As a freedom-over-formula parenting book for moms, dads, and caregivers of all ages, Child Proof provides biblical insight and encouragement for readers who want to parent by faith. As an experienced counselor of children and families and an adoptive and foster mom applying the CCEF model of biblical change, Julie Lowe uses Scripture and biblical wisdom to teach caregivers how to know their children and specifically love them with the love of Christ.
Every family is unique, which is why Child Proof explores the need for parents to cultivate personal and intimate care for their children as modeled in God's individual, personal, and fatherly care to his children. This child-rearing book lays a foundation of parenting by faith and progresses by teaching readers how they can know their own kids well and raise them accordingly. By discussing particular issues moms and dads might have in family life, Lowe demonstrates how formulas aren't the answer, and parenting with biblical wisdom is best for a proactive rather than reactive approach to parenting.
Through Lowe's personal and professional experience, moms, dads, and caregivers, as well as those helping parents—pastors, counselors, youth workers, and churches—will discover gospel-centered application rather than formulas for the ideal family, equipping guardians to be experts at knowing their own children so they can know Scripture and live it out personally in their homes.
By establishing a mind-set rather than a model or a step-by-step "how to" approach to parenting, Child Proof empowers readers to come up with their own blueprint for their families through a biblical framework.
"Parents often want 'six steps to raising good kids,' but God instead gives a vision for how to love well and wisely, humbly and faithfully, amid all the ups and downs. Julie understands that parenting is not like computer programming or car mechanics—parenting is ministry."
David Powlison, Executive Director, Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation (CCEF); author
"Combine Julie's years of experience working with children, along with her personal parenting journey, and you have in your hands a grand-slam book that is deeply practical and biblically rich! Each page brings hope and courage to embrace uniqueness rather than uniformity in the parenting process."
Eliza Huie, Biblical Counselor and Executive Director for Life Counseling Center Ministries; author of Raising Kids in a Screen-Saturated World
"Join Julie as she lays a biblical foundation for parenting, and then benefit from her experience as she helps you navigate a number of challenging situations with grace and wisdom. I couldn't wait to share this content with my wife and family!"
Jonathan D. Holmes, Pastor of Counseling, Parkside Church; executive director, Fieldstone Counseling
"No matter how you approach it, parenting is a complex undertaking. We think that formulas will make it easier, but they either bog us down with their demands or lead to discouragement when they fail to deliver. In Child Proof, Julie Lowe helps us rethink parenting so that in faith, we can love our children personally and minister God's wisdom to their unique needs."
Brian Liechty, Pastor for Care & Counseling, Bethlehem Baptist Church North Campus
"When you have prayed for your kids, sought to lovingly encourage them with Jesus, and things are still a mess, Julie comes along at just the right moment with creative suggestions that give fresh direction."
Ed Welch, Faculty and Counselor, CCEF; author of A Small Book about a Big Problem
"Julie's home is a 'story.' That's her word. It's what God has been writing in her, her husband, and their six kids. Each chapter of their parenting story emerges in the chapters of Child Proof to show other imperfect parents how Christ, by faith, is sufficient for their story with their unique children. Child Proof is biblically principled, realistically wise, immediately applicable, and filled with hope."
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
"Simplistic and cookie-cutter approaches to parenting overpromise and underdeliver. Julie Lowe offers a parenting pathway that is far wiser and richer. She shows that loving our children is a multifaceted venture of faith-filled dependence on God, patient and careful study of our children, and creative application of biblical wisdom to the particularities of each child's life."
Michael R. Emlet, Faculty and Counselor, CCEF; author of CrossTalk: Where Life and Scripture Meet and Descriptions and Prescriptions: A Biblical Perspective on Psychiatric Diagnoses & Medications
"How can we parent with wisdom and grace in a rapidly changing world that offers increased parenting challenges and parenting formulas that may seem right but which fail to deliver? With vulnerability and experience, Julie Lowe offers practical, biblically sound guidance on how to parent faithfully—recognizing that God can and will work in us and through us as we face parenting challenges, fears, and difficulties. In a day and age marked by the collapse of parenting, Julie will help you to pause, ponder, and regroup in ways that will better equip you to parent to the glory of God."
