Life and Faith Field Guide for Parents , livre ebook

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS
EUGENE, OREGON
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version , NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible , Copyright 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible and CSB are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
Verses marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Verses marked ESV are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version ), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Verses marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
Verses marked NLV are taken from The New Life Version, 1969 and 2003. Used by permission of Barbour Publishing, Inc., Uhrichsville, Ohio, 44683. All rights reserved.
Cover design by Bryce Williamson
Front cover photos venimo, appleuzr, -VICTOR- / Getty
Back cover author photo by Teri Moy
Published in association with the literary agency of Wolgemuth Associates. Inc.
The Life and Faith Field Guide for Parents
Copyright 2019 Joe Carter
Published by Harvest House Publishers
Eugene, Oregon 97408
www.harvesthousepublishers.com
ISBN 978-0-7369-7448-6 (paperback)
ISBN 978-0-7369-7449-3 (eBook)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Carter, Joe, author.
Title: The life and faith field guide for parents / Joe Carter.
Description: Eugene, Oregon : Harvest House Publishers, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018013037 (print) | LCCN 2018036355 (ebook) | ISBN 9780736974493 (ebook) | 9780736974486 (paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: Parenting-Religious aspects-Christianity-Study and teaching. | Parenting-Religious aspects-Christianity. | Child rearing-Religious aspects-Christianity-Study and teaching. | Child rearing-Religious aspects. | Christian education of children.
Classification: LCC BV4529 (ebook) | LCC BV4529 .C4268 2019 (print) | DDC 248.8/45-dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018013037
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DEDICATION
To
The Boy Scout Handbook
CONTENTS

Dedication

Why This Book Is Dedicated to The Boy Scout Handbook

1. How to Learn So You Can Teach
Part 1: Skills and Habits for Bible Engagement

2. How to Prepare Your Child to Read the Bible

3. How to Read the Bible (Elementary)

4. How to Read the Bible (Advanced)

5. How to See Jesus in the Old Testament

6. How to Study the Bible

7. How to Interpret the Bible

8. How to Apply Scripture to Your Life

9. How to Meditate on God s Word

10. How to Memorize Bible Verses

11. How to Memorize Entire Books of the Bible

12. How to Read the Entire Bible

13. How to Memorize the Biblical Narrative
Part 2: Skills and Habits for Interacting with God

14. How to Pray

15. How to Be Obedient to God

16. How to Overcome Sin

17. How to Develop Trust in God
Part 3: Skills and Habits for Interacting with Other People

18. How to Handle Criticism

19. How to Stand Up for Yourself

20. How to Say You re Sorry

21. How to Forgive
Part 4: Skills and Habits for Discernment and Decision-Making

22. How to Develop Your Conscience

23. How to Know God s Will for Your Life

24. How to Make Better Decisions

25. How to Develop Biblical Discernment
Part 5: Skills and Habits for Mental and Physical Health

26. How to Sleep

27. How to Manage Stress

28. How to Handle Loss and Grief

29. How to Deal with Fear and Anxiety

30. How to Develop a Healthy Body Image
Part 6: Skills and Habits for Character Development

31. How to Develop Godly Grit

32. How to Tame Your Tongue

33. How to Develop Virtuous Habits

34. How to Change Negative Habits
Part 7: Skills and Habits for Engaging Culture

35. How to Look at Art

36. How to Listen to Music

37. How to Watch a Movie

38. How to Consume the News
Part 8: Skills and Habits for Learning

39. How to Study

40. How to Become a Better Learner

41. How to Memorize Almost Anything

42. How to Focus
Part 9: Skills and Habits for Managing Conflict

43. How to Handle Conflict

44. How to Deal with Bullying and Harassment

45. How to Handle Family Conflict

46. How to Handle Peer Pressure
Part 10: Skills and Habits for Evangelism

47. How to Start a Conversation About the Gospel

48. How to Defend the Faith

49. How to Tell a Bible Story

50. How to Share the Gospel

Recommended Resources

Notes

About the Author

About the Publisher
More Great Books for Parents from Harvest House Publishers
Why This Book Is Dedicated to The Boy Scout Handbook
I n the medieval era, books were often dedicated to a king or queen. Today, most books are dedicated to the author s spouse, children, or colleagues. This book, however, is different. It s dedicated not to a notable individual but to another book- The Boy Scout Handbook .
In 1970, on my tenth birthday, my grandmother gave me a copy of the newly released ninth edition of The Boy Scout Handbook . I was in fifth grade and not yet old enough to join the local Boy Scout troop. Nonetheless, I read the Handbook cover to cover and attempted to apply every page to my life. The Handbook became not only a guide to living in my rural Texas surroundings but also a map showing me how to become the person I wanted to be.
I believed that something about being a Boy Scout would make me a better Christian. I wanted to embody the 12 points of the Scout Law because I sensed their connection with what I was learning in Sunday school. I wanted to be trustworthy (Psalm 101:7), loyal (Ruth 1:16), helpful (Leviticus 19:18), brave (1 Chronicles 28:20), and so on.
I didn t quite understand how learning to tie knots and build campfires would make me a better person, much less a better Christian, but I did see some connection in the lives of the young Eagle Scouts in my hometown. I took 20 more years to recognize The Boy Scout Handbook was effective because it was a manual for building a moral worldview.
When the ninth edition was released in 1970, cultural critic Paul Fussell called it a compendia of good sense :

The good sense is psychological and ethical as well. Indeed, this handbook is among the very few remaining popular repositories of something like classical ethics, deriving from Aristotle and Cicero The constant moral theme is the inestimable benefits of looking objectively outward and losing consciousness of self in the work to be done. 1
Much of the success of Scouting is due to the ethical worldview it presents, a worldview that is admittedly secular but nevertheless (mostly) compatible with Christianity. Because it is not founded on biblical principles, though, the worldview of Scouting is ultimately lacking as a guide to life. Still, when I searched for alternatives, I discovered that many books founded on biblical principles presented a less effective guide to life than Scouting. What were those books missing?
Scouting emphasizes two important truths we can borrow: (1) To build a strong character, we need not only to acquire ethical knowledge but also to develop practical skills and virtuous habits, and (2) to learn a skill or habit, we need to be taught by someone who understands the concept and knows how to teach it.
The purpose of this book is to help you learn and develop these elements so you can empower your children to form a godly character and a Christian worldview.
To help you achieve this goal, this book will show you how to solve what I call the fifth-grade math problem and the 100-book / 1,000-hour problem.
Character Education and the Fifth-Grade Math Problem
Several years ago, the Fox network aired a quiz show called Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? On the show, an adult contestant attempted to answer ten questions (plus a final bonus question) based on content from elementary school textbooks. The first two questions were based on first-grade level, the second two on second-grade, and so on until the final two were on the fifth-grade level. The prize for answering the first question correctly was $1,000, and those who answered all ten plus the bonus question walked away with $1,000,000.
Almost every adult you know completed the fifth grade, so you might expect dozens of people to win a million dollars. But in fact, only two contestants did: a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and the superintendent of public schools for the state of Georgia.
Why was the challenge difficult for adults who had learned the content when they were children? That s a question parents ask themselves when trying to teach their own children fifth-grade math. You may have learned elementary math well enough to function as an adult (what I call learning to apply ), but knowing it well enough to teach it to a child (what I refer to as learning to teach ) is surprisingly challenging.
When you approach topics in a learn-to-