Generation Next Parenting, by Tricia Goyer

In today's generation, Christian parents face more obstacles than in any other point in history, perhaps even more so than those early Christians who hid their churches in their homes. With the advent of cable television, the Internet, cell phones and seemingly omnipresent advertisements telling our children - and let's be honest, us - how to look, act, dress, live, and what to believe in, Christians are engaged in all out warfare for not only for our own souls, but those of our children as well.

It doesn't help that Christianity is more splintered than it's ever been. A line has been drawn down the middle, and sides have been chosen: there are those on one side who deride "cultural sensitivity" and "Contemporary Worship" as "watered-down" and departing from Scriptural truth, and those on the other side who sneer at folks still reading their New King James Bibles, calling them "legalistic" and "not with the times". Popularity of speakers and spiritual self-help books abound, to the point where recently, when a young lady was threatened by a burglar, she pulled out - not the Bible - but rather a popular devotional book instead.

So, there a skirmishes all around, one side pointing the finger at another, but one thing that cannot be denied is the almost overwhelming crop of young parents and even younger children who feel isolated and cut off from God. They are desperately seeking answers in a post-modern age that refutes the sovereignty of answers, and many of them feel desperarely alone in their fight.

Generation Next Parenting, by award winning novelist Tricia Goyer, is an excellent devotional - not self-help book, not sweeping craze built on well-meaning concepts and snazzy catch phrases. It's an excellent tome of guidance for today's young parents. Founded on sound, Biblical principles - using only three or four different translations of the Bible, rather than fifty - Generation Next cuts right to the heart of what it means to be a young parent today; facing challenges and worldly opposition that our parents and grandparents never had to face.

A big selling point of this book is Goyer's frankness concerning her own mistakes and downfalls in life; she's open and honest - sometimes painfully so (but in an empathetic, good way). For me, as a young "Gen X'er" parent myself, this made quite an impact: I can't count how many times I've read a devotional book by some award winning speaker, pastor, or theologian, and thought to myself - "Hmm...must be nice living in your world." However, throughout Generation, I laughed, I winced, I sometimes felt stirred, (no, I didn't cry - because of course, we men never do that....sniff.)

The book's format is unique, as well - filled with relevant cultural quips and anecdotes, (those of us secret Duran Duran admirers will feel right at home), it's laid out more like a study guide or textbook, rather than a...well...really big book with lots of words that'll never get finished in the middle of work, doing the laundry, feeding the kids, changing the diapers, (which this man does do), and running the kids to every practice and event known to man. But don't worry, "busy bees" - simplify is one of this book's loudest hearkening calls.

On a final note, MEN should absolutely, positively read this book as well. Though it's written with a decided slant toward the female reader, for too long Christian men have distanced themselves from the "messier" side of leading the home spiritually (and I do mean "messier" literally; my father always said he changed the required amount of diapers a man was supposed to - one for me, and one for my sister!). This book gives practical, ground floor advice for all parents who desire their homes to be Godly ones, and should be on every Christian "Gen X'er's" shelf.