Grace-Based Parenting

Grace-Based Parenting by Tim Kimmel is a radical and revolutionary book that every parent must read. It describes a kind of parenting that every Christian parent would be well-off to apply: parenting the way God the Father parents them, or in other words, parenting with grace. Grace, defined as unearned favor, is something that the world does not understand, but is described in many facets in this book, such as in terms of affirmation, acceptance, and approval, which every child seeks to receive from his or her parents. Kimmel goes on to describe different extremes from this ideal model of parenting, from super-strict legalism, which saps the child of life, to super-lax do-whatever-you-please parenting, both of which he explained were detrimental to a child’s development. Instead he paints a picture of how grace looks in the context of parenting, giving real-life examples from his own family as well as others he has counseled over the years, making the principles come alive in actual application. Overall, he also successfully offers a matrix of the child’s driving inner needs as well as the basic things a parent needed to do for maintaining an environment open for grace to work.

Grace-Based Parenting Review:

There were more than fifty customers who wrote their thoughts on this Christian book, and they gave it an average rating of 4.6 stars. Only a handful of customers gave it ratings below 3.0-stars, while the greatest number of reviewers was happy enough to give it a perfect 5.0-star rating.

One of the reviewers described this as an excellent Christian book that he would heartily recommend to anyone. She shared how the book, though it was directed at Christian parents, had principles that even parents who were not Christians could use, too. She also greatly appreciated how the author communicated grace for parent-readers, as everyone obviously had fallen short; she felt that the book gave her hope and also a good start for creating a grace-based home minus the compromise of moral standards. She commended the author for doing a good job balancing these two and avoiding the extremes of legalism and licentiousness. Other readers also liked this part of the book, especially, as they understood the need for balance but had trouble achieving it. In fact, one of the readers shared how she had trouble reading many of the observations the author laid out initially, because she was also parenting, as she put it, “with a heavy hand.” She shared how the book helped her lighten up and treat her kids with the same grace extended to her by God through Jesus. Another reader shared that heavy disciplinarians would likely benefit from this book; he also loved how transparent Kimmel was about his own failures, as well as in sharing the recovery process from the mistakes.

From the positive impact that this Christian book has apparently had on many of the readers, we would highly recommend this book for all parents out there, especially those who are having trouble dealing with their kids the way that God deals with them.