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I love to read, and I am always seeking another great book that will help to make me into a person who is more mature, gracious, and organized. I wrote in my last post about the best books for developing habits for spiritual formation. Those books do a great job of explaining what habits are and how you can create them. They also explain how to create some Christian habits for spiritual development, otherwise known as spiritual disciplines. In this post, we are focusing on how to create habits for the Christian family. These are some of the best books on Christian habits for building a life-giving home and strong family culture. At the end of this post, you’ll also find some great recommendations on books to add to your family worship and devotion time.
We know that creating daily habits of Christian living will help us to be stronger in our faith and more able to move in the way that the Holy Spirit wants us to go. We don’t just want to have highly effective habits; we want to be highly effective Christians. Jesus is Lord of our life, which means that we are going to spend more time getting in the word, going to church, and trying to live out what the bible says. Creating a strong family culture that shows how much you value God is so important. I hope that these books will encourage you to create that culture in your family now by incorporating Christian habits into your home!
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For the Christian Family:
- Habits of the Household: Practicing the Story of God in Everyday Family Rhythms by Justin Whitmel Earley
Habits of the Household is a phenomenal book. Written in Earley’s lyrical style, he describes the habits that families can include in their daily lives in order to make their home a place that points their children to God. He gives Christian habits for several different areas of life, including technology, bible study, meal times, bedtimes, and more. This book is life-changing. If you are looking for a book to open your eyes to what your family culture could be, this is the book for you. In fact, Season 1 of A More Beautiful Life Collective was inspired by this book. Listen to our first episode here.
The Spiritually Vibrant Home is similar to Habits of the Household in that it wants to give a list of Christian habits that will help to create healthy, spiritually vibrant families. This book focuses on 3 central areas – praying in front of your kids, family meal time at home, and hospitality. I love the research that this book includes. It is published in collaboration with Barna, who provides original research to back their claims of what leads to spiritual vibrancy. It is also a quick easy read which is always a plus. Importantly, it also focuses on how we can show Jesus Christ to others so that we can be an effective witness for the gospel.
The Tech-Wise Family is another book that uses research from Barna to support their claims. This book is also life-changing and informed a lot of my views on my podcasts about technology here and here. In this book, the author, Andy Crouch, details how he put technology in a proper place so that it wouldn’t rule his life. He goes over the 10 ten tech-wise family commitments, many of which are completely counter-cultural. (For instance, “We learn to sing together, rather than letting recorded and amplified music take over our lives and worship.”) This book will make you think about your own relationship with technology and will encourage you to set boundaries to help your kids have a better relationship with technology. Check out some ideas from the Tech-Wise Family in Season 1 Episode 4 of the podcast here.
- For the Children’s Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay
This book is a great introduction to schooling your children at home. One of the foundational books on Charlotte Mason education, this book will give you a glimpse of ‘what could be’ if you start the journey of homeschooling. I’ve heard this book mentioned time and time again as the book that introduced a parent to homeschooling with living books and ideas. It’s a short read too!
- The Life Giving Home: Creating a Place of Belonging and Becoming by Sally & Sarah Clarkson
I absolutely love all of Sally Clarkson’s books. You can tell that she is a reader and long-time writer because she writes in a way that inspires and points you to the one who spoke the world into being. I first fell in love with her books through reading The Mission of Motherhood (give this to all your mom friends please!) and then went on a Sally Clarkson reading spree