Hearts and Minds: Raising Your Child with a Christian View of the World

by Kenneth D. Boa, John Alan Turner

Parenting is about more than molding the behavior of our kids. It's about influencing a child's heart and mind. Hearts and Minds shows parents the most effective way to influence a child's heart. This book applies the principles of Christian worldview in How Now Shall We Live to the process of raising children. It deals with issues like educational choices, how to handle the teaching of non-Christian worldview in secular schools, and how Christian worldview informs parenting choices.

256 pages, Paperback

First published September 22, 2006

About the author

Kenneth Boa is an author, a speaker, and the president of Reflections Ministries. He is the author of over fifty books, including Conformed to His Image, Faith Has Its Reasons, Face to Face, and Rewriting Your Broken Story. He is a contributing editor to the Open Bible, the Promise Keepers Men's Study Bible, and the Leadership Bible, and is the consulting editor of the Zondervan NASB Study Bible.

Boa earned a BS from Case Institute of Technology, a ThM from Dallas Theological Seminary, a PhD from New York University, and a DPhil from the University of Oxford. He teaches a weekly Bible and Faith study at Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Georgia, where he resides with his wife.

Reviews

[Scott Denbow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish they made Ken Boa dolls where you could pull the string in a difficult life situation and he would speak wisdom at the pull of a cord. Parenting is really about modeling Jesus to our kids, thus informing them (most times w/o words) of a proper Christian worldview. Our children will be engaged in a battle for their minds from very early on. What ideas will win the day? It's up to us, by the grace of God, to lay the rails that lead our children to God. We can do this by:
1. Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength
2. Love our neighbors as ourselves
3. Seek out the true, good, and beautiful (show our kids the wonder of a snowflake)
4. Put our faith into action (feed the poor together)
5. Fill our homes with hope and love (love is a verb. it is not passive. love your spouse.)

[Josh Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gave me some good ideas to incorporate into my own parenting. Often it read a lot more like a devotional than a "how-to" kind of book, so it was good on both fronts. The practical, practicable ideas aren't the point, but there were several. For instance, it called into question whether we should say "That's a bad boy" or "that's a good boy," which both may give kids a warped idea of themselves... actually your boy is not really "good" if not redeemed, but "bad boy" runs the risk of pigeon-holing or creating a defeatist mentality in your child. "Of course I did that, I'm a "bad boy" after all." Better to say "that was a good decision" or "that was a bad decision," and use the opportunity to teach about God's planting within us the knowledge of right and wrong, but our inability to really carry that out because of sin.

[Elisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love what this book says about truth. How can I be right and you be right if our choices are completely opposite? (We can't both be right.)