Summary Points from "How to Raise a Moral Child"

To give you a sample of the content of Growing Kids God's Way, here are some of the key summary points from the first Chapter, "How to Raise a Moral Child"

Some of the Key Principles from chapter 1

The belief in a transcendent, personal God is a necessary presupposition if one intends to establish ethical laws that are absolute and universal.
Of all the ethical systems in the world, there is no higher standard or virtuous motive directing moral behavior than that which comes from the Bible.
I should not base my conduct toward you on how valuable you are to me, nor on any intrinsic value found in our humanity, but on how beloved you are to God.
The training of children should be characterized by the same standard of moral excellence regardless of their personality, temperament, or gender.
The charge to parents is to know the God of moral truth, live His moral truth, and from that experience, teach your children that truth.
Many parents are more preoccupied with suppressing evil rather than elevating good. When teaching moral principles, often parents will tell their children what is wrong and what not to do, rather than what is right and what they should do.
God's unchanging values are called biblical absolutes. They are standards of right, wrong, good and evil that do not change with society's moral whims.
The moral mandate of Scripture requires looking for and responding to the preciousness of those outside of self. Jesus was other-oriented and set that standard for the "one-anothers" of Scripture.
Moral training begins with parents. Parents cannot lead their children any further than where they have gone themselves. If the principles of moral conduct are not imbedded in their own hearts, they cannot be passed on to their children.
It is not enough to teach your children how to act morally; they must learn to think morally. Knowing the virtuous motivation for behavior prevents robotic behavior.
As a general rule, parents should offer a moral reason when a situation concerns people. They should offer practical reasons when a situation relates to things.
The authoritarian approach to child-rearing fails to provide the moral and practical reason behind instruction. That failure produces children who are good on the outside but are not motivated by good values on the inside.

"Picture your child's heart like the empty shelves in a new Wal-Mart...." says Gary Ezzo. "It's like an empty moral warehouse. And it's the parent's responsibility to fill those shelves with good, biblical moral values."

Each session contains not only video teaching, but lively class discussion with other parents, and practical homework assignments each week to work on with your children and spouse. And there is time each week to check in one how the past week went, get encouragement, laugh a bit, and trouble shoot if things didn't go as hoped.

Please note that if married, husbands and wife are strongly encouraged to attend together.