prayers all parents need and can apply to any of our lives.
Winner
Raising Emotionally Strong Boys: Tools Your Son Can Build on for Life by David Thomas
For parents raising sons, David Thomas’ new book, Raising Emotionally Strong Boys: Tools Your Son Can Build on for Life is eye-opening and helpful for getting a better perspective on the importance of emotional health for maturing boys. Prior to reading this book I knew emotional health was important, but as I read there were many times when I saw the struggles of my own children in the pages of this book.
Thomas stresses that we, like our sons, need more concrete language to express our emotions. Just like our physical bodies need training, we also need to develop and learn to regulate our emotions. The guidelines and principles that Thomas lays out in this book give us the practical tools to be able to help our boys along their emotional journey. For example, there’s a parallel process of sleep training for infant boys and emotional training for our teenage sons. We sleep train our boys when they are infants so that they will learn to self-soothe, which is a crucial life skill (and also a source of sanity for moms). Emotionally, when we as parents do not help our children learn how to self-regulate (self-soothe) their emotions, they can become anchored to us for all of their needs, which can in turn lead to a dangerous pattern with other females in his life as he grows up. These kinds of insights were wake-up calls for me as a mother to pay closer attention to my boys’ behavior and to recognize what’s happening emotionally in their hearts. This book trained me to think deeper about what’s going on, rather than simply reacting (out of my own emotions) to the situation at hand.
What separates this book from other parenting books is that Raising Emotionally Strong Boys is more than a practical and instructional handbook. Thomas shows parents how to raise our sons to be more like Jesus. He says that Jesus, “Despite being tempted, challenged, betrayed, mocked, abandoned, abused, and then crucified–the worst of human conditions imaginable- he navigated each of those emotions and experiences with honesty, humility, civility, and strength. His life serves as the ultimate roadmap for how to be a man in this world” (p. 39-40). I was humbled by this reminder that God’s call for my boys means reflecting Christ’s “honesty, humility, civility and strength” as men. I highly recommend that parents raising sons read this excellent book.
The 2022 Rooted Book Awards Team included Chelsea Kingston Erickson, Tucker Fleming, Davis Lacey, Tracy Yi, and Anna Meade Harris.
To enter to win both of the parent book winners, just download our free sample of Rooted Family Discipleship!
⁃ Best New Book for Parents: Raising Emotionally Strong Boys: Tools Your Son Can Build on for Life by David Thomas
⁃ Best New Book to Talk About With Teenagers: Jesus Through the Eyes of Women: How the First Female Disciples Help Us Know and Love the Lord by Rebecca McLaughlin
