Steve Farrar Reviews

Updated! April 17, 2006

King Me

What Every Son Wants and Needs from His Father

Author: Steve Farrar
Publisher: Moody Press
Available At: Bookstores Everywhere
Publishing Date: February 2006
Genre: Nonfiction: Parenting/Christian
Format: Paperback
Price: $13.99
ISBN: 0802433197
Author Email/Website: www.stevefarrar.com/
Reviewer: Phillip Tomasso III

At 35 years old, I can still vividly recall growing up. Most people can. What I remember most was just how tough my teenage years were. Relentless, really. My dad worked two jobs. I rarely saw him. Thankfully I survived puberty and eventually outgrew peer-pressure (to an extent). But now, as a newer Christian, and the father of three children (two sons, and then the youngest, my daughter) I am faced with an impassable truth. Growing up was the easy part. Parenting kids who are growing up-that's where the real challenge comes in. Add to that the fact that you want your kids to grow up Godly, and I suspect you may have been enlisted in one of the toughest professions of all-fatherhood.

King Me is clearly a book written for fathers and sons. Therefore, it is clearly not a book written for mothers and daughters. However, I believe it is a book that could be and should be read by anyone who has children, wants children, or for teenagers. There is enough for everyone between the pages, that the overall effect of the book should be stimulating as well as satisfying.

The author, Steve Farrar, holds no punches. His taut work tackles subjects that are normally not discussed, or are only grazed over-where context and purpose are so shallow that they appear insignificant. Basically, men and boys, or fathers and sons, have a specific biblical purpose when they are disciples of Jesus. He looks at how the world has become too feminine; how our boys spend more time under the influence of women. This book does not put down, mock or knock women. Not at all. The purpose of King Me, I believe, is to get men back into the game, back into the picture. As men, as father's, we have a job-a God appointed position to be a part of our son's lives, to work toward raising God-fearing, God-loving sons who will, in turn, become fathers and discover that they now are blessed with the same God-commanded purpose.

Using scripture verses, stories from the Bible, personal and shared examples, Farrar explains in easy-to-understand detail the important role of mentoring, educating, and disciplining fathers have when it comes to their sons.

An underlying theme is that sons look to their father's as a God-figure. As father's are we forgiving, understanding and encouraging? Or do we tend to be stubborn, harsh and impatient? Chapters discuss mentoring through mistakes-both mistakes fathers make, and ones sons make, mentoring through discipline, guidance, sexual purity, friendship, manly communication (or, for example-the fact that sons have the ability to pick up on a father's weakest traits).

King Me is the exact kind of book I wish someone had given me back in 1993 when my first son was born. The lessons in the book can be incorporated immediately. I've got time to still work with my kids. Less for my oldest, who is now 12, and in junior high-but that's not too late. How much time do you have left to mentor your sons the way God instructed? A better question might be, do you know how to mentor your sons the way God instructed? This heartfelt, inspiring, and brutally honest look at parenting between fathers and sons has made me a fan of Steve Farrar. He is an author with a large number of books under his belt. King Me may be the first in my Farrar library, but it will not be my last.

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