Love-Centered Parenting | Book Review

Love-Centered Parenting is a book title and subject that resonates deeply not only with my mama’s heart but in regards to my own spirit as well. Although my parenting years are complete in the traditional child-raising sense of the word, I am still so thankful that the Lord gave Crystal the experience and opportunity to write this book and ultimately share the concepts of love-centered parenting with the world.

There is an incredible gift here that I am tempted to wish I had seen in my younger years. But even as I think such thoughts, I know God gave me every tool I needed to serve him and my family well. Admittedly, I didn’t always understand, use, or receive those tools while in the trenches – it’s that tragically simple.

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A Series of Truths

The most profoundly moving points in Love-Centered Parenting are a series of truths and reminders straight out of the Bible. I love this aspect of the book – a rare jewel for our day. Here, they are offered again, along with Crystal’s genuine, transparent testimony of trauma, growth, and continued healing.

Upon my first reading, I found the book’s message sometimes overly repetitive to the point of distraction, making some chapters challenging to plow through. I’ve gone back and reread much of the book as I write this review, finding perhaps this aspect was a purposed blessing that mercifully bears repeating. One particular message – “Live as loved”, is a message I am grateful to hear again and again, even now as my kids are adults raising children of their own. It will undoubtedly be an aide to my personal growth and grandparenting with wholehearted intention.

We, humans, tend to jump on bandwagons — I’ve done it myself, even as I naively believed I couldn’t possibly do such a thing because I knew better. I’ve been around long enough to see various ‘Godly’ tangents come and go. Unfortunately, they rarely produce the fruit of their best intentions. God and his holy purposes are so easily forgotten when tangled up in our finite interpretations and resulting “flavor of the month” solutions. Because patterning after God’s love for us is primary in this story, I believe you won’t find that sort of folly here.

Testimony of God’s Faithfulness

Love-Centered Parenting touches on some of the latest parenting topics in such a way as to faithfully keep close to Scripture — intimidation, shame, emotional intelligence, therapy, and medication, to name a few. We live in a real-world where families face various trials only God can help us maneuver. Crystal states, “This book chronicles my journey. It’s my story of letting go of control and manipulation and parenting for my reputation, and relearning to parent from a place of love and grace.”

While I am not usually a proponent per se of some eventual choices Crystals’ family decided to make, I must state, I’ve never faced some of the critical happenings they were encountering. Testimonies of what God has done in a person’s life are exactly that – a testimony of God’s faithfulness in a given set of circumstances. I can’t and won’t fault that. In fact, I am grateful to God for the Paine family’s courage in allowing their story to be delicately shared while it’s still in process. And all the more thankful for God’s timing in impacting them (and each of us!) with an awareness of His transforming love.

Ultimately, the book offers a framework of restructured parenting points and an Appendix of tools worth its weight in gold. I found Love-Centered Parenting a significantly essential and helpful guide to be considered while forming Christian parenting values or humbly adjusting them.