Book Club: Book Review of Giving Your Words

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How do we guide our children to love and follow God? As parents, there are many questions we must answer and a multitude of decisions we must make in relation to our children. My husband and I would like our children to take our words as they relate to God and their beliefs in the Bible and Jesus as their Savior. In order to help parents like us, Sally and Clay Clarkson have written Giving Your Words: The Lifegiving Power of a Verbal Home for Family Faith Formation. 

About Giving Your Words 

This hardcover book of 254 pages is split into three sections and contains a number of resources to help your family on their faith journey. From personal stories of their faith journey with their own children to references to Scripture, parents will gain the words they need to pour into their children. 

But wait... the words of Giving Your Words are not meant to be poured into your children's heads but instead to start conversations to help your children build their faith. Through reading the book, you will be creating a verbal home. In ten chapters, you will read: 

• About words as described in Scripture 
• Examine the kinds of words to give to your children
• How to impart words to your children 
• About specific kinds of words to give your children 
• How to witness the truth of Scripture to your children 
• How to model your own lives 
• Examples of ceremonies and get-togethers to have with your children to impart words 

Some key points to remember when reading Giving Your Words: 

• Words are God's idea (from the very beginning of the Bible we read how important words are as God uses words to create the world) 
• As society changes, we need to be authentic and connect with our children as often as we can so we can build their faith 
• Love, grace, forgiveness, and more are very important 
• We need to show we are committed to our children

The Clarksons do not just provide you with ideas, they share how they applied their ideas to their own family over the years. For example, they provide examples as to how they conduct their family devotions after breakfast before they start their day. Their children even share in the epilogue how important their verbal home was to their upbringing. Sarah Clarkson shares, "Words were wielded in my childhood home with a kind of creative enhancement, used in the very way that God himself uses them throughout Scripture: to call things into being, to name, to order, and to bless" (218). What better way to see how effective the Clarksons methods are than reading the words of their grown children?

My Thoughts 

I don't believe I have read any books by the Clarksons before reading Giving Your Words. I wasn't sure what to expect when I opened this beautiful hardcover book. I knew that the Clarksons were well-loved by many of those in my social media circles. As a parent, I want the voices of my husband and me to shape our children. This is one of the many reasons why we homeschool. We want them to know and follow God. We want their faith to be firm.

I really appreciated how Giving Your Words was divided into smaller sections within its ten chapters. The format made it easier to fit the reading of the book in between homeschooling, working from home, and everything else. But I think the fact that I had to break up the reading of this book into many different sessions also made it more difficult for me to understand all the points presented by the Clarksons. 

I did underline quite a few key passages and took notes, but I think I need to read Giving Your Words again in order to fully appreciate the book. I would recommend the book to those who are looking to build their family's faith. I think you have read other works by Sally and Clay Clarkson, this would be a valuable addition to your library.