Walt Mueller, President, Center for Parent/Youth Understanding
"I wish this book had been available when I was raising my kids! No formulas. No 'ideal families.' But hope and help for real parents, real children, real conversations, real life, with a real God. It presents a high call to love our kids with Jesus's sacrificial, personalized love and the freedom to let go of trying to manipulate the results. I hope every current and prospective parent will read this book!"
Elizabeth W. D. Groves, Lecturer in Biblical Hebrew, Westminster Seminary; author of Grief Undone: A Journey with God and Cancer
"In this social media age we are programmed to look for 'five steps to this' and 'three reasons for that.' Sometimes this approach can be helpful but it's often too simplistic to address complex issues such as family life and parenting. Formulas can be even more exasperating when they ignore the individual aptitudes, personalities, and needs of our children. What is most impressive about this book is that it resists the pressure to come up with formulas for parenting, and instead, provides biblically grounded tools and practical wisdom to help the reader with one of the greatest challenges anyone has to face: being a parent."
Timothy Witmer, Emeritus Professor of Practical Theology, Westminster Theological Seminary; author of The Shepherd Leader at Home
"For anyone who has secretly suspected that the typical parenting formulas can't cope with the complexity of your family life, this book will be a revelation. With her typical warmth, wit, and biblically rich wisdom, Julie has blown the roof off my tightly held, false parenting expectations. Instead, with realism and honesty, she points the way to parenting by faith in the Lord who is present even in the most complex of family moments. I have never read a parenting book that left me more hopeful."
Ste Casey, Course tutor and speaker, Biblical Counselling UK; pastor, Speke Baptist Church, Liverpool, UK
I read this book several months ago, and it’s had a continued impact on my prayers as a parent. It’s motivated me to look to Jesus rather than the latest new parenting advice. It’s also helped me to grow in confidence, not because I have the answers now, but because I know the One who does. I’m going to be honest and say the writing style is not my favorite. It took some effort to finish the book. But it was well worth it! You know a book is worthwhile when you are still thinking about it several months later!
As soon to be new parents, someone recommended this book. As with any book about children or any aspect of life, there is always so much more to learn, but there's a lot of good info.
Wonderfully wise. Thought-provoking and encouraging. Part of me wishes I'd read this earlier in my parenting journey, but I'm grateful to have come across it now. Love the focus on faithfulness in parenting and how we don't have control over our kids.
I first discovered Julie Lowe on Focus on the Family. I had no idea how AMAZING this book would be! It speaks to me in my desperate need as a mother of 4. She says, "We cannot self-generate Godly expressions of forgiveness, nor should we try." WOW!
I highly recommend this for any parent or parent-to-be.
So Many times, I cried as I was reading this book. Right! Julie Lowe is not sharing formula but the core of parenting , which is His love through Christ. We do all Jesus role to each other. As parents do so, I believe that God also bless into the heart redeeming how much He loves His children ( we are all His children ) . Thank you so much for sharing the Love of God through this wonderful book.
Being a biblical counselor, I am always looking for books that are truly both biblical and practical. This one is both!
I've had my eyes set on Childproof for a while and finally got to buy it and read it. As someone who is quite online and offline in networking with others(believers and unbelievers alike), I found the wisdom presented in this book very helpful in grounding me to solid Biblical counsel for christian families who desire to journey with God in faith. Faith is so ambiguous and misunderstood but Julie helps it take on a very practical form in this book on parenting. Some of my friends have already bought it and have begun reading it. It's a great start for young families seeking to establish the right start to their parenting and older parents currently in throes of parenting their teens/young adults. Julie's counselling and ministry experience really shines bright in all of her examples.
Enlightening and refreshing common sense for parents. Break free from endlessly trying to do what others do, get to know your child(ren) and get stuck in to parenting them with wisdom and according to the needs of your family.
Highly recommend this book to anyone looking to love and lead their kids well.