9 Study Guides
Parenting & Family
Raise children and build a home with intention. These guides help parents and families talk through discipleship at home, screens and habits, boundaries, and what it looks like to pass faith to the next generation.
The 5 Love Languages of Children
by Gary Chapman & Ross Campbell
Every parent wants their child to feel genuinely loved — but wanting to love a child and successfully communicating that love are two very different things. In The 5 Love Languages of Children, Dr. Gary Chapman and co-author Dr. Ross Campbell argue that each child is uniquely "wired" to receive love through one primary channel: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service, or Physical Touch. When a parent's natural way of expressing love doesn't match a child's primary love language, the child's emotional "love tank" runs low — and a child with an empty love tank is far more likely to struggle with behavior, learning, anger, and self-worth. The book's central promise is simple but life-changing: learn your child's love language, speak it consistently, and watch your relationship — and your child — flourish.
View Discussion GuideBoundaries with Kids
by Henry Cloud & John Townsend
Boundaries with Kids by Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend is a practical, biblically grounded guide to raising children who take responsibility for their own actions, emotions, and lives. Building on the landmark principles of their bestselling Boundaries, Cloud and Townsend argue that loving parents are not permissive parents — they are parents who clearly define where they end and their children begin, who attach consequences to behavior, and who consistently hold their children accountable. The book's central thesis is that character is not formed by protecting children from reality, but by exposing them to the natural and logical consequences of their choices in an environment of warmth, structure, and grace. Drawing on decades of clinical work with families, the authors show how the same biblical principles of respect, stewardship, and self-control that govern healthy adult relationships are the very principles children need to internalize before they leave home.
View Discussion GuideShepherding a Child's Heart
by Tedd Tripp
Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp is built around one foundational conviction: the goal of parenting is not to manage your child's behavior but to address the heart from which all behavior flows. Drawing on Proverbs 4:23 ("Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it"), Tripp argues that most parenting approaches aim too low — they try to produce compliant, well-behaved children without ever asking why children do what they do. The answer, he contends, is always the heart. Children (like all people) act out of the overflow of what they love, fear, and trust. Biblical parenting, therefore, is a long, patient process of bringing God's Word to bear on the inner life of a child — exposing idols, calling for repentance, and pointing toward Christ as the only true Shepherd of the heart.
View Discussion GuideMama Bear Apologetics
by Hillary Morgan Ferrer
Mama Bear Apologetics by Hillary Morgan Ferrer is a call to arms for Christian mothers (and fathers) who want to do more than protect their children from bad ideas — they want to train their kids to recognize and refute those ideas themselves. Drawing on the metaphor of the fiercely protective mama bear, Ferrer and her team of contributing authors walk through the most common lies embedded in today's culture — from moral relativism and self-helpism to postmodernism and feminism — and show parents how to use a four-step "ROAR" method: Recognize the message, Offer discernment, Argue for a better way, and Reinforce what's true. The book's thesis is simple but urgent: the best defense is a well-trained offense, and the time to hand our children intellectual tools is before the world hands them counterfeits.
View Discussion GuideSacred Parenting
by Gary Thomas
Most parenting books ask the same question: How do I raise better children? Gary Thomas dares to ask a different one: What is parenting doing to me? In Sacred Parenting, Thomas argues that God designed the parent-child relationship not only to nurture children but to sanctify parents — to use the relentless, exhausting, humbling, and glorious work of raising children as one of His most powerful tools for shaping us into the likeness of Christ. Just as Thomas's earlier book Sacred Marriage reframed marriage as a path to holiness rather than merely happiness, Sacred Parenting reframes parenthood as a sacred discipline, a school of the soul that no classroom or retreat can fully replicate. The thesis is simple but transformative: God is doing something profound in you through your children, and the struggles you face as a parent are not interruptions to your spiritual growth — they are the means of it.
