Purposeful and Persistent Parenting: Blessing Others, Blue-Tape Boundaries, and Other Practical Perspectives on Raising Children

by John Raquet, Cindy Raquet

Sometimes in our childhood, we fantasize about our future parenting skills and how we will be the ultimate mom or dad. These grand visions rarely survive the first few months of our own journey as parents-once that specter of self-will first manifests in our new bundle of joy. We quickly learn that while parenting is infinitely rewarding and a wonderful blessing, it is also a difficult, sometimes confusing, often thankless responsibility. We find ourselves wishing for a clear, simple, and preferably, illustrated instruction manual.
In Purposeful and Persistent Parenting, John and Cindy Raquet seek to share, through encouraging examples of their journey toward God-honoring parenthood, the lessons they learned in raising their eight children. With personal stories of triumph and failure, goal-setting (and resetting), many practical tips, and a little blue tape, they hope that this work will be a valuable companion on your own adventure in parenting and instrumental in helping you to truly enjoy the work of raising your children.

Genres: Parenting, Christian, Theology

274 pages, Paperback

Published March 9, 2021

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where many parenting books spend a lot of time talking about parenting philosophies, this book instead spends most of the time giving practical, real life, actually useful suggestions for how to cultivate a healthy family. The authors certainly don't neglect to speak to the philosophies behind their suggestions, but there is literally a whole appendix of suggestions for books you can read together with your kids. It's so perfectly practical. Furthermore, each chapter (which, by the way, are helpfully short and manageable) concludes with discussion questions that facilitate really helpful conversations with your spouse (or other coparent). Even if you end up reaching a different conclusion than the Raquets, reading their ideas and then going through the questions together is a great way to settle on a good parenting strategy together.

It also helps that I've met all the Raquet kids and can attest to how well they all turned out. (Love you, guys. 😍)

And if you've been to our house and seen the blue tape around our toilet....yes, that idea came from this book.

[Jordan Eliza · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really helpful book. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on obedience/discipline and developing a habit of family read aloud time.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This would have been more helpful 10 years ago when I had more littles but still an excellent book with many practical tips.

[Becca Lemmon]

Tim challies did a better job reviewing this than I could!

“Our desire and prayer is that God will enable you to see your children as the true gift and blessing they are. May God give you the determination, energy, and wisdom to train your children diligently, both proactively and in times of non-conflict, and when they have disobeyed. May He give you the ability to be consistent in your parenting, may God grant both you and your children an others oriented mindset in which you look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others. May you have the courage to stand against the dominant culture that doesn’t recognize God will not agree with your convictions. In the middle of your busy life, May God grant you the eyes to see what a short time you have to invest in your children. May He eventually send your children out into the world as arrows, ready to accomplish wherever it is that He has molded them to do. And may your parenting be filled with grace, recognizing that your children are fellow sinners along with you in need of a Savior.” Pg 231

[Lauren Fee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven’t encountered so helpful of a parenting book since “Shepherding A Child’s Heart” by Ted Tripp. This book is a beautiful blend of biblical views of parenting with so many doses of practical advice. I really appreciate how they are clear to specify what are biblical mandates and what is advice that can be ignored or applied differently in each of our families within the body of Christ. This book illuminated a few blind spots and holes we had fallen into as intentional parents and they provided some helpful tools to dig ourselves out. Highly recommend to others and will reference and remind myself of these principles often.

[Kristin Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most practical book on parenting I’ve ever read, written by people who have raised lots of children well. If you’ve ever read a Christian book on parenting and thought, “okay but what do I actually DO??”, this is the book for you. It is filled with so much wisdom and insight, paired with so much real life help. My husband and I enjoyed reading a chapter together (nice and short) and then talking through the discussion questions. Thankful for this book!

[Caleb Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

My wife and I read this book together, and she has written and shared a Goodreads review that provides an excellent summary of both of our thoughts. Let me further summarize her review by saying: this book is excellent. It is practical, and specific, and balanced.

Now go read her review.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one. It’s a very practical parenting book so if a more zoomed out theology of family/parenting is your goal, this isn’t it. This is boots on the ground, how to apply biblical parenting principles. Recommended by Challies and it didn’t disappoint!

[Katelynn O'Lessker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A top-notch parenting book for Christian parents who are looking for practical help applying their theology of parenting. This book would make a great companion to Shepherding a Child’s Heart, and I’ve found myself describing it as something akin to the Q+A portion of parenting classes—often the most helpful part of the class, even if not the most foundational! Once we understand the goals of our parenting, it’s immensely helpful to be practically walked through the ways in which we pursue our goals, and this book does just that with a wonderfully wide variety of topics related to parenting. The book does assume an audience with a biblically developed theology of parenting, so I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it as an intro to parenting, but it would be first on the list for recommended resources once that theological foundation is in place.

I found the authors easy and enjoyable to read, not at all dogmatic in their recommendations (a big W for a conservative Christian parenting book), and very in-tune with the pitfalls and temptations that can steer someone away from parenting biblically. The chapters were short and to the point, without feeling terse or too abbreviated, making it easy to digest while still remaining thought-provoking, encouraging, and convicting.

This will be a book that stays by my bedside for easy reference!

[Joshua Chipchase · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very practical. Gave Biblical principles and also examples/suggestions of how you could carry some of those principles out. The authors wisely acknowledged that some of their advice was in a gray area and encouraged you to take what was helpful for your particular family, without feeling bad about ignoring some of how they did parenting. Easy to read, short chapters, with good questions at the end of each chapter. My wife and I read it together and found it very helpful as we continue to grow as parents.

[Ruthie · Rating 5 out of 5]

my new favorite parenting book

I absolutely loved this book. The authors' tone was direct and gracious, making clear what was biblical mandate and what was just advice or their experience. I came away feeling both that I need to be much more patient, gracious and loving to my kids, and also have higher standards and more consistent expectation. I appreciated that they clearly enjoy their children and have a fun family culture, while also being structured and disciplined. I will be recommending to others.

[Bambi Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book. Extremely practical. Focuses on Biblical commands versus principles and leaves room for how each home works them out. The authors make distinctions for when they, as parents of eight children who are mostly grown, are simply giving advice or ideas that can be used if it’s helpful and disregarded if not. I took many things away from this book. If you have children under ten in your home, I recommend it!

[Adam Kareus · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not a huge fan of parenting books, usually because they just highlight to me how much I am not living up the standard. This one is a good one, even if it still makes me feel inadequate as a parent. It is simple and straightforward, it presents the opinions of the authors but also allows for the difference between families and kids.

[Amie Geyman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This could quite possibly be the best parenting book I have read. Like all parenting books there are quirks in their parenting ideas. But the Racquet do a phenomenal job distinguishing between God's commands and personal preference. As a mom of six littles, I will be rereading this book often. I highly recommend to new parents (within the last years) and parents to be.

[Christabel Sabina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Read!

An excellent book on parenting which lays out both the biblical principles and many many helpful practical suggestions. It covers so many areas of parenting which I (as a new parent) didn't even consider. I would recommend this to all parents, especially those with young children!

[Benjamin George · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book, and I’m thankful for what I’ve been able to learn about parenting. They’ve really helped me to think through what I want for my kids. I also found their framework for discipline and discipleship to be gold. Definitely worth the read for a Christian parent.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of practical and very helpful tips for parenting. Highly recommend!

[Andrew Boyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this very much and found it very helpful for parenting.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly practical parenting book with gentle advice rather than impractical parenting theories. It will definitely be our go-to parenting book

[Debra Frey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend! Lots of practical tips and things to try.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very practical and lots of helpful tips.