This review is about the book “Raising confident kids in a confusing world” by Ed Drew.
The subheading reads “A parent’s guide to grounding identity in Christ” and while the book is aimed primarily at parents, I would say grandparents and anyone involved in raising children would benefit from this book. And as a church, we are all involved in raising children. So this is a book for all of us.
I think you’ll agree the world we live in today is very confusing and difficult to navigate for the likes of vulnerable and malleable children. We live in a world where children are encouraged to choose their own identity and they can be anything they want to be - no boundaries - which is a very dangerous and scary place to be.
As Christians on the other hand, we know that our identity should be in Christ, who, as Psalm 16:6 tells us, “He sets the boundary lines in pleasant places”, which gives us safety and security, and isn’t this the vision we want for our children?
Ed Drew seeks to inspire us towards this second vision. The book encourages us to remember our identity as forgiven and understood children and therefore to understand and forgive our own children.
This book also encourages us to follow the long-term goal of real heart change through the Holy Spirit, towards ours and our children’s true identity, rather than expecting immediate good behaviour which, let’s face it, could result in raising little pharisees!
The book also acknowledges that suffering is part of a Christian identity. As parents, seeing our child suffer is hard. As Christians we should expect it and be ready to point our children to our Saviour and Ed encourages us to do this.
Ed also encourages us to keep communication open around the difficult topics our children are facing in this world. These topics can feel difficult to bring up, yet they are the very topics our children are surrounded by every day so they must be brought up, and we must remind our children of the identity we all have in Christ.
He comments that the church as a whole is able to support parents in this endeavour. My summary of what he says here is: “We have such a healthy version of a cross section of society in church - what a wonderful place to raise children and do life together”.
He ends with a vision of looking forward, saying: “it is possible to parent while looking only at our feet. The struggle, the hurt and the mess always seem to be under our feet. Each step has to be measured. We constantly feel like we are about to trip up (or have just tripped up). It’s exhausting, and frequently feels like we can’t go the distance. Look forward. Parent by keeping your eyes fixed on our destination. It doesn’t fix everything. The hurt is still there. But you can keep going … If you are trusting Jesus, you shall be like Him for you shall see Him as He is.”
I was so encouraged and helped by reading this book, and re-encouraged by writing this review. I encourage you to read this book for yourself.
16th July 2025