About the Book
Book: Unison Parenting: The Comprehensive Guide to Navigating Christian Parenthood with One Voice
Author: Cecil Taylor
Genre: Parenting/Family, more specifically Christian Parenting
Release date: September 17, 2024
Singing in unison is when all voices sing the same note, at the same time, to emphasize the text. Similarly, families need to parent in unison to emphasize the message they want to send to their children.
Cecil Taylor uses his personal parenting experience, and those of the families he’s taught and ministered to over decades, to create unique foundational strategies for unison parenting within a Christian context. Learn how to stay on the same page throughout the trials of parenting, provide children with a solid faith foundation, and balance loving nature with firm boundaries to create a warm, stable environment where the child and parent can eventually collaborate to bring the child to full, responsible adulthood.
Whether in a traditional or nontraditional family structure, Unison Parenting leads parents through the ages and stages of childhood into mature adulthood. Additionally, Cecil lays out parenting fundamentals to manage your child’s growing need for independence during their teen years, while gradually building trust through incremental decision-making.
Click here to get your copy!
About the Author
With more than 30 years’ experience as an adult Sunday School teacher and as many in youth ministry, Cecil Taylor has impacted lives in local churches throughout his adult life. He founded Cecil Taylor Ministries to broaden that impact, teaching Christians to live a 7-day practical faith through books, video studies, and speaking engagements. His ministry is cross-denominational, focused on the common struggle Christians face in putting their faith into practice and applying scripture and faith principles to life situations.
Cecil has written three previous books, all of which have been awarded across international, national, and regional contests. For each book, Cecil has created a study guide, a video study, and downloadable free leader guides.
More from Cecil
Would you like to know the surefire, guaranteed way to get your teen to open up and talk to you? You’ll find it in my new book, Unison Parenting: The Comprehensive Guide to Navigating Christian Parenthood with One Voice.
Unison Parenting is the culmination of my fifteen years leading parenting classes in my church, my thirty years of youth ministry, and my raising of three children (one adopted) to adulthood. I taught and tested the parenting advice with seven hundred families that attended my classes, so I am convinced the structure and tips you’ll find in the book are well-proven.
One of those tips is how to get your teen to talk to you. I have never had anyone return to me to say that the technique doesn’t work; in fact, they laughingly complain that the technique works too well, and they can’t get their teen to stop talking!
An overarching theme of the book is, of course, getting and staying in unison as parents, but not only as parents – as a family. Another way to put it is a spirit of collaboration. You begin building this collaboration when the children are young, and as they grow, you expand the collaboration to partner with them on the common goal of helping them become mature adults who make good decisions.
I can tell you from experience that the collaborating spirit of such a family continues into adulthood, fostering solid on-going relationships and a desire for family community, even across distance.
This is not to say that my wife and I were perfect, nor that our children were perfect. We all made regrettable mistakes along the way. Our learnings, plus the positive and negative experiences of families I encountered over decades, will help you avoid pitfalls as you create a unison atmosphere among parenting partners and with your children.
Interview with the Author
When did you start writing?
In a sense, early elementary school. When I was newly fascinated with the fact that people
could die, I wrote small biographies. I was seven or eight years old, so if these hit ten pages,
that was pretty long. Sometimes I wrote about a famous person that I researched, but
sometimes I simply made up a person and wrote about their life. And always how they died, of
course. I think it took until I was eleven or so before it really hit me that I would die, too!
I wrote a lot in a journalistic sense after that. I was twice editor of the school paper and became
the sports editor of the local newspaper. I minored in journalism in college but followed my major
of computer science for many years.
When I went into ministry part-time in 2016, it was to create videos. Strangely, I didn’t want to
write books, because I reasoned that no one buys books anymore. Ha! Once I came to my
senses, I became a prolific writer. I wrote my first four books within two years, along with regular
blog posts and guest articles.
What is the most difficult part about writing for you?
Getting around to it! I run a ministry that requires attention in many ways: marketing, podcasts,
blogs, administrative, relationship-building, on and on. To actually write a book takes dedicated
time and energy. I have to carve out the time needed and reserve it for writing.
Favorite quote?
It’s a book quote that has become my life mantra: “Ski the trail,” from The Centered Skier, a
book I didn’t actually like, but it had one gem in it. The concept is to not complain about your
choices but to ski the trail you selected.
This plays out in a lot of ways. You choose an outfit and complain about it the whole day; hey,
ski the trail! You decide to work a particular job and then complain; ski the trail. You visit the
hamburger joint and order the salad; no, ski the trail and get the hamburger. It is about living life
vivaciously, without regret, and accepting the challenges of your choices.
My daughter-in-law, who is a pastor, loves the phrase and actually preached a sermon with the
phrase as the centerpiece. Recently I was visiting her and my son, and we went to eat at a
restaurant that served a crème brulee sampler, which included a blue cheese pecan pie crème
brulee. I was going to skip it because I hate blue cheese. Then my daughter-in-law said, “I’m
going to use your words against you – ski the trail!” So I ordered it, and the blue cheese melded
perfectly with the sweet pecan pie taste. She and I shared the sampler and enjoyed skiing the
trail together.
Share something your readers wouldn’t know about you.
I log my exercise and calorie intake every day. I started logging my workouts in 2005 when I
encountered a very strange problem: it turns out that I had a broken bone that separated from
my vertebra in middle school! To keep it from pressing on a nerve, I have to maintain a strong
core, so I exercise a lot. My first year, I exercised 152 times in twelve months. Last year, I set a
record with 290 workouts. I’m a pretty organized person, so it becomes second nature to track
workouts and such.
If you could invite one person to dinner, who would it be and what would you cook?
I’ve thought about that, and my answer has changed over the years. Usually it has been Jesus
or Abraham Lincoln. But lately, I think I would invite Davey Johnstone, Elton John’s underrated
guitarist. Davey was essential to Elton’s success. I would like to get his perspective on his guitar
solos, his vocal arrangements, and how he feels about the end of Elton’s touring. Since Davey
has been everywhere and surely eaten all kinds of food, I would prepare him something local,
like my Southwestern casserole recipe.
Blog Stops
Lots of Helpers, October 23
Simple Harvest Reads, October 24 (Author Interview)
Texas Book-aholic, October 24
Artistic Nobody, October 25 (Author Interview)
Guild Master, October 26 (Author Interview)
Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, October 27
Fiction Book Lover, October 28 (Author Interview)
Vicky Sluiter, October 29 (Author Interview)
A Modern Day Fairy Tale, October 30 (Author Interview)
Locks, Hooks and Books, October 30
Happily Managing a Household of Boys, October 31
Library Lady’s Kid Lit, November 1 (Author Interview)
Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, November 2
Blossoms and Blessings, November 3 (Author Interview)
A Reader’s Brain, November 4 (Author Interview)
Jodie Wolfe – Stories Where Hope and Quirky Meet, November 5 (Author Interview)
Giveaway
To celebrate his tour, Cecil is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon card and a copy of the book!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.