Mike's New Book, Training Children to Be Strong in Spirit

Mike: I have a new book that you’re going to love. I have enjoyed writing it immensely. It’s called Training Children to be Strong in Spirit. I’ve been looking forward to writing this book for a long time. It’s full of stories about our past, about the children. It has exciting stories about snakes, bicycles, and ponds and rope swings, and Navy Seals and any number of things that kids go through growing up. It’s based on a passage in the book of Luke, where I was reading about Jesus and John the Baptist. Here’s what it says. This is interesting. It says, concerning Jesus, “And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.” And then later after Jesus was 12 years old and visited the temple, it says, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.”

It also says of John the Baptist that he grew strong in spirit. Samuel, over in the Old Testament, First Samuel, it says of Samuel “And the child Samuel grew before the LORD. And the child Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with the LORD, and also with men.”

Now I’ve found six salient points in that.

The first one is that children grow and increase in stature. You say, “Well all children grow.” Yes, but what we talk about is how to make sure that they grow real strong bodies and how they develop their bodies in such a way that they don’t succumb to sickness and disease.

And then, waxed strong in spirit. The book majors on this theme: how to produce children that are strong in spirit. Not weak and feeble, and not cry babies who fail or faint, but who stand up to the rigors of life. Who rebound, who have rebound capabilities.

And filled with wisdom. How important it is that our children be wise in the world in which we live. And how to teach that wisdom.

And then the grace of God is upon him. In other words, if your child has the grace of God, the provision of God upon them, then they are going to do well in life.

And then in favor with God. Some people have special favor with God. Some people have more favor with God than others do. John was that disciple whom Jesus loved and all the other disciples knew that, that he had a special relationship. Abraham was the one God called his friend. He didn’t call others his friend, but he did Abraham. So Abraham had special favor with God. What can you do to train your children to have special favor with God?

And then finally in favor with man. You know, prosperity in this life has to do with having favor with men. If people don’t like you, if people don’t like your children, if your children don’t find favor with other people, then your children are going to be shut out of opportunity.

So how do we teach our children to have favor with men? That’s what we deal with in the book and it’ll be out around October 15. So look forward to it. I’m looking forward to it. My wife has put together a beautiful cover here. It has lots of little kids across the front, nice bright colors, so I really enjoy that cover. She did the cartoon drawing. So look for it about October 15… Training Children to be Strong in Spirit.