Excerpts from mail from parents, grandparents, therapists, and ministers...

After reading Relief for Hurting Parents, I was really happy. Mr. Scott has finally touched on a program that could help parents. My only question, "Where were you when I needed help?" I like the common sense approach to dealing with problems.

Many people I talk to about their situations want a Christian program and support group.

I have enjoyed very much reading your book Relief for Hurting Parents. I am a Child and Youth Consultant with two school divisions here in Saskatchewan and an active Christian. I work in the area of social-emotional and behavioral disorders assisting parents, teachers, and individuals to try and work things out whether in school or in the family, or both. I am always looking for materials to use with parents. I liked many of the ideas and principles in your book and found it very helpful. However, I do not always have the freedom to be explicitly Christian in my interventions and presentations with some of these families.

Forgive me if I seem informal in my address to you, but I feel a kindred spirit with you after so many times of sharing with others about your book. I have not only read and recommended your book, Relief for Hurting Parents, but have sold 184 copies in the past four years.

(Note: This is from an office memo circulated in a skyscraper in Houston, Texas.)

Relief for Hurting Parents by Buddy Scott is the only book I have ever seen to offer guidance and help with your child, not theories or excuses. It is a must for everyone with teenagers. I suggest reading it before your child is a teen.

Thanks for providing a needed service in a manner that does not seem to incorporate what I term "Christian humanism."

Relief for Hurting Parents is the best source we have found anywhere. I thank the Lord for it and Mr. Scott.

I have recently read Mr. Scott's book, Relief for Hurting Parents. I find his information and advice very informative and helpful.

What a great book for hurting parents like me!

I am in the process of rereading Relief for Hurting Parents even though it is now overdue at the library. It is an excellent resource and I am interested in purchasing four copies.

My sister is taking this course (a study of Relief for Hurting Parents) through her church in Alabama, and has shared with me how much it has helped her through the difficult time she has had with her son. I too have a son. He is in the military and has made some severe choices in his life... . My sister said this book has helped her. Maybe this will help me to cope with the pain.

We are going through terrible trials with our thirteen-and-a-half-year-old adopted (at three weeks) daughter. She has been self-inflicting wounds for months and telling her friends that I did it. She finally went too far and she was removed from our home two months ago. We're heartbroken. Now we're involved with the authorities and she's in a foster home.

Please send us information on support groups, etc. We need help. We hurt so bad. Please pray for us.

Your book Relief for Hurting Parents was given to me by a friend. I had been praying desperately, "Lord, lead me and guide me in the way I should go." I believe your book was the first part of His answer. Thank you for sharing your insight in this book. It has been encouraging and helpful as we begin to rebuild. I would like to be a part of a support group.

I have read and reread your book Relief for Hurting Parents. I have found it to be very helpful as we face teenage years with our youngest.

We appreciate your wisdom based on biblical principles. Thank you for sharing it in written form.

God has been doing great things in our group. Here are a few:

A single mother and her son have consented to meeting with a Christian counselor and many conflicts between them have been resolved.

Our own son has now returned to church and he has reached out to a young girl and has been bringing her to church. She has been through a very hard life and before my son met her she had tried to commit suicide.

Many parents have shared how the commandments and convictions are working as they apply them.

I wanted to write and tell you personally how much help your book has been to me. I have been a pediatrician in our area for 18 years, and plan to suggest it to my parents of teenagers in need.

Today was the beginning of having a dream come true. For about eight months I've had the desire to be a part of a spiritual parent support group. We were also attending -------- (another nationally known parent support group) at this time. It helped us but there was nothing spiritual about it. I asked God to help me find a spiritual -------- (another nationally known parent support group) group. I read through your book slowly -- at times not picking it up for weeks. One day in July I came to Chapter 24 -- The Support Group. I couldn't believe it. I'd had your book for six months and had been praying for about two months for a group! I'd had the answer to my prayer in my hands even before I made the request?isn't God wonderful?

We bought one of your books at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston. It has been a "life saver" for us and through much prayer and guidance from your book, we think our daughter has gotten back on the "right track." I carry your book everywhere I go -- reading and rereading. It has so much healing in it. I have recommended it to many people.

I'm only on chapter 10 of your book, but I already know that I live in a place where so many teens are in trouble. This is a very affluent town, and I have been convicted that I need the information you have, so that I might share this with other hurting parents.

Right now, I feel I'm losing the battle with our fifteen-year-old daughter, but we will be putting your teachings into practice.

I have the added complication of being a custodial stepmother. Someday I may write my own book!

I have read your book and I found it to be very helpful to my family. About a year ago my son, who is twelve, was going through some difficult times. It put a strain on our whole family. We went to a fine counselor who was once a member of the ---------- (a nationally known and respected minister and speaker) crusades. This man, your book, and by God's almighty power have turned our lives around.

