Special to 0-A News
From Walter Albritton,
Senior Pastor Trinity UMC
For Sunday, Jan. 10, 1999
Parents seek help
in the difficult task of raising their children in today's world
-
- When Rusty and Suzanne Baker
discovered that she was pregnant with their first child, they
looked at each other and shared a sense of helplessness. They
realized they needed help, not with the delivery, but with the
question, "How on earth do parents raise normal, healthy
children in today's society?"
- Out of a need to find help
for the task of parenting they stumbled onto a seminar being
taught on the theme, "Growing Kids God's Way." They
enrolled and found "just the help we were looking for."
In fact they were so impressed with the course that they prepared
themselves to teach the material and offered the seminar in their
own church. Suzanne is a physical therapist and Rusty is a teacher,
coach, and trainer at Opelika High School. Now the Bakers are
the proud parents of two handsome boys, Chase and Jesse. And
they are convinced that they are doing a better job of parenting
because they are using the principles they learned from "Growing
Kids God's Way."
So convinced are they that they persuaded their church, Trinity
United Methodist in Opelika, to sponsor a "Conference on
Biblical Parenting" on Friday night and Saturday, January
29-30.
Not satisfied to have just anybody teach the material, they went
after the "top guns" in the Growing Families International
organization, inviting them to come all the way from California
to Opelika. So Gary Ezzo, and his wife, Anne Marie, are coming
to direct the conference.
- Who are the Ezzos? Gary is
the executive director of Growing Families International and
Anne Marie is one of the principal authors of the materials they
use. Anne Marie has a background in pediatric nursing and is
a childbirth instructor. She is a co-founder of Christian Childbirth
Educators and co-author of "Birth by Design."Together
the Ezzos have authored a number of biblically based parenting
curricula, used by over a million parents throughout the world.
These include the popular series, "Growing Kids God's Way,"
"Preparation for Parenting," and "Preparation
for the Toddler Years."Gary has also authored "On Becoming
Babywise," "Babywise II," and "Reaching the
Heart of Your Teen." These church based parenting curriculums
are used by over 6,000 churches across North America and 95 other
countries.
- In the conference at Trinity,
the Ezzos will speak about topics like "Elements of Discipline,"
"Raising a Moral Child," and "Fathers' Mandate."
Their stated goal is to help parents lay a foundation for confident
child rearing based upon tested principles of scripture, physiology,
and Christian psychology.
- Already dozens of people from
across the southeast are registered to attend the conference.
Registration information may be obtained by calling the church
at 745-2632.
My guess is that there are many parents in Lee County who may
want to take advantage of the unusual opportunity to spend a
few hours with Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo.