Heartfelt Discipline: Following God's Path of Life to the Heart of Your Child

by Clay Clarkson

Paperback

About the author

Clay Clarkson is director of Whole Heart Ministries, a nonprofit family ministry he and his wife, Sally, started in 1994 to help Christian parents raise wholehearted children for Christ. He is the author of Educating the WholeHearted Child, Our 24 Family Ways, Heartfelt Discipline, Taking Motherhood to Hearts, and The Lifegiving Parent (with Sally Clarkson). He writes online about Christian parenting, imagination, and other biblical topics. Clay is a graduate of Denver Seminary (MDIv) and has served with churches and ministries since 1975. He is also a Christian songwriter and collector of old Christian books. Clay and Sally live in Monument, Colorado. Their four children are grown, following Jesus, and following in their parents' footsteps as writers and creators.

Reviews

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thought provoking. I always need reminders that life isn’t a formula and parenting isn’t either; there isn’t a three step plan to the perfect child. Being in tune with the Spirit is key in each situation. A few things that felt maybe over-protective or hovering, but maybe that’s because I’ve been more shaped by the culture than I know?

[Sanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book for parents sick of following formulas in parenting. This book has changed our lives and I am forever grateful!!

[Amanda Tero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally finished! This took me many months to read… It wasn’t that it wasn’t good, I just wasn’t always in the mood for non-fiction.

So, the main takeaways:

1) Parenting in the spirit as opposed to by a formula. That concept was really good and needful for me.

2) Not just punishing your children when they do something, but rather giving them warning and then punishing them (and maybe even agreeing on what type of punishment is appropriate for the offense). The alternative to reactive parenting was also a good reminder.

Overall, there are a lot of good points in this book and my husband and I had a lot of good discussions as I was reading this.

There are, of course, some things I don’t necessarily agree with. I found it to be contradictory how he would define that Proverbs was talking about teens and then later said “this applies well to young children.” I was just slightly annoyed that he didn’t stick to the same hermeneutics.

I also found that anytime he would give exact examples of “here is how to do xyz,” I wasn’t a fan. I realize this is just because of my background of hearing tons of examples of “how to parent.” I really wanted general ideas as opposed to specific ideas. It doesn’t mean those parts are bad. They just didn’t work for me.

But the guiding principles he was trying to convey in this book was how you cannot follow someone’s pattern for parenting. Therefore, this book is intended to be read just as guiding ideas, not a formula. And I think in light of that, it was a job well done.

Overall, I do recommend this book. It gives a lot of thoughts to consider, and I did underline a large portion of this book!