View Discussion GuideHabits of the Household
by Justin Whitmel Earley
In Habits of the Household, Justin Whitmel Earley argues that the most powerful parenting tool available to families isn't a grand strategy or a weekend retreat — it's the ordinary, repeating rhythms of daily life. Drawing on the Christian tradition of liturgy, Earley makes the case that the small moments of the household (waking up, eating together, disciplining a child, putting kids to bed) are not interruptions to spiritual formation but the very place where it happens. The book's thesis is simple but convicting: habits form hearts, and whoever designs the habits of your household is discipling your family — for better or worse. Earley invites parents to be intentional architects of those habits, not passive passengers swept along by whatever the culture (or the screen) offers next.
View Discussion GuideThe Resolution for Men
by Stephen Kendrick & Alex Kendrick
The Resolution for Men by Stephen Kendrick (with Alex Kendrick) grew out of the hit film Courageous and calls Christian men to stop drifting and start leading — in their homes, their churches, and their communities. At its heart, the book presents a formal, written resolution: a solemn covenant in which a man pledges before God to be a man of integrity, to love and lead his family well, to reject passivity, to live with spiritual intentionality, and to leave a lasting legacy of faith. Each chapter unpacks one or more of the resolution's commitments, drawing on Scripture, real-life stories from the film and the Kendricks' own experience, and the compelling testimony of men who chose to live courageously rather than comfortably.
View Discussion GuideThe Tech-Wise Family
by Andy Crouch
Andy Crouch's The Tech-Wise Family is not primarily a book about screen-time rules. It is a book about what kind of people we want to become—and whether the devices filling our homes are helping or hindering that becoming. Crouch argues that technology's deepest danger is not that it makes children violent or distracted (though it may do both), but that it offers effortless entertainment and instant gratification in place of the harder, richer goods of character, creativity, wisdom, and courage. Drawing on his own family's experiments and on original research conducted with Barna Group, Crouch invites families to make a series of countercultural choices—not to flee technology, but to put it in its proper place so that real human life can flourish at the center of the home.
View Discussion GuideParenting: 14 Gospel Principles That Can Radically Change Your Family
by Paul David Tripp
Paul David Tripp's Parenting is not a how-to manual. It is a book about the "why" beneath everything parents do. Tripp's central thesis is that before we can parent well, we need to understand what parenting is actually for — and that purpose is not to produce well-behaved, successful children, but to be instruments of God's grace in the lives of people (our children) who, like us, are in desperate need of rescue. Built around fourteen gospel-centered principles, the book argues that the greatest danger in parenting is not that we will fail to use the right techniques, but that we will lose sight of the big picture: that God is a sovereign, redemptive King who has placed children in our homes as an act of his grace toward both them and us. Every chapter drives parents back to the gospel — not as a tidy conclusion, but as the oxygen that makes faithful parenting possible at all.
View Discussion GuideParenting & Family Studies — Questions Leaders Ask
- How many Parenting & Family study guides are there?
- 9 guides right now, listed above, out of 202 in the library. Each one is written for a specific published book: a reading, discussion questions, and a closing prayer for every week of it. Browse the whole library →
- How long does a study take?
- Parenting & Family guides run 10 to 17 weeks, one meeting a week, and each week has its own reading, discussion questions, and closing prayer. Groups that meet every other week or take a break for the holidays simply spread the same weeks further apart. Put your meetings on real dates →
- Can we read part of a guide before we pay?
- Yes. Week 1 of every guide is free — no card and no account. Three of its discussion questions sit right on the guide's page for anyone to read, and the rest of Week 1 opens as soon as you tell us where to send it. Browse the guides →
- What does a guide cost?
- Two ways to pay. This Guide Only is $29 once for the book you pick, and never renews. Leader's Year is $79 a year for every guide in the library — $59 for your first year with code FALL2026, then it renews at $79 a year unless you cancel. There is a 30-day money-back guarantee on the year (with 2 or fewer guides downloaded) and 30 days on a single guide. See both options →
- What if the book we want isn't on this page?
- We write it. Tell us the title and the author, and the guide is usually ready within about five minutes — we email you the link the moment it is done. Leader's Year includes 3 on-request books a year and $9 for each one after that; This Guide Only covers the single book you name. Ask for a book →
- Can I print the guide or share it with my group?
- Yes. Download the guide as a PDF to print for the table, or send your group a read-only link. One membership covers everyone who shows up — there is no per-person fee and no seat limit.