Picture of the book cover.
Know Your Child
Joe Temple
Availability:

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Description:

Living Bible Studies reaquired publishing rights to Know Your Child from the publisher of the first edition. We then created this second edition, starting from the original source material. This second edition includes much of that original material that had been omitted from the first edition. Additionally, two new chapters have been added on the topic of the relationship between husband and wife. And a question–and–answer section has been included in an appendix.

Description (first edition):

Based on Scriptural directives, Know Your Child stresses in clear, “how to” language the ways to train a child in the direction of his own God–given capabilities. Dr. Temple affirms that each child must be considered individually because each child has his own built–in plan for development. He also deals with the basic emotional endowments and trends shared by all children, as well as with hereditary influences in personality formation. He discusses husband–wife relationships, maternal over–protection, the results of misplaced desires for approval and power, and psychopathological greed and miserliness. He offers guidelines for attaining maturity. He speaks of human individuality and of rebellious and intransigent conduct.

Solutions for basic, commonly–encountered problems of the home are moored upon a thorough interpretation of Biblical terms and passages. Dr. Temple also draws from experiences of his personal home life, where he and his wife (now deceased) and their seven children amply attest to the workability of the system of child knowledge and training contained in his book.

With firm convictions presented in the spirit of love, Dr. Temple offers an extremely practical book on child–raising for parents who firmly believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God—a book to be studied as a guide to living.

The final chapter challenges young parents with the statement, “Your well–disciplined child is your recommendation.” Know Your Child is a step–by–step guide to assist parents in fulfilling this desired goal.

Details:

Paperback: 323 pages

Publisher: Living Bible Studies; 2nd Edition (1998)

Language: English

Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches

Table of Contents
Foreword John C. Montgomery, M.D.
Preface
1Adam’s Nature
2Problems Great-Great-Grandfather Started
3God’s Plan for Your Child
4First Step in Understanding Your Child
5The Second Step in Understanding your Child
6The Place of Prayer in Child Training
7Disciplining Your Child
8Restricting Your Child
9Initiating Your Child
10The Well-Disciplined Household
Heirs Together of the Grace of Life
11Responsibility of the Wife in Marriage
12Responsibility of the Husband in Marriage
Appendix
AQuestions and Answers
Foreword

To be asked to write the foreword for a book of this kind is, I consider, a great honor. There will be two divisions of people to whose attention this book may come: (A) those who believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Bible are the inspired, inerrant Word of God—a Book to be studied as a guide to living; and (B) those who do not so believe.

Dr. Temple's book presents no problem to those described in group A, since it is written by one of them and is for them; I consider it an honor to be classed with that group of believers. To those described in group B, I would like to address the following urgent remarks. Very often an immature believer or an unbeliever, or even a skeptic, discerning that a written text is for believers and is in reference to the Bible, will quickly be discouraged in pursuing it because these are things which they do not understand. If you find yourself in such a dilemma let me at this point intercede with your intellectual processes. When in the past you were called upon to study any imperfectly understood subjects in school, you often began the learning of a new truth by being asked to assume certain things to be true; then the author would go on to embellish and amplify his proposition, proving to your human reasoning that the thing which you were originally asked to assume you now could regard as proven fact.

The point is, if you expect to learn new truth you must enter upon some hitherto unknown territory; and you must be willing to simply assume that some of the author's statements are true until he has had the opportunity to offer the whole story for your consideration. Surely none of us is so erudite as to claim omniscience; therefore, don't go—hear the whole story, especially if you have a child to whome these paragraphs might apply. Then, assuming from Dr. Temple's authoritative presentation and impressive Biblical documentation that he might be right, test it on your own child and let the results speak to you in your own life.

Dr. Temple deals with man's basic emotional endowments and trends as well as with hereditary influences in personality formation and with many personality variations. He discusses husband–wife relationships; maternal overprotection; the results of misplaced desires for approval and power and of psychopathalogical greed and miserliness. He offers suggestions for attaining maturity; he speeks of human individuality and of rebellious and intransigent conduct. In general, this series covers all of the commonly–met–with characteristics and immaturities—all spoken of in Biblical terms, with their Scriptural descriptions carefully documented. The meticulousness with which the author has searched out and exegeted the original Greek and Hebrew of significant Biblical terms attests to his analytical thoroughness, resulting from his own wide personal experiences and devotion to his task. Throughout the entire text shines the author's confident faith in God, in Jesus Christ, and in the power of the Holy Spirit in all human life.

Frequently, personal illustrations paint for us a picture of Dr. Temple's homelife, where he and his loving wife (now deceased) and their seven children have amply illustrated the workability of the system of child knowledge and training contianed in this text. It is certainly fitting that any dissertation on child training should bring up examples of parents—their character and their duties and obligations. Dr. Temple's excursions into marital attitudes and the fundamental principles of marital “chain–of–command” administration are drawn from his wide experience and from Biblical references. Based on observations in my psychiatric practice when working with those involved in insecure marriages, I am convinced that these rules for living and for operating a marriage will undoubtedly prove the most successful counseling one could get.

Dr. Temple is a “specialist,” a specialist in a discipline that is built upon the unchangeable wisdom of God—the only thing that is basic and unvariable in our life experience. Because Joe Temple is a “specialist” called by God, it is fitting that he should talk of the training of children and the conduct of their parents in the terminology of God's Book which, for Joe Temple and the rest of us who are believers, contains the basic “rules for life.” It is also to be noted, in keeping with our knowledge of the One who inspired the Bible, that when He gives wisdom to one of His servants, as He has to Dr. Temple, it is extremely practical in its application to the “here and now”—it is relevant wisdom. It is, therefore, not surprising that the suggestions for knowing and guiding your child, and for the conduct and family life of parents, are pratical and relevant to the present age—they work. With these thoughts, I commend this book to your close attention and study.

John C. Montgomery, M.D.
Dallas, Texas