Book Review: Building Family Ties with Faith, Love, and Laughter by Dave Stone

I have never tweeted before.  But if I had a twitter account I could have just as easily wrote my review of Building Family Ties with Faith, Love and Laughter by Dave Sone on Twitter as on this blog. One hundred and forty characters, no problem,  I could go with one of these:

- Fellow Christian parents, read this book.
- Before school madness starts, read this book.
- Family/Youth/Children’s ministry folk, read this book.
- Grandparents/Godparent/Aunts/Uncles give this book this Christmas.

It’s that simple.  This is a great book.  Building Family Ties with Faith, Love, and Laughter is Pastor Dave Stone’s second book in the Faithful Family series published by Thomas Nelson.  Stone mixes straight forward advice, family stories and a good measure of humor into a very satisfying and inspiring read.  He does not come off preachy, although he is a preacher, and parents will leave the book feeling inspired instead of like complete failures. ( you know the type of book I am referring too!)

Stone had me in the first few pages of Chapter 1, titled Endangered Species. 

As someone once said, “If Satan can’t make you bad, he’ll keep you busy” –and he has.

So many pressures compete for our time and energy these days.  Technology that should free us, instead, seems to absorb our attention like a black hole. Stuff that used to be entertaining, like sports, music and other extracurricular activities, has turned into duties drained of excitement and spirit.  We’re so exhausted that we drag ourselves through our days, fall into bed, and then get up the next morning and do it all over again.

We don’t have fun anymore.  Delight has been deleted.  Joy and fulfillment have been replaced by worry and hurry.

It’s no wonder that the joyful Christian family has become all but extinct.

Oh that makes me want to stand up and shout AMEN!  Amen Pastor Dave, AMEN!! I am actually not even an Amen kind of gal – but AMEN! 

Building Family Ties with Faith, Love and Laughter is a great read not because it is full of ideas I have never heard of, but because it highlights the things I know as a mom I want, but need some inspiration to reclaim.  Looking at topics such as contentment, gratitude, spontaneity, and communication Pastor Dave does an excellent job making this book read more like a conversation than a “how-to” parenting book. 

Before your family rushes into the school year and fills the calendar up with little color-coded boxes of who is where when, I hope you will take some time to read this book and find a way to build faith, love and laughter into your family’s Fall calendar. 

** I am a BookSneeze reviewer.  In exchange for a copy of this book, I have shared my honest review of this book.**