Shepherding

I was visiting with a friend the other day about our kids and how hard is raising them. I know it doesn't get any easier. She mentioned a book and said it really changed the way she thought about parenting.
I've read the first couple of chapters and can't wait to jump in deeper. I've never thought of parenting as shepherding but it makes a lot of sense. Some of the first thoughts in the book were about how we parent to take care of behavior but not the heart. The heart is what we should care about as parents and if the heart is in good shape behavior should follow.

Also, authority is mentioned in the first couple chapters and how parents have lost a sense of authority with their kids. I see it in my kids and I see it in kids at my sons school. They just don't listen. I'm hoping it's not to late but I've started talking to sweet boy about how Jesus would handle situations and I can see he is really grasping it.

We had a situation come up Tuesday. Sweet boy and 2 of his best friends were playing and they told him that they weren't his friends anymore. Well of course this hurt his feelings but I just blew it off. Well his teacher said something to me about it and then one of the moms asked if I knew what was going on. Come to find out sweet boy told other boy he was mad...well he was mad at him b/c he was told they didn't want to be his friend (by the way it was over a stick). Well other boy had forgotten all about day before just like most kids and didn't know why sweet boy was mad. I talked to sweet boy today and told him that Jesus loved people regardless of what they said or did to him. People were mean to Jesus and said nasty hateful things to him so we should in turn just love them like Jesus would. He got it and I think things are fine now....The kindergarten drama...what are we in for in Jr High and these are boys we are talking about.

Has anyone read this? Let me know what you think.