As a companion small group resource to Parenting First Aid by Marty Machowski, this study guide reminds parents they aren't alone in their struggles, providing an opportunity to talk about their challenges and pray for and encourage other parents.
Each of the ten chapters of Parenting First Aid Study Guide contain book excerpts, Scriptures for encouragement, and questions to help stimulate discussion and application exercises. Machowski reminds men and women to rest in God's sovereign ability to reach and rescue their children. Unlike many other Christian parenting books, this resource helps moms and dads find comfort and hope in Christ rather than relying on techniques or to-do lists that fail to deliver what they seem to promise.
So many moms and dads hide their child-rearing struggles, but by sharing together and praying for one another in a small group setting, parents can find encouragement, support, and community as they learn to trust God together in the midst of hardship.
Raising kids isn't getting any easier, especially with the introduction of insta-porn on electronic devices, the ease of access to drugs, and the ever-increasing blurring of sexuality. This study guide is for weary mothers, fathers, and guardians who are overwhelmed with their children's choices and the culture that wars against their souls.
For moms and dads with small struggles or weighty parenting trials—such as children involved with drugs, sexual sin, and teenage rebellion—this small group guide offers a place to begin conversations with other parents; seek community, Scripture, and prayer; and remember they aren't alone.
AUTHOR
Marty Machowski is a Family Life Pastor at Covenant Fellowship Church in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, where he has served on the pastoral staff for over thirty years. He is the author of The Gospel Story Bible, Long Story Short, Old Story New, the Gospel Story Curriculum, the Prepare Him Room advent devotional and curriculum, Wise Up family devotional and curriculum, Listen Up family devotional and curriculum, Dragon Seed, and The Ology. He and his wife, Lois, have six children and two grandchildren, and they reside in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
"Parenting is challenging work. It's also a gift from God and a unique opportunity to display God's glory as we lovingly shepherd our children and teach them the gospel of Christ. Marty Machowski's Parenting First Aid Study Guide is a timely and encouraging reminder for parents to persevere. Every weary parent needs this resource."
Albert Mohler, Jr., President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
"If you've got parenting figured out, this study is not for you. For the rest of us, here is good medicine from God's Word—not for our child's heart, but for ours. As I read, I was repeatedly refreshed by Marty's unblinking candor about the challenges of children and the faithfulness of God. In these pages, you'll find wisdom for the weary and hope for the hurting."
Champ Thornton, Pastor; author of The Radical Book for Kids, Pass It On, Radically Different, and Why Do We Say Good Night?
"God has given my wife and me the privilege of parenting four children, each one adopted as an older child from backgrounds of neglect, trauma, and abuse. What a delightful gift Marty Machowski has provided for parents like us—parents for whom there are days when 'success' is simply surviving and loving one another to the end of the day. The Parenting First Aid Study Guide is gentle, honest, raw, and wholly centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ."
Timothy Paul Jones, Author of Family Ministry Field Guide; C. Edwin Gheens Chair of Christian Family Ministry, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
"Marty Machowski's Bible-saturated, gospel-shaped writing has been a blessing to my family. As a pastor, his devotionals are my go-to resource for family worship. Marty has the heart of a shepherd, the wisdom of a sage, and provides hope-filled refreshment to any parent who is weary or discouraged. The Parenting First Aid Study Guide is a wonderful resource that has my highest endorsement, and I encourage you to pick up a copy today."
Josh Mulvihill, Executive Director of Church and Family Ministry at Renewanation; founder of GospelShapedFamily.com
"Parents can wisely face elephant-sized challenges with youth—but best with only one forkful of wisdom at a time. Machowski's study guide serves God's wise counsel in bite-size devotionals. This is not so much about what to do as a parent as it is about who to be. The lessons are brief, interesting, and with practical instruction that you can apply immediately. If challenging parenting drains you, exasperates you, confuses you, frustrates you, these weekly meals will nurture you."
Rick Horne, Author of Get Outta My Face!: How to Reach Angry, Unmotivated Teens with Biblical Counsel and Get Offa My Case!: Godly Parenting of an Angry Teen
"Many Christian parents have a rich knowledge of God's Word, but they don't always understand how to apply that knowledge to the parenting trials God sends their way and can find themselves in a desert of parenting worries. In the Parenting First Aid Study Guide, Machowski brings the refreshment of Scripture to that desert. I found myself in tears as the rivers of the Word flowed into some parched corners of my life."
Chap Bettis, Executive Director of The Apollos Project; author of The Disciple-Making Parent
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Theodore A. Turnau, III, E. Stephen Burnett, Jared Moore
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Marty Machowski
Machowski went the extra mile to create a study for small groups (church/prayer groups, parent support groups, M.O.P.S. groups, etc.) This study guide is a companion study to Parenting First Aid and covers two chapters of the book per discussion group. It helps parents reflect on additional passages of scripture not covered in the book and gives extra reflection questions for the individual working through the study. The process of both resources, book and study guide, is a slow, deliberate, and purposeful pace to allow scripture to speak to the problems in our parenting.