John and Susan describe how both parents and children can intentionally grow in character through the normal, daily events in life. They highlight eight essential character integrity, faith, a teachable spirit, a servant’s heart, self- discipline, joy, compassion, and courage. Questions at the end of each chapter and a leader’s guide in the back of the book make this an excellent book for a group of parents to study together.
This book was hard for me to rate. The content is AMAZING, but the writing style feels forced & wordy at times. There was nothing earth shattering it in that I haven’t read in other Christian parenting books, but it was still really solid information. I read it over a period of months as part of a parent book club.
The Yates have a lot of great insight about building character in children. They have experience with their own children and have a solid Bible-based background. I enjoyed the stories they shared to make the lessons real to their children and themselves. While this was an informative read, for some reason it took me months to complete. I just didn't have this fire that I do with other great parenting books. I haven't been able to put my finger on it, perhaps it is a little bit of a review from other books I have read, just put in a different format and with different stories - I'm not sure. But overall, I liked this book and glad it is in my personal collection.
I read this as part of my moms group and thoroughly enjoyed reading and discussing the content. Though there is nothing groundbreaking, it is a great reminder of character traits that I would like to cultivate both in myself and my children. I can see myself rereading this one in the future.