parenting books???

Sarah Bessey is asking us about our favorite parenting books today. Hmmm. I don’t have any to suggest. I do have a few to NOT suggest. But, I am hardly an award-winning mother of young children. I survived and heck, I want a medal just for that.

I had 4 children under 6 and THREE restaurants and a ministry. Yes, I am an idiot. No, I do not recommend it. But, we did survive and now they are all teenagers. 18-13. And they are fabulous. I take NO credit. I have no idea how that came to be. It should not have, circumstance and my craziness were stacked against them. But, they are OK; honestly, they are as wonderful as your kids. I know that should not be so.

Now, as clueless as I am with kiddos, I am competent with teens. I am most everybody’s other mama, mentor, favorite teacher or youth minister. I get teens. I love teenagers. I LIKE THEM. ( I think that is my secret. They know it.)

Here’s my two cents you paranoid parents of upcoming teens. ( This is not no-fail advice. Everything fails sometimes.)

 Study your child. Know them, well. Listen to them and remember what they say. Talk with them in light of what they have shared, don’t just randomly probe, revisit what they do offer and expand. It works for me with mine and lots of other folks’ kids.

I think we all just want to be heard and loved for who we really are. That’s true for kids, too.

Enough preaching.

Making a list to consult from Sarah’s site.

 Maybe I can do better with littles as a grandparent.

A peek at my shelves and bedside

Sarah Bessey asked us to offer our best reads. Today’s category is books which have most impacted/changed me in my faith. Here is my list.

Of course, dear Madeleine’s, “Walking on Water” – nothing has ever so invigorated and empowered me. I have read everything which she has written. But, WoW is her most distilled, best. I would take it over the Bible to a desert isle. Sue me.

“Ragamuffin Gospel,” Brother Brennan Manning. This gorgeously simple work  inspired me at 20 and restored  a very broken and bruised me at 40. First and only thing I could bear to read after “it all” fell apart.

Most everything of  (the godfather’s) Brian McLaren’s which I have read has strengthened my vision and hope, but Naked Spirituality spoke some things into me that have helped me breathe on in a long, dark, winter season of my soul. Raw and ready to come near words resonated profoundly within me. A huge blessing of sustenance and security.

David Dark’s, “The Sacredness of Questioning Everything” is a delightful and cleverly written treatise on deconstructive questioning of status quo life: systems, foundations, and ideologies. Laughed and gasped every page. Brilliant.

Half the Sky- read it with my senior in high school honors students – we were torn asunder…powerful and humbling and yet hopeful. A call to those who would care. I think some of my girls changed their minds about who and what they wanted to be…I sure did.

“Crude,” Sonia Shah. I teach Economics of the Global persuasion. This rent my spirit. Beautiful writing and penetrating journalism. Came upon it during the near death of “my” gulf… I want to do work like this.

Well, I’ve read it more times than I can count, but “Wrinkle in Time,” Madeleine L’Engle, still comforts and soothes this Charles Wallace type like nothing else.

That’s my go to, buy  it for everyone list. Thanks for the opportunity to share, Sarah.