A Little About the Book:
Does your family need help getting organized? Do you need a psychologist or couselor to help sort out the drama? Or do you need a coach or director to help move your family from the chaos they are in to more peaceful and happier times with lifelong memories and lessons? Do you just desire more peace and more of Jesus in your family? Well, you are in luck! Ken Blanchard, best-selling coauthor of The One Minute Manager and Lead Like Jesus will show you can become more like Jesus and lead your family into newer and deeper levels of life that will not only make an impact on you but also on your kids. Ken is joined by verteran parents and authors Phil Hodges and Tricia Goyer. Together they will take you on an epic journey to help you to lead your family like Jesus.
Lead Your Family Like Jesus will take you through twelve priceless parenting principles based on the Savior's life and teachings-from "Say Yes to the Best and No to the Rest" to "Know the Difference Between a Crisis and a Bump in the Road." You will also discover how your heart, head, hands, and habits can work together as you serve your way to a truly Christ-centered family.
I don't know about you, but my kids are everything to me! I am so honored to have been given the opportunity to read this book and travel through the life of Jesus and learn new ways to truly center our lives around Christ!
Lead Your Family Like Jesus Review:
I have to start by saying that I am so honored to have been a part of this book launch. I am so honored to have had the opportunity to meet and serve with some pretty amazing people. Each of us committed to join hands with Ken Blanchard, Phil Hodges and Tricia Goyer as they began to launch their latest book, Lead Your Family Like Jesus. Not only did we join hands with them, but we also joined them on an amazing spiritual journey. Through this many of us have began to take a new journey or path with our own families. So, with a renewed vision and much encouragement I now give you my personal opinion of this book and a basic review!
I am far from a "perfect" parent. In fact, there have been times in my life where I have had to ask God, "why did you trust me with two other lives?" He chose me to be there mom. He believed in me and loved me so much that He gave me this amazing journey of parenting. The key word there is journey. We all learn as we go! There have been times in that journey that I have found myself saying, "I am sorry" as much as I say "I love you." I am just a sinner saved by grace! It is not on my own works and I have no room to boast. As a parent I want what is best for my kids and that means what is best for them now, but also what is best for them eternally.
This book is divided into four parts and twelve chapters. I will tell you that if you are a person that likes to take notes or highlight in your books you will fill each page with bright colors or a notebook full of notes. In each section Ken, Phil, and Tricia share their thoughts! This not only makes it a great read (I mean three great authors from different backgrounds with different views) but it also makes it a very powerful read. You will travel with them each through the four sections of the book, The Heart, The Head, The Hands and The Habits. As you read along their journies in parenting you are also given awesome testimony from others all throughout the book. You are not alone in this at all. It is sort of like a study group going on in the midst of an amazing message.
The Heart: Leading like Jesus as a parent is first a spiritual matter. Since you have been given the honor to influence your kids you need to ask yourself "Am I motivated by self-interest or by the betterment of those I'm leading?" You need to know what is important forever and what is tempory in life. You need to also live by what is important forever. Once you understand this you will then journey through how an unChristlike kind of EGO (Edging God Out) can cause you to make choices that can and will hurt our families. But in this section of the heart Tricia share the hope of another kind of EGO (Exalting God Only). With this EGO, she shows us how Jesus set a pattern for us to exalt God and lead our families for the important forever!
The Head: "The journey to leading like Jesus as a parent starts in the heart, with your motives and intent. Those motives and intent then travel through the head, where you store your beliefs about parenting."
Jesus told us and showed us that leadership (parenting) is first an act of service. How do you become a servant leader? This does not mean you please everyone all the time. (Many parents know how exhausting that can be.) We still have to keep in mind the important forevers. We as parents should not be worried about pleasing others or how we look in the PTA meeting. We should be concerned about pleasing God, our Father, and not others.
In this section you will begin to look at or think about the importance of vision and direction for your family. Where are you leading them? And, is that pleasing to God? Is it forever important? You will look at your values and what you stand for and you will also view the primary focus of your family. Where are you going? What do you stand for? Who are you and whose are you?
The Hands: "Family members will experience what's in your heart and head when your motivations and beliefs about parenting affect your hands-your actions. If as a parent you have a servant heart and a servant-leadership point of view, you'll become a performance coach."
This section had the words performance coaching. I am a life and spiritual coach. I never really thought of myself as a coach to my kids. However, I AM just as Jesus was and is!
In this section you will focus on making the most of the parenting years because as most of us know they go by quick. Also, Ken does an amazing job at showing us how we are coaches to our kids and what that looks like and how that works in the family in this section. (Love it) Phil really brings to this chapter the emphasis of the results of great parenting. He really focuses on obedience here as well.
The Habits: This section was my personal favorite. Overtime, our perspectives can get warped and our habits become us and can be some of the most challenging things to address and change. However, NEVER impossible.
"As a leader committed to serve despite all the pressures, trials, and temptations He faced, how did Jesus replenish His energy and servan perspective? Through His HABITS!"
"Your habits are the way you review and act on your daily commitment as a parent to serve rather than being served."
If you want to stay on track; you need to stay close and connected to Christ. In this final part of the book, Ken lays out five ways or powerful habits that can help you stay on track with leading your family like Jesus. He starts with solitude! Be still and know that I am God. Psalms 46:10. The next habit is prayer. Here he share the acrnmy ACTS to help others pray. A is for adoration. C is for confession. T is for thanksgiving and S is for supplication or asking. The third habit, (and one I am challenging myself to do more of in the mornings and not just at night) studying and applying scripture. The fourth habit is accepting God's love and then finally being involved in supportive relationships. (I could really use more of these!) Tricia piggy backs on several of these concepts such as solitude, prayer and relying on the Word of God. She shows us how to pray for our kids with the song head, shoulder, knees and toes. (This you will sing and pray over and over. I love it) Then
Phil wraps it all up with the greatest habits that God showed us: forgiveness and grace.
Every page is full of something for everyone no matter where you are in life or parenting. Lead Your Family Like Jesus has something for everyone! To add to that, YOU ARE NOT ALONE in this book! As you read you will journey through many lives including the authors! You are sure to connect with someone in this book if not many on several levels! There is a lot of information that you can use to transform your family towards the important forever! This book is a quick read, but I would recommend taking your time and really looking at your family. It will be worth it for you and your kids. Sit down with a group of other parents or alone in your room or with your husband or make this a family read. There are many ways to use this book and when you are done.......read it again......I am sure you will find more!
I will continue to read this book throughout my parenting season! I will also be forever thankful that the walk of Jesus applies to all no matter what stage of life you are in, who you are, where you have been, where you are at, and where you are going! He is truly the way, the truth, and life. Your family can be His light? So, who are you and whose are you? Then, do your words and actions reflect that truth?
