Ray's book is fine, but published in 1978 there are many other choices with a similar theological bent I would offer up as much more readable and practical offerings.

Very sound principles, but a few things in here REALLY annoyed me. Spanking "infants" and sick children? No thanks; mercy also pictures God to our children, you know. Still, those parts were literally only a matter of a few lines in the book. I may just have to get out a Sharpie...

Disclaimer- this book is for Christians families and relies on the Biblical mode of discipline and correction.

I don't think I would recommend this book to parents without the huge caveat to take everything the authors writes with a grain of salt. While Ray does provide some valuable insight into godly forms of discipline he does, in my opinion, fall short of the rational mark. Ray also tends to be excessively wordy and redundant in his mandate that parents need to be saved before attempting to correct their children. While I agree with this, I don't think it required the first six chapters of the book to make this point.

Ray basically writes that children should be corrected with the rod, prayer and love. All good points. Children should be disciplined and not punished (typically a reaction of anger rather than a response to a specific wrongdoing). The spanking should be followed by prayer in which the child seek God's forgiveness and restoration. Lastly, the parent should initiate an act of love with the child, a hug and kiss for example, to demonstrate love and restoration with the child. Basically, the child should never walk away feeling unloved and un-restored with the parent after being disciplined.

For the good points Ray makes, he has a few equally distasteful ones. It made me wonder if he only had young children when he wrote this book and did not have the full experiences of raising teenagers with which to test his theories. Ray advocates spanking teenagers. He believes that teenagers need to feel the physical act of discipline and that grounding and other methods are unenforceable. I completely disagree with this opinion. I can think of many instances in my teenage years that would have been made disastrous had my parents attempted to spank me. On the other hand, taking away privileges or grounding me was a better lesson and because I respected my parents it was enforceable. Teenagers are tricky creatures but ones with feelings, nonetheless, and I would have felt personally offended, abused and disrespected if told to bend over my parent's bed for a spanking. I would have rebelled or left. So in this regard, I would not recommend this book.

Quick read. Yes helpful knowledge and Biblically solid, but gave me somewhat of a simple, overview feel while reading. Seems geared towards those with the questions of “why should I / what is discipline” and “why should I discipline as the Bible has set forth.” I did appreciate that there were a few good, practical things to put into practice.

Back around the time I was starting to have children, I was given this book to read. It became a foundational work on the area of discipline with my children. I still hold this book in high esteem, and recommend it often. Upon this firm foundation, the building blocks were further laid with such excellent books as "Shepherding a Child's Heart" (Tripp) and "Standing on the Promises" (Wilson), all of which I suggest to people even today. Great book!!

Good stuff.

wow, this book has not been rated by anyone!

While dated (published in '78), the author seeks to winsomely and biblically work out the foundation of discipline in the Christian home. The best place for this book is in a complementary position with Ted Tripp's Shepherding a Child's Heart and Elyse Fitzpatrick's Give Them Grace rather than a stand-alone guide. 3 stars.