Parenting Help from Down in the Trenches

By Benny Hunton

Parenting Help from Down in the Trenches-a truly powerful and extraordinary compilation of parenting gems derived from very ordinary and everyday people just like yourselves who are involved in the most critical task given to every generation: to produce offspring who acknowledge, love, and obey God; who honor and respect their parents; who learn personal responsibility and accountability through choices and consequences; and who develop a love for the country that is reflected in their adherence to its laws and regulations. As daunting a task as this is, it is one that the parents in this project accomplished as they parented their own children and are seeing it also in the lives of their grandchildren.

I wanted to be the literal fly on the wall in their homes! Being their child's teacher, their young athlete's coach, or their son's or daughter's youth minister, I wanted to know what they did that must have been so earthshakingly different that produced such exemplary children. Herein lies the value of this work. It is not a plan, it is not a program, and neither is it a treatise taken from child psychology. It is simply a lot of loving Christian parents making application of God's principles along with a lot of logical common sense.

What you read in this book works! The numbers do not lie! The statistical data tells the story of parenting success. It comes down to Philippians 1:9 "What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you." You will learn and see in these ordinary families extraordinary principles! Practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098065027

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Parenting Help from Down in the Trenches

Benny Hunton

ISBN 978-1-0980-6501-0 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-0980-6502-7 (digital)

Copyright © 2020 by Benny Hunton

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

My Parenting Story

Introduction

Gauging Successful Parenting

Statistical Data

The Families That Produced the Parents in Our Study

Pulling It Together

What Would It Look Like?

Statistical Data

The Parents in Our Study

Pulling It All Together

What Would It Look Like?

Lois and Eunice

The Significant Seven

The Application and Practical Application of the Significant Seven

Application 1

These Successful Parents Were Very Careful Not to Allow Their Children to Become Unequally Yoked with Other Young People Who Were Not of the Same Mindset as They Were. Positively Speaking, These Parents Made It a Priority to Ensure That Their Children Experienced Personal Spiritual Involvement with Other Children of the Same Mindset.

Application 2

These Successful Parents Were Big Believers in Not Only Telling Their Children What to Do and How to Live but also Were Living Examples of What They Taught.

Application 3

The Successful Parents in This Study Believed in the Principle of Hard Work. They Required Chores to Be Done at Home, and They Encouraged Their Children to Work at Part-Time Jobs Outside the Home.

Application 4

The Successful Families in This Research Were Open with Their Children by Allowing Them the Freedom to Be Me. More Particularly, Their Children Felt Free to Express Themselves and to Have an Opinion. Along with This, These Children Were Allowed to Fail Knowing It Is Okay to Experience Failure. Failure Brings with It Consequences, and These Parents Helped in Creating a Consequential Environment.

Application 5

The Successful Parents in This Research Were Addictive-Free to Alcohol, Drugs, and Tobacco. It Began at the Top (With the Parents) and Was Followed by the Expectation of High Moral Values in the Lives of Their Children on These Substances.

Application 6

The Successful Parents in Our Study Spent Quality Time with Their Children. If There Was More Than One Child in the Family, Each Child Received Quality Time from the Parents. Another Way to Put This Is to Say That Each Child Received Their Parent's Undivided Attention.

Application 7

Ninety-Seven Percent of the Successful Families in This Research Had Children Who Participated in Athletics.

Their Very Own Words

Summary

Personal Remarks

Recommendations

About the Author

My Parenting Story

I have read many books in which the writers would take several pages to thank all the different people who contributed to their work. In most cases, it would be some of the following: family members; work associates; other authors who were involved in the same type pursuits; editors; readers; and many, many others. I too want to take the time here to give a shout-out to so many who, had it not been for them, this book would never have been written. Those you will find here are people that you will never find in most literary publications. I say this not because I do not dearly love them all or because any of them intentionally meant me harm. I very firmly believe that every individual who walks this earth is a human being made in the image of God. We are all unique, and our cultures and upbringings are unique. This is what makes us what and who we are. I also believe that God put in every human that appears on the scenes of this earth a craving for spiritual destiny. I am not saying that all answer those cravings or respond to the calls of a loving God. And this is where my parenting story begins because I thank the Lord daily that I was able to see who he brought into my life right from the very beginning and that through His grace and mercy (which he bestows on every single one of us), I have come to know Jesus.

My parenting story began in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 19, 1942. I was born to a very beautiful young girl and a very handsome young man who evidently placed more importance on the thrills of youth than on the importance of bringing children into a safe and spiritually sound family surrounding. I guess I was more intent on making it in this world than my older siblings because they both died in childbirth. From what I have been told, I also had a difficult time right out of the womb, but I was determined to make it, and I did. I never remember seeing both my father and my mother together; they divorced very soon after I was born. From what I have been told, my father returned from WWII to find that my mother no longer wanted to be married. I think it was a mutual decision. Okay, so not such a good start! My next memories are of a small-framed house on a back street in northwest Atlanta. This was my grandmother's house, and it became my house too. And not only my house, but also my cousin's house. His mother (my mother's sister) lived there also. It has been said that a child from the ages of zero to six is forming many traits and habits that will be with them for life. One thing I do know is that I have a boatload of memories from that time of my life. I remember standing out at the road and looking down the hill, waiting to see my daddy's old car coming up the hill for a visit. I remember my aunt (not my mother or father) teaching me to ride a bike. I remember almost burning down the old shack next to Mama's (my grandmother) house. I remember making mud pies out in the yard after a rain. I remember asking Mama for a nickel so we could buy a hunky from the hunky man who rode by in the summers on his icebox bike, and I remember her vividly say, I don't have one red cent. I remember Pawpaw sitting on the front porch, whittling. I remember one time, he whittled me a rubber-band gun. I remember taking baths in a big aluminum tub right in the living room. One of my favorite memories is of my pawpaw sitting close to his radio receiver, listening to The Lone Ranger. I could just visualize that white horse rearing up and those silver bullets (I even sent off for one from the back of a cereal box). I could go on and on with memories of this time in my life, but I want to tell you about the best memory I have from Mama's house. On Sunday mornings, we would get ready (my cousin and I), and Mama would walk us to church. After going back to see the old house in the recent past, I would say that the distance from Mama's house to the church was at least half a mile. I remember it like it was yesterday. There were two houses of worship that I remember, and they were across the road from each other. One was at the top of a steep hill, and it was a small, white building with a steeple on top. The other was very unique; it was an old retired streetcar (for those of you who might remember streetcars in Atlanta) that sat on its tracks just off the road. We would walk inside and take our seats just like we were getting ready to go to town. The preacher would stand up front and preach away. Mama was my Lois and Eunice that Paul talked about to Timothy. One last memory I will mention is that how every single night before we would go to sleep, Mama would come in, and we would do