Battle-Ready Moms Raising Battle-Ready Kids by Reba Bowman
ISBN: 978-1615796717
Publisher: Xulon Press
Date of publish: Dec 29, 2009
Pages: 220
S.R.P.: $15.99
About the Book:
Today’s mother is in a war for the lives of her children. Tweens and teens face life’s toughest decisions as they are bombarded with input from the media and their peers. Their minds are spinning with the weight of relationships, fashion, sex, drugs and problems with their parents. And the Enemy wants them to fail. Standing in the trenches, desperate to raise children who make good choices and love God, moms are hard-pressed for an answer to their most urgent question: What can I do?
In Battle-Ready Moms Raising Battle-Ready Kids, Reba Bowman tackles this topic head-on, explaining how mothers must stand brave and strong, ready to serve as watchmen over their children’s lives and battle the forces that threaten to pull them away from the Lord. Outlining the reasons to fight, the tools to fight with, and the motivation to keep fighting, she helps parents focus on the individual needs of their children so they can face the enemy themselves.
With sections like “A Few Good Men: Building Character,” “Diversity Among the Troops: Your Unique Child,” and “Like an Arrow: Launching Your Young Adult,” Battle-Ready Moms Raising Battle-Ready Kids offers creative tips for communicating better, setting reasonable rules, and building character. Bowman says her ultimate goal is that in each stage of development, mothers will help their children learn how to demand more from themselves, elevating their moral standards in spite of the crowd. “We are not training our children to be good little boys and girls just for the sake of being good,” she says. “We want them to follow the commands of God and walk in a relationship with Him so they can reach the goals that God has set for them.”
About the Author:
Formerly a college coach and the Dean of Women at Tennessee Temple University, Bowman knows the plight of mothers all too well. She spent twelve years experiencing firsthand the struggles of college women before she realized God needed someone to talk to the parents-to help them build a loving, influential relationship with their children long before they reach young adulthood. Today she travels as a speaker through her ministry, Dare for More, based in Chattanooga, Tenn., and says it is indeed possible to raise children who love God and others with all their heart. But it won’t happen accidentally. Mothers must decide that they can make a difference.
My Opinion:
I enjoy reading books that may help me in raising my children for God and His Kingdom and when I saw this book I thought it sounded great. We are in a battle for our children’s and our own souls and this is what the author, Reba Bowman, wants Christian moms to realize. We cannot sit back and expect the public or private schools to do it, we cannot expect our Sunday Schools or AWANA programs to teach our children what they need to know. As moms, we have a daunting task ahead of us and much time in prayer and Bible study is what is needed.
I didn’t realize when I requested this book that Reba Bowman is not a mother herself, she has a ‘daughter’ whom she ‘adopted’ when the girl came to college and they met each other – however she is not a mom in the sense that she carried, birthed and raised a child from infancy. At first I was skeptical because of this, unless you’ve raised a child for 18 years you cannot know what it actually is to raise a child, but while I still think this I was impressed with this book. I think that Reba Bowman after working with girls and their parents can emphatize with some of what it takes to raise godly children, however, I don’t agree with everything.
As a homeschooling parent I know that children cannot be “salt and light” at the tender ages of 4, 6, 8 and older – we parents MUST be the ones who teach our children a Biblical worldview because they will become caught up in the worldy ways that schools promote. I don’t see anything unbiblical about keeping a hedge around our children and protecting their innocence until they can handle certain issues. How can I expect my daughter to turn from the peer pressure of sex if she’s exposed to it daily at school as normal? I can’t but at home I can teach her what God’s view of sex is, learn about purity and modesty and how to be a feminine female then when she is old enough (adult) she will be able to know what God says about issues. A child doesn’t need to be exposed to opposing viewpoints at a young age to learn how to flee temptation. We’re not secluded homeschoolers, my children are exposed to those children who attend private, public and charter schools by being involved in church, AWANA and other community programs but I’m there to guide them and teach them what God wants and what He says.
Overall, this is a good book, even if the author hasn’t raised children herself like I said above she does have a certain amount of empathy and some understanding what it takes to raise children for the Kingdom. Like other books you’ll not agree with everything but you can take what is good and Biblical and learn from it and the rest put aside and weigh against Scripture and your convictions. If you’re a mom wanting to learn more on raising your children for our Lord then I would suggest this book. I read it fairly quickly as the chapters were engaging and it was a thought provoking book.
**I was provided a copy of this book through Bostick Communications in exchange for my honest opinion, no other compensation was given.
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