Resource Highlight – God’s Grace for Single-Parent Families

God’s Grace for Every Family: Biblical Encouragement for Single Parent Families and the Churches That Seek to Love Them Well, by Anna Meade Harris (Zondervan, 2024), 208 pages.

This book brought me to the house of mourning, and I was better for it. Harris doesn’t minimize the pain and evil in this life under the sun. She paints a picture of an unexpected single parenting journey after the death of her husband left her with three boys to raise. She provides poignant descriptions, such as, “It took years for us to feel reestablished as a family, even longer for that family to be more about the people present than the person absent.” (p.4). She helps us see painful pictures through the eyes of faith.

She speaks to a variety of single parenting experiences, such as divorce, adoption, and unintended pregnancy. Because many single par- ents struggle with the potential suspicion or questions about what led to their current situation, she cautions helpers against judgmentalism (p.28). “The tendency to judge means that ministering to single parents begins in your prayer life,” she says. “Have the humility to ask God to search your heart” (p.41). As Meade Harris says, “This side of glory, there’s no such thing as an ‘unbroken’ family” (p.22). The book is as strong in its Christian teaching as in its depiction of the challenges of single parenting. Her use of the Bible is fitting and relevant. It is not pedantic and does not resort to platitudes. Some Chris- tian books start with a specific topic but resort to generalities about suf- fering, but this book keeps the biblical teaching connected to the topic at hand and offers it in fresh ways. She invites readers to understand this particular suffering and draws biblical applications that are to the point and wise.

Harris also offers guidance on how to care for single parents and families in practical and sensitive ways. It’s easy to misstep or fall off the wagon in several directions. It’s easy to overlook the need for support, to offer ineffective encouragement, or to overburden single parents while trying to honor their role in the church. She can also shoot straight and tell us what not to say: “Single parents don’t need pep talks. We need Jesus” (p.64).

I’ve not read a nonfiction book that commanded my attention quite this well in some time. Truly, as Harris says, “The bereft have much to teach us” (p.33). I kept wanting to learn from this sister who had walked so long in the valley of the shadow of death. It was good and edifying for my own faith, even though I grieved the stories included and the stories I’ve known that the book reminded me of. It was touching, too, to read the words from one of her sons in a short closing chapter. In the end, what the author shares as imperfect parenting, often in tears and uncertainty, has indeed brought good fruit.

Review originally published by Michael Gembola in a series of reviews, “Book Notes: Volume VI,” JBC 39:1 (2025): 89–98.