A Case of Mistaken Identity?

A couple of days ago, I received a phone call from a man I could hardly understand. I asked that he email his request so I could study it. Here is what I received:

Dear Rev.Bryant ,

Nice to speak to you this morning .
I am working for a Japanese Television called " TV Asahi " .
My name is Hideyuki MIyauchi .
TV Asahi has a weekly informational program called " Shiru Shiru MIshiru "( literally translated " To see is to know ") .

Their next subject is " What is the better ball to fly further by a baseball bat ? "
This is a kind of scientific research .
They like to invite you to Japan to hit various balls at s studio if you can .

They offer the cost of staying in Japan : trip , meeting , shooting , trip back .
The date they will shoot up to you soon as possible .

About your guarantee or donation to your church is up to you .
Please let us know .

I am sorry to bother you by a strange offer .
We have still a lot of your fans in Japan .

If you are willing to accept this offer , please let me know soon as possible .

Thank you so much for your time .

Best ,

HIdeyuki MIyauchi

Upon reading the missive, I realized that this executive thought he was speaking to the former Major League and Japanese League home run hitting star, not some old hotcornerhasbeen. I replied that I would be happy to accept his offer, but I thought he would be disappointed to discover he had found the wrong Ralph Bryant.

Parenting By The Book

Over a period of years, maybe beginning in the mid-1990s, Jo and I did not spend as much time reading books about parenting as we had previous the decade or two. But in the last few years circumstances have caused us to revert back to old reading patterns. In our raising two grandsons, one of the things that we've discovered is that boys are different from girls. So we thought we might need a few pointers on ways to raise them.

We went first to some of our old favorite authors like Gary Smalley and James Dobson. Most recently we have both read a book by an author we did not know until the book was recommended (by Billy Mack). He is John Rosemond, and apparently he has been well-respected for quite a number of years by some of those that we've held in high esteem. The title of the book is Parenting by the Book.

Dr. Rosemond is very pointed in his holding that the best approach to raising children, boys or girls, is to raise them using the wisdom of Scripture. Rosemond was trained in what he now calls postmodern psychological parenting. The book does a good job pointing out the damage that has been done to our culture by those methods and ideologies. I found some of his points eye-opening. It is very easy to see some of his conclusions all around us today, even among Christian parents.

Rosemond also provide some thoughts about the ways to extract and apply biblical wisdom to our parenting methods. He is very practical even as he is very certain that biblical wisdom cannot be surpassed for successful child rearing. I was so impressed with this book that, even before I finished it, I had ordered several copies. I believe it is the kind of book that I will want to share with others in the days to come. I'm going to donate one to our church library in the name of my grandmother Marie Bryant. I believe she would approve of the common sense that Rosemond expounds. She would never have written it in a book, but I believe her methods are exactly what Rosemond wishes all of us would use to bring up our children.