I have four children and I am very concerned about the children of today. As parents we need all the help and encouragement we can get. Again I thank you for your book.

We have just started reading the book, Relief for Hurting Parents, and are so excited to be reading a Christian book with such practical helps!

My husband and I went through the PWR class and read your book, I just felt the need to say, "Thank you!" You helped me -- not only with learning how to be a better Christian parent (a shepherd not a cow puncher!) but you touched my life even as a child at a church camp I was able to go to. It was probably one of many that you spoke at, but it was one of the few times in my life I had felt close to God. I'm from a broken, alcoholic home, and only now as an adult am I beginning to get my life in order and turn it over to God with much more understanding and faith. The PWR class enabled me to understand my childhood and dysfunctional family in a whole new way. Actually it helped me to begin coming out of denial and deal with many issues that had been stuffed and ignored. It helped me to forgive my parents for their shortcomings, and most special to me, it showed me that there is a way to stop the cycle -- that our son doesn't have to inherit it!

Thanks again for your tremendous cooperation and availability in providing us with information and materials. Buddy's book, Relief for Hurting Parents, has already made a tremendous difference in my life, personally and hopefully in the lives of many more as I have the chance to share some of these important insights. I have books galore on my shelves on the family and parenting, but nothing has had more relevant meaning to help remove so much of the self-imposed, unnecessary guilt than this material.

I am excited to teach the class we're offering, because as I'm sure you know, one of the best ways for me to implement material in my own life is to teach it. The teacher always benefits far more than the students. Even though that sounds like a selfish motive, I am also excited about the many parents who have already expressed interest in taking the class.

I am pleased to share with you that our church has begun a Parenting Within Reason support group based on your book Relief for Hurting Parents... . Parents are being ministered to by the practical wisdom and insight contained within your book. Thank you! How exciting it is to see healing taking place in hurting lives!

I have only read the first six chapters so far and I KNOW this is the help I've been searching for, for years! I'd appreciate any information you can send, and if there is not already a support group in this area I will look into starting one. I intend to buy a couple to pass around. It's so good to be understood -- my confusion -- etc. and to have hope that there is a way to succeed and fulfill my dream and vision of the family I've always had. Thank you!

I am a parent and a former teacher. My husband is a high school teacher. With all the resources at our disposal, I found your approach to be the most commonsense, easily implemented ideas I've seen. You have my vote!

I am just about through reading your book Relief for Hurting Parents. It has given me a lot of insight. I know I will have to reread it for it to really sink in. We have had problems with my now seventeen-and-a-half-year-old son for the past two years. After reading this book I see a lot of areas I needed to do better in, plus areas he needed to work on himself. Now I am leaving -------- (the state in which they previously lived) and he is staying with his peers. He didn't graduate this year and now I think the school of hard knocks is going to kick in. I am a new Christian, so it is hard to know in what direction I should go with him except through prayer. Please send me any information you think might help. Plus a listing of where Parenting Within Reason support groups are. I tried -------- (another nationally known parent support group), but I couldn't do it. We are a blended family of eleven years, so I realize there is a lot at play here. But for the first time I feel hope.

My therapist told me that my child's problems were my fault, and she said that right in front of my teenager. She said I wasn't trusting her enough. I trusted her before she became rebellious, but how do you trust a renegade child? It was only after I read Relief for Hurting Parents that my confidence was restored.

Craig A. Wills, MA, LPC, LSW, Former Associate Director,
WellSpring Counseling -- Columbus, Ohio...

I am writing in reference to the book entitled Relief for Hurting Parents by Buddy Scott. I have been told that this book is out of print and that it can no longer be purchased. I find this distressing because it is a resource that we have used quite often at WellSpring Counseling. Please send me information on this book, if it is still available for purchase, and the cost per copy.

Help!!! A friend of mine lent me a book that she felt was one of the best books ever on parenting. As I was reading the book, I realized that I wanted to highlight and mark it. So, I called several bookstores and was told that the book is now out of print. I then called several used bookstores and none of them had the book either.

I'm feeling rather desperate.

The book is Relief for Hurting Parents by Buddy Scott. Is it possible for me to order this book from you?

I am presently reading Relief for Hurting Parents. Unfortunately I was unable to obtain this book from any local bookstore. I was told the book is no longer being published. My sister was able to purchase the book from her psychiatrist. I am so impressed with Buddy Scott's philosophy on raising children that I want to share this with my friends who are also having problems. I am attending a support group, -------- (another nationally known parent support group), and plan to share with them the enthusiasm I feel.

After a year of trying to purchase your book, Relief for Hurting Parents, I found it at the -------- Library in Minnesota.

I would like to purchase two copies if possible. I'm told that the book is no longer in print and to write directly to you.

If you could help me out, I'd appreciate it.

I have just read the book, Relief for Hurting Parents by Buddy Scott. It's the best book I've ever read on family relationships, and I've been told it's out of print in Australia. I need three more copies.