Blessing Your Children, Jack W. Hayford

I was first introduced to Jack W. Hayford's books when I lost an infant in 2010. It was through one of his books that I found great comfort along side the bible. It is no different in this beautifully written book.

In "Blessing Your Children" parents go on a spiritual journey to discover biblical ways to instill blessings in the lives of their children. Not only is this beneficial for the child but it is beneficial to the parent as well. Reading this book will cause a parent to delve into scripture and awaken a hunger to learn more of the promises hidden in plain sight in the bible.

This book does an excellent job a presenting the importance of Christian living and the pursuit of holiness as a means to bless our children. Simply reading your bible and talking about it once in a while and “being a good person” does not entitle your children to a spiritual blessing. Even being saved does not do this. You must put your faith to work, you must actively pursue a relationship with the eternal God who actively pursued you. You must live by His precepts and laws, letting him consume your life in all areas. Reading this book in correlation with David Pierce’s “Protecting your Home from Spiritual Darkness” was especially enlightening. As one deals with the benefits of pursuing God, turning from and asking forgiveness of sin and being faithful to the laws and word of God - resulting in a blessing for your children; and the other deals with the consequence of living in sin, not following the laws of God and thus ultimately resulting in cursing your children. I love the way Pastor Hayford lays out the biblical principles of blessing your children. This is not a step-by-step approach but rather a life-style approach. Remember Faith is action. This book encourages believers to be active about their belief. It does no good to be just a “good person”, it benefits no one for you to be saved if you don’t love God enough even to follow his simple commands to honor him by your tithes (of money, time and talent), or to pursue a relationship with him, or to attend church because you long to be in his presence. To truly benefit those you love you must love God the Father as Jesus (God the Son) loved him, as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David and Solomon loved him and sought after him. Blessing our children means living out a vibrant faith in a living God that they can see, touch and experience – it is making God real to them.

Thank you Pastor Hayford for putting into words the testimony that Christ has laid on your heart. I believe this book could stir many to a more active, vibrant faith. Who doesn’t want to leave behind a rich inheritance of eternal value to their children? I would much rather this option than the other of curses. The scripture is very clear that there are only curses or blessings – what are you leaving behind? It is never too late to break the curse and begin to bless.

The topics are varied that this book covers however each is depserately needed in today's family. Jack Hayford has once again written a great book.

Thanks Regal for this review copy.