Equipping for Life: A Guide for New, Aspiring & Struggling Parents

by Andreas J. Köstenberger, Margaret Elizabeth Köstenberger

Being a parent is one of the greatest joys, privileges, and responsibilities with which God has entrusted us. Sadly, we live in a culture that in many ways diminishes the role of a parent and the task of parenting.



Often the not-so-subtle message is that a career or some other avenue of self-realization is superior to the so-called dull and dreary drudgery of raising children. Margaret and Andreas Kostenberger dig into their experience of raising their own children, inviting you into the vision they cultivated in their family: raising children as a gift from God, to the glory of God.

Equipping For Life is split into three sections:
Realistic Parenting - waking up to the real world of parenting Relational Parenting - loving your children Responsible Parenting - guiding your children towards responsible adulthood
Looking at a range of topics - from feeling overwhelmed to fostering your child's relationship with God, and dealing with conflict to equipping children for life - this book of practical Christian parenting advice is written with warmth and honesty by people who understand the struggles and triumphs of being Christian parents in today's world.

Genres: Parenting, Family

288 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2018

Reviews

[Drake · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extremely helpful overview of parenting from a biblical perspective. Strikes a good balance between theological/Scriptural exposition and practical advice. The authors don’t give a particularly in-depth treatment of any one topic, but they constantly mention resources to check out for further study. This is, for the moment, my favorite parenting book.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Enjoyed writing, the treatment of the topics & the long list of resources. Will definitely be rereading!

[David Westerveld · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was some helpful principles and advice in this book. Overall it was a very practical book with mostly good advice throughout. The one thing I found a bit off putting was an (in my view) overly strong emphasis on men and women fitting into certain predefined roles. There is truth in things like pointing out the benefits of a mother being able to stay at home with her kids when they are young, but to state it as "there's just no adequate justification in placing expediency, lifestyle, self-promotion, or other considerations above God's primary call and His purpose for you as a mother" is to make a few mistakes. First of all, it makes potentially invalid assumption about why someone might choose to go back to work (It should be noted that footnotes do acknowledge special situations like single parenting etc.) and secondly it assumes that you cannot fulfill your highest calling as a mother if you participate the in wage economy. There are (quite a few) adequate justifications and consideration for someone to be a working mother, and to state it the way they did is to radically overstate something (that does start from a place of truth).

I don't need (or want) to only read books that I agree with, but I did find myself quite often "reframing" things in my head which sometimes made it a bit hard to get to the good stuff in this book. The fact that the kind of thinking demonstrated above came up frequently throughout the book made it a bit of a slog for me. I would say though, that although stuff like this rubbed me the wrong way a bit, the authors are generally pretty reasonable in what they say and there is a lot of good practical advice in this book.

[Anthony Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty broad. The Köstenbergers don't take any hard-and-fast stances in this book which I can appreciate seeing as their goal in writing it was just to offer some guiding principles, but with no real laid out opinions it was difficult for me to disagree with anything which means it was difficult for me to actually think through things like education, dating, and discipline techniques. There were plenty of personal anecdotes to drive a point home but most of the points they made were clear enough without said anecdotes.

I'm also not a fan of books with questions for the reader, which Equipping for Life features at the end of every chapter. I prefer allowing readers to formulate their own to help them think through the material in their own way.

The authors accomplished what they were seeking to do. I would have no qualms suggesting this to new or aspiring parents, it just doesn't suit my personal taste.

[Deon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this on #KindleUnlimited

Chapter 7 on helping your child grow in character was really helpful.
Discussion questions at the beginning (helps get your mind ready) and the end (to help with followup) of each chapter.








Table of Contents
Part 1. Realistic parenting : waking up to the real world of parenting
1. Parenting Isn't Just About Children
2. What Have we Gotten Ourselves Into?
3. I'm Overwhelmed!
Part 2. Relational parenting : loving your children
4. God-Centered Parenting
5. Up Close and Personal
6. The Peace-making Parent
Part 3. Responsible parenting : guiding your children toward responsible adulthood
7. First Things First
8. A Complex Equation
9. Equipping for Life

[Dennis Erwin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some useful things. Many other better parenting books to read. I wish it would have been much more scripture based and not principle based. The Kostenbergers seem like great parents, but you won't learn what the Bible has to say.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

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[Rachel Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was fine, pretty broad and not a lot of scripture use. I disagreed with some things but there were a few principles I took away from it.