One Way To Parent Today for a Confident Tomorrow: Treasure Good Books

Most days, parenting doesn't feel momentous. It never feels prestigious. But the truth is, parenting has the power to shape a child's destiny, and thus a family's destiny. John S. C. Abbott's classic The Mother at Home declares it boldly:

Mothers have as powerful an influence on the welfare of future generations as all other earthly causes combined.

We think fathers belong in there too. Both Dad and Mom, lovingly sacrificing for the long-term good of their future family, will prove the deep wisdom of Proverbs 22:6-that being Dad and Mom keeps mattering far beyond those early parenting years.

This proverb is not a promise, not a guarantee, but an insight. Proverbs 22:6 is an elderly sage gently advising young dads and moms, "Your parental power for lasting good is so great that 'the right path' is really worth pursuing in the simple daily rhythms of your home." That's why this chapter is practical. You dads and moms have great power. God himself has given it to you, and he will help you follow through. Yes, your home life might not feel historic, but it has ten generations written all over it.

Treasure Good Books

In this hope-filled spirit, we offer you an insight that helped us direct our children "onto the right path." We hope this strategy helps you too:

Unhurried reading, like your child just leafing through a book while stretched out on the living room floor—good books can enrich your family wonderfully.

God himself values books. He wrote one! And he is why we Christians value books. Your home can be a treasure trove of great books, leaving a profound impression on your children. Our son Eric, an author with a PhD who teaches at the graduate level, told us that the sheer number of books in our home during his boyhood made an enormous difference to him. Books can enrich a child’s imagination and impart moral sensitivities. We urge you, make good books an obvious presence in your home.

Start reading to your child early on. Read before naptime. Read around the dinner table. Read before bedtime. Keep on reading to your child, and never stop. Develop your family library along the way. Maybe you have a room, or a corner of a room, where you can keep your family books. It can be a place of quiet, with no toys, where your children can enter new worlds opened by a magic key called a book.

God and his works are endlessly fascinating. There’s always more to discover about our world and about the God who created and rules it. We believe parents enlarge their children’s future by imparting curiosity about everything! If God created everything, then everything is fascinating, at some level. As your children launch into this lifetime of discovery, books will both answer their questions and stimulate their curiosity still further. A book engages all the senses in ways an electronic screen cannot. Who of us shares warm memories of our smartphones, the way we do about our favorite books? A great book may even be necessary to protect our souls from the destructive powers of technology.

T. S. Eliot wrote of a book he respected, saying, “This is one of those books which ought to be studied by the young before their leisure has been lost and their capacity for thought destroyed.” We parents will not meekly stand aside as our children suffer such injury! We resolve, by God’s grace, to create a healthy counterculture in our homes, where children can flourish, as they deserve to!

Invest Richly

In addition to your family library, keep a basket of children’s books near beds and favorite chairs, always within a child’s reach. Help your children experience a worthy book as a joy. In our home, each little Ortie—every birthday, every Christmas—could count on receiving one age-appropriate book, a really nice edition, specially wrapped, then oohed and aahed over once opened. Good books invest richly in your family’s future!

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More about To the Tenth Generation: God's Heart for Your Family, Far Into the Future:

In the midst of family life, most days are too busy to think far into the future. Then once the children are grown, family life can feel like mostly memories, often tinged with regrets. And the future? More worries and fears, laden with unknowns.

But you and your family right now, whatever your ages, whatever you're facing, are living within a much larger story than you realize. Your investments and efforts today matter as part of the grand sweep of God's lasting purposes. His heart for your family can help you create a culture of faith now that can still be reverberating To the Tenth Generation.

Ray and Jani Ortlund help bring such unimaginable thoughts down into the everyday ordinary of home and marriage and parenting--even grandparenting. With refreshing honesty and wise counsel, they invite you to experience the greatness that God can accomplish through a Christian family. It can happen, yes, in your family--now and for many, many, many years to come.