Favorite Parenting Books & Resources

A friend recently asked for some parenting resource recommendations. Here's an edited version of my response:

My favorite overall parenting book is Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd
Tripp. LOVE, love, love this book. So helpful in getting a parent to focus
on the child's heart (and your own) instead of just behavior. It's a great one to do with a group. Make sure to involve the Parent's Handbook, but skip the videos.

Ginger Plowman has taken Tripp's approach and applied it to the toddler years in
her book, called Don't Make Me Count to Three." One of Julie's favorites.

Baby Wise was another helpful one, though it often gets a bad rap for being too
legalistic and strict. However we found it very helpful for navigating the
first few years. I'd make sure to tell whoever reads it to take it with a
grain of salt and apply the principles with wisdom and grace and PRAYER.

Dennis and Barbara did a video series called Right from the Start
that has a workbook along with it. A young man I'm mentoring just went
through it with his wife and said it was very helpful (though he also said
the video quality was pretty poor... But the content was helpful). It is focused on the first five years of a child's life.

One not mentioned in the email, but is tied for first (with Shepherding) is a self published book by Lawrence Lucas, called The Things You'll See. Lawrence visited FamilyLife ten years ago to introduce his book on FamilyLife Today. His personality and presence was one of great poise and patience, a rare calm that brings much wisdom to parenting. He wrote the book to his adult children to pass along the parenting principles he gleaned from the book of proverbs. Great, great read, and short too, structured in one or two page chapters based on a verse of Scripture.

Leave comments with any of your favorite parenting resources and what you like about them.