The Mission of Motherhood

Title: The Mission of Motherhood: Touching Your Child's
Heart for Eternity
Author: Sally Clarkson
Publisher: Waterbrook Press, 2003
Pages: 235
Begun: February 4, 2009
Completed: February 25, 2009

When I saw the title of this book I was really excited. I had heard about the book on a couple of different occasions and was looking forward to reading it. From the outset I was somewhat disappointed with it. I could not place my finger on what exactly bothered me until several chapters into the book. In giving a description of dealing with temper tantrums in her child she says, "It took many moments of training to bring out the good that was already in his heart and to help him learn to use self-control." (p.92) Verses such as Lk. 18:19 "No one is good except God alone," and Rom 7:18 "Nothing good dwells in me," and Jer. 17:9 "The heart is more deceitful than all else" immediately came to mind. (I actually penciled them in my book so that they would come to my mind again if I read this again!) Here is the basic problem. Though she has many wonderful ideas and tools her basic view of the sinfulness of man is not in line with Scripture. How you view sin really has profound effect on how you train your child.

Clarkson has a very child-centered view of raising children. Her focus seems to be more on providing opportunities and experiences to raise the "whole" child than on giving them a sense of the desperate wickedness and need of the Gospel. In fact, after doing some looking up on the internet their ministry is called "The Whole-Hearted Child." References such as teaching your child to not have "unreasonable selfishness" bothered me as well. Is there such a thing as "reasonable" selfishness? Selfishness is sin. God hates sin. Period.

I was amused when at the end of the book she gives a long description of the Avonlea TV series and how the qualities of family love and community life are what she and her husband "longed for " in their family. "We added biblical training and a Christian world-view to the mix and sought to create an old-fashioned family life and love." (p.221) While that may be a cute series, I hardly think that is my highest goal for raising my family.

Now that I have given you (too many?) negatives, let me say that as in most books there are always some good things to glean. In some areas she helped me readjust my thinking. Her emphasis on showing Christ to your children was a help to me. In every situation, whether training, disciplining, encouraging, or teaching I am to be demonstrating Christ in how I act. There have been times when correcting Stefan that I have had to stop myself and realign my attitude with that of Christ's. Yes, he needs to be corrected, but my actions should always be spirit-controlled. For that I appreciate her book. I will probably pick it up again and scan through various portions of the book. That is the beauty of books. Take some things and leave others and I am the better off having read it.

posted by Johanna