by Janey L. DeMeo
softcover, spiralbound, 2006, CarePoint Ministries Inc.
ISBN 0977980014
199 pgs.
Janey L. DeMeo writes a book that is not only useful to today’s parents, but needed as well. Heaven Help Me Raise These Children! is not just another book full of ‘methods’ or ‘how-to’s’ for parents, but rather learning to use the first book written for parents - the Bible!
Set up in a style for use in groups as well as individual use, Heaven Help Me is broke into weekly meetings/chapters with key points to ponder, questions and concerns, as well as encouragement, memory verses, and homework.
In Week 3 one of the key points to ponder is understanding that while we will always fail as parents, God is faithful. We sow by faith, and the Lord is the one who builds. Not only do we learn that parenting is a day to day process, we also come to realize our need to make our homes His for our children’s sake. This includes our relationship with our spouses and the examples it brings to our homes.
Week 8 humbly reminds us that to efficiently teach our children God’s Word, we must first hear it ourselves. Our speech and how we teach our children are first taught to us when we read God’s Word. How often do we correct, criticize and affirm our children and how do we do it? by touch? eye contact? with words?
Janey’s book comes at a time when most parenting books give us a list of what to do, how to do it, and leave it at that. Here now is a helpful guide that gives us the Bible as our main source of learning - and the lessons we take from it are far deeper.
You can order Heaven Help Me Raise These Children! From Janey’s website at: http://www.carepointministry.com/ (Click on PARENTING).
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS WITH JANEY L. DEMEO
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS WITH JANEY L. DEMEO
Paula: What inspired you to write Heaven Help Me Raise These Children?
Janey: I became a mother and was already a pastor’s wife and women’s teacher in our Theological Institute in southern France (founded by my husband Louis). I taught a series of classes on parenting which were first for my own benefit—to learn how to be the best possible mom. But they were also to help the French ladies who, at that time, had little access to good Christian literature in French. Furthermore, even though there were a lot of good Christian parenting books out there which I read, I was left frustrated because certain issues were not addressed. These issues include the following:
* Guilt: What happens when we as parents fail our children (and we all do at some time in some way or another);
* Methods: If you do "a & b", it doesn’t guarantee your child will walk with God. How can I really help my child to know Jesus?
* Spiritual warfare: Since the devil hates children, and he hates Christians, then attacking Christian parents must be one of his major goals. How then do we handle spiritual warfare in parenting?
* God’s purpose for our family: Are we here just to raise a nicey-nicey "Christian" family or does God require that we train our children to reach a lost and dying world? And how do we do that?
* Prayer: How do we pray for our children and teach them to pray for themselves, and others?
* Orphans, underprivileged children: How can our families reach out to them? How can we sensitize our children to the needs of the suffering children in the world?
Paula: What lessons did you learn in writing this book?
* Guilt: What happens when we as parents fail our children (and we all do at some time in some way or another);
* Methods: If you do "a & b", it doesn’t guarantee your child will walk with God. How can I really help my child to know Jesus?
* Spiritual warfare: Since the devil hates children, and he hates Christians, then attacking Christian parents must be one of his major goals. How then do we handle spiritual warfare in parenting?
* God’s purpose for our family: Are we here just to raise a nicey-nicey "Christian" family or does God require that we train our children to reach a lost and dying world? And how do we do that?
* Prayer: How do we pray for our children and teach them to pray for themselves, and others?
* Orphans, underprivileged children: How can our families reach out to them? How can we sensitize our children to the needs of the suffering children in the world?
Paula: What lessons did you learn in writing this book?
Janey: I learned to go deeper with God in my dependence on Him as a mom. I learned to let Him parent my children through me—in spite of my weakness. I learned to rebound when I failed. I guess I learned what I wrote about in the book. Oh, and I learned more about God’s faithfulness.
Paula: You and your husband were missionaries in France and you just returned from a trip to Africa. What ministries do you have going on there?
Paula: You and your husband were missionaries in France and you just returned from a trip to Africa. What ministries do you have going on there?
Janey: We were missionaries in France for 22 years. Our kids were born and raised there. We’ve been in America for 3 years now and are going back and forth to the missionfield mentoring people in missions and ministering to national leaders. I also help suffering children in many countries and have had a non-profit organization helping the needy children of the world for many years – http://www.orphansfirst.org/
Paula: If you could visit any country, which would you choose and why?
Janey: I’ve been to so many countries already, I can’t count them. I guess Australia would be good since my brother and his family live there and I’ve never been yet.
Paula: Tell us about Orphans First.
Janey: Thank you for asking, Paula. This ministry is dear to my heart and, I believe, dear to the Lord’s heart. Basically, we help suffering children anywhere in any capacity we can. We are also a child sponsorship program with a few slants different than others (for one, we’re tiny and have no means to advertise). We have an orphanage in India with 110 kids, a street children’s work in Moscow, Russia, another with kids in Bangkok, Thailand, another in Benin, Africa. We also help kids in Siberia, Mexico and Haiti and have helped some adoptions. We’re expanding the work in Africa at this time. We also have a prayer chain and people subscribe voluntarily to become a prayer partner (see www.orphansfirst.org or contact me: janey@orphansfirst.org.
Paula: In your teaching experience with parents, what area do you feel most parents struggle with the most?
Paula: In your teaching experience with parents, what area do you feel most parents struggle with the most?
Janey: Recognizing the need for more prayer, and praying.
Paula: Your own children are grown but we all know you never stop being a parent. What is one piece of advice you’ve learned that you can give parents whose children have moved out on their own?
Janey: Never stop praying. Be there for them: to listen, to love and understand. Stay out of the way when need be (sometimes they need their space). But never stop praying. God is still the Father of our children and, when we let Him, He continues watering the seed we’ve sown.
Paula: Chocolate or a massage?
Janey: A massage would help my back right now. But, gee, I sure love chocolate.
Paula: Is there a specific Bible verse that has most encouraged you as a parent?
Janey: Dangerous question. I have many, many fave verses for parenting. Here’s a few: Prov.22:6; Isa. 30:18; Dan.9:23; Gal. 6:9; Eph.3:20; Phil.1:6; Mat.28:19
Paula: Do you have more works like Heaven Help Me Raise These Children in the making?
Janey: Nope, not on parenting anyway. I have a small book on suffering that I may revamp. Otherwise, my writing at this time is mostly articles.
Thanks, Janey!
