I remember asking Tim Keller why he never wrote a book with his wife, Kathy, about parenting. After all, they wrote one of the most helpful books on marriage, The Meaning of Marriage. I interviewed them twice for this podcast.
So why didn’t they write the book? They didn’t feel like they’d been good parents, despite how their three boys turned out. The boys have families, and they’re in the church. One of them even followed in his dad’s footsteps as a pastor. The Kellers looked at friends they thought had been better parents. But they didn’t see the same positive outcomes with those kids. The Kellers, then, didn’t think they could give parenting counsel that would deliver what so many of us want: assurances our kids will turn out OK.
Melissa Kruger doesn’t promise that our kids will turn out OK. But her new book, Parenting with Hope: Raising Teens for Christ in a Secular Age (Harvest House), reflects so much of what I admire about her and her husband, Mike. She grounds us with hope in the gospel: we can trust God with our kids, that his purposes can never be thwarted. And she grounds us with wisdom: we can grow in our parenting to better help our children flourish.
Melissa serves as vice president of discipleship programming for The Gospel Coalition. She’s the author of many books, including Walking with God in the Season of Motherhood, Growing Together: Taking Mentoring Beyond Small Talk and Prayer Requests, Wherever You Go, I Want You to Know, and His Grace Is Enough. I know we have a lot of women who listen to and watch Gospelbound. You can hear Melissa when you register for The Gospel Coalition’s 2024 Women’s Conference, June 20 to 22 in Indianapolis. She’ll be recording a live Risen Motherhood podcast episode with Emily Jensen and Laura Wifler.
She’s probably our most popular guest on Gospelbound, and she returned to answer all my questions on parenting.
The Gospel Coalition