Parenting Without Perfection

byDavid John Seel, Jr.

Recently, I began reading a book for parents that I would like to recommend to you. Entitled Parenting Without Perfection, the author David John Seel, Jr. attempts to take a different course to the myriad of selfhelp and "follow these 10 simple steps to produce perfect children" books that are out there. For Seel, parenting does not mean raising perfect, flawless kids, but is rather a call to learn how to personally embody the life of Jesus in the midst of your family. Parenting for Seel means learning to treat your children as God treats you, focusing on influencing your children's beliefs rather than controlling their behavior.

Seel divides the book into three sections. The first, "What is Christian Parenting", is the place where Seel lays down and develops his thesis, and he does this by first challenging the assumptions many of us have about what a Christian parent is. For Seel, being a Christian parent is more than isolating our youth from the affects of the culture today; it is more than following a foolproof set of guidelines. It is more than simply bringing them to church, and so Seel argues that Christian parenting first asks, "How does God treat me as a child?" Ultimately, the goal is to raise children who are apprentices of Jesus, whose choices are self determined, and who are motivated from their hearts.

In the second section, 'The Context of Christian Parenting", Seel looks directly at the struggles parents of teens face in the context of the cultural influences that teens are immersed in. For Seel, this culture is a "culture of death" where God is functionally dead, and we are better served as adults if we know the contours of this world, and its views.

Finally in the last section, "The Priorities of Christian Parenting", Seels explores ten priorities that parents should consider in influencing their teenagers towards an authentic life in God's kingdom.

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