My daughter, Madison, and I attended a "Secret keeper Girl" event at our Church last year. Dannah Gresh has created the events secret Keeper girl as a means for moms and their daughters "tween-age to connect all learn modesty and honour God." Madison and I had a great time at the event, and it came at the right time for us: before Madison was a teenager, and while she is always eager to hear what is expected (and what God expects!) clothes, modesty and spiritual life. We laughed a lot, shared much and learned a lot. It was a great start of a series of discussions on how to dress and how it should behave to honour God.
We arrived home with the book "Six ways to keep the 'bit' in your Girl: Directors of its tweens to his young daughter" by Dannah Gresh. I can not express what a wonderful resource, this book was for my husband and me. We learned how it is important to keep our children protected from incredibly sexual cultures that we live in these days. We have learned to teach the views of God on sex and marriage rather than views of the world. We have learned ways to encourage our children to interact with them (and other children) positively rather than stay connected on Facebook, video and internet games all day. We learned how it is easy for our girls to develop a negative body image because of what they see on television and in magazines. And he stressed the importance of the parents in the lives of our children.
So when the last book Dannah Gresh, "Six ways to keep the 'good' in your Boy: Directors your son his interpolations in his Teens" was released, I bought it immediately. I devoured every page. It is also good, if not better - than his female counterpart. It is written primarily for mothers, but Dannah husband contributed to the book, and his ideas are invaluable. My husband is now the reading of the book and is loving it.
The Greshes struck all hot topics that we must deal with on our tween boys. It comes to lessons that they need to learn long before that they are adults or even teenagers. Our boys need to learn many things that make our girls, but there are so many questions that they are not generally encountered by girls. Addiction to pornography and the endless video games are two of the main themes that are hard in this book. Also discussed is the need for a real (preferably outdoors) playtime for boys, the importance of the "guy" with their dads (or another bad model) and teach them how to become a man with emphasis on the care of his wife and children. There are statistics in the book (especially with regard to pornography) who's afraid of the heck out of me. I was happy to read ways to help our son to learn to respect women and women to see how God see them, rather than as sexual objects.
I am so thankful that I have my hands on this book, while our boys are still 7 and 10.
This book really guilty a sure that I encourage our boys to get lots of quality time with their father. I was also sentenced to really apply the rules regarding internet use and play video/screen time. By reading this book, I felt as great comfort for many things, we do already. We will never raise perfect children, but my husband, Ryan, and I really want to do all that is possible to raise our children as adults honor God. Ryan and make it a habit to include books of good parents in our reading of the rotation because we think that parenting is a very high call that we need to learn properly. Studied at the College for four years (or more!) for a career... why we want more that it to be good parents?
I am looking forward to read more books of Dannah Gresh as our children grow up. If you are a parent and one of his books have not read yet, I highly recommend her!
Carrie Sharpe and her husband, Ryan, write a blog week called "He said she said" (http://www.ryancarriesharpe.com/). After their son, Maverick, died almost at birth, they began to speak in public to share their story with others in a way to give encouragement and hope. They spoke to a wide range of audiences throughout the United States and the Canada. They live in a beautiful of Northern Michigan, with their five children: Madison, Maguire, Maverick, sailor and Moxie-Mae.
