Spiritual Parenting: A Guide to Understanding and Nurturing the Heart of Your Child

by Hugh Prather, Gayle Prather

"The best parenting book ever written. I am recommending it to everyone."
--Gerald G. Jampolsky, M.D., author of Love Is Letting Go of Fear

A radical, new approach, Spiritual Parenting is a guide to caring for the naturally intuitive and spiritual core of every child. In the words of authors, counselors, and ministers Hugh and Gayle Prather, "This book reflects our deep personal conviction that parenting is a spiritual path, a form of worship."  In their characteristically warm style, the Prathers offer a book of principles and practices that parents can use to understand and nurture their children at home, at school, and in the world. While a belief in God isn't necessary to understand and apply this approach, parents are encouraged to learn how to focus on the spiritual aspects of child care amid the bewildering everyday complexities involved in guiding children toward adulthood.

With humor and realism, the Prathers tell stories and anecdotes about their own children and the children of families they have counseled to help today's parents break through conflicting ideas, emotions, and impasses. Through Spiritual Parenting, they will learn how to cherish and enjoy their children at all stages of their growth.

Genres: Parenting

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Hugh Prather, Jr. was a writer, minister, and counselor, most famous for his first book, Notes to Myself. , which was first published in 1970 by Real People Press. It has sold over 5 million copies, and has been translated into ten languages.
Together with his second wife, Gayle Prather, whom he married in 1965, he wrote other books, including The Little Book of Letting Go; "I Touch the Earth, The Earth Touches Me"; How to Live in the World and Still Be Happy; I Will Never Leave You: How Couples Can Achieve The Power Of Lasting Love; Spiritual Notes to Myself: Essential Wisdom for the 21st Century; Shining Through: Switch on Your Life and Ground Yourself in Happiness; Spiritual Parenting: A Guide to Understanding and Nurturing the Heart of Your Child; Standing on My Head: Life Lessons in Contradictions; A Book of Games: A Course in Spiritual Play; Love and Courage; Notes to Each Other; A Book for Couples; The Quiet Answer; and There is a Place Where You Are Not Alone.
Born in Dallas, the younger Hugh Prather earned a bachelor's degree at Southern Methodist University in 1966 after study at Principia College and Columbia University. He studied at the University of Texas at the graduate level without taking a degree. While he could be categorized as a New Age writer, he drew on Christian language and themes and seemed comfortable conceiving of God in personal terms. His work underscored the importance of gentleness, forgiveness, and loyalty; declined to endorse dramatic claims about the power of the individual mind to effect unilateral transformations of external material circumstances; and stressed the need for the mind to let go of destructive cognitions in a manner not unlike that encouraged by the cognitive-behavioral therapy of Aaron T. Beck and the rational emotive behavior therapy commended by Albert Ellis.

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this a long time ago, when struggling with the stress of being a single parent, worrying about my kids turning out all right, and afraid to reflexively follow in my parents' footsteps. This book shifted my whole approach to parenting. Instead of focusing on how to figure out how and when to punish for what behavior, I learned to pay more attention to what was in my heart (and what was in theirs). It was not so much about what to do, as to remember that my job as a parent is to guide my child with love. I gradually found myself not only scolding them less, but not having behaviors arise that would trigger scolding. The more I approached discipline and guidance from a perspective of love, the better they behaved and the easier it was to discern what behavior really called for any kind of reaction from me. At least, that's how it seems when I look back, many years after I read the book.

(By the way, this is not a religious book. They use the term "spiritual" in the sense that it focuses on spirit rather than a psychological or behavioral child-rearing theory.)

[Kassie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book I’ve read on parenting thus far!!! (4.5 years into being a parent). Loved it.

[Brandi]

This is an amazing book! I takes courage to relate to our children instead of dominating over them. A big shift occurred in the way I view parenting when I read this book.

[Andrea Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot from this book, but sometimes it was over the top.