Speak Up Saturday–TOS Review–Your Child’s Profession of Faith

Wow, my last crew review!! It’s been a busy reviewing year, and while it’s been really good, and we’ve received a ton of products that we have loved, I’ll be taking a break from the TOS crew for the upcoming year. That doesn’t mean that you still can’t go find out about some excellent homeschooling products, though, simply go to Schoolhouse Review Crew to see what is being reviewed now!

Okay, on to today’s review! Grace and Truth Books gave us the choice of a few different products, but given the age of my kids, I picked this book ~ Your Child’s Profession of Faith by Dennis Gundersen

From the Publisher:

New, updated edition - with a fresh chapter on baptism, and helps for parents and pastors.
Gundersen's unique treatment of this rarely-addressed subject can make the difference between parents who participate in their children's deception and presumption, or parents who truly guide him to eternal life. If a small child tells us he thinks he's saved, do we take his words at face value? How do we test his profession, especially without seeming to doubt the child and discourage him?

The book sounded intriguing, given where Kahlen is at right now, so I was excited to read it. However, it fell short of my expectations. I was hoping it would be more about what a child’s faith looks like, how it differs from a child, and some questions to ask or ways to tell if your child’s profession of faith is real and lasting. While it covered these things, it was only in the last 26 of the 94 pages. The first 68 pages were spent on discussing the childness and immaturity of children. I have three of them. I didn’t really need that many pages to explain that to me. I suppose that if I didn’t have such an awesome church, which emphasizes training up our children in the way they should go, I might have found some of his discussion eye-opening, but such is not the case.

Also, his writing style seemed very cumbersome and unpolished. The thoughts were simple but the vocabulary was more complex. It did not lead to smooth reading. I had to read several sentences multiple times in order to figure out what he was trying to say.

With those things said, I really did enjoy the last three chapters. I could have skipped the rest and just read these chapters on The manifestations of faith, When your child is ready for baptism, and some concluding counsels as well as the questions for pastoral interviews with children about baptism. This part was more what I was hoping for. The main points and the scripture references were very helpful. I still felt like his writing was cumbersome, but if I just read the bolded main points and pulled out the scriptures related to the topic, then I gained something useful in my interactions with my kids, specifically my almost-6-year-old.

This book sells for $7.50 on the Grace and Truth website. Make sure to check out their other products as well, many of which were reviewed by fellow crew members.

~S

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this product through The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.