Motivate Your Child by Dr. Scott Turansky (Book Review)

Friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter may have noticed over the past few weeks that I've mentioned the launch of a new book which has just released. I have appreciated being on the Launch team of  Motivate Your Child: A Christian Parent's Guide to Raising Kids Who Do What They Need to Do Without Being Told by Dr. Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller, RN, BSN

Motivate Your Child is filled with concrete examples and advice to help us "Parent from the heart." What that means in plain terms is learning (or sometimes relearning/refreshing) how to guide our children into maturity, growing their character and integrity with internal motivation rather than external motivation.

I'm sure many of us have fallen prey to using external motivation (Reward or punishment) at one time or another. While it is sometimes the easiest or quickest method to use,  as a consistent method of discipling our children, it's effects are only as lasting as the reward or punishment exist (please note, discipling = teaching vs the common misuse of discipline = punishment). Far better to gently and patiently teach our children to recognize what is right and wrong, and how to make choices that show integrity.

One major roadblock to this method is the popular conception of failure and correction. Dr. Turnasky uses concrete examples as well as wisdom from the Bible to show that correction is something to be embraced. It is a tool to gain wisdom. Side Note: Thomas Edison recognized this idea... "If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is often a step forward..."  I realize that Mr. Edison was speaking about experiments, but he still had to "Correct" his thinking in order to progress...

There are two sections to the book:
Moral Development which covers strategies to grow that internal moral compass of integrity, compassion, and initiative.

Spiritual Development speaks to the foundations of faith in parenting, ideas to help you live out your faith on a daily basis, where your children see you, so that it becomes as natural for them to learn to follow God as it is to learn to ride a bike,  go for hikes, bake cookies, and do anything else that you do on a regular basis.

I have been reading through this book, and highlighting nuggets of gold in every chapter. Some are new strategies, and others are tools and concepts that I've neglected or that have gotten a little rusty with disuse.

I especially appreciated the pictures drawn with words of what honor looks like, and how to encourage it, what compassion is, and how to show it, and again, what correction really is~ a gift to help them learn from their mistakes instead of continuing in them.

I would like to thank Dr. Scott and Joanne Miller for taking the time to put their actions and thoughts into words, to help our generation with #heartparenting.

Blessings~