While children are a gift from the Lord and enrich our lives inestimably, parenting is not for the fainthearted. The rigours of raising children often lead to "hands which hang down and...feeble knees". This is particularly true when the children we have devoted ourselves to do not know the Lord. Wise counsel abounds as to what we should do as parents but where is one to find encouragement when nothing seems to be working. From the Scriptures and from Christian history the author seeks to minister to such parents and to "strengthen their hand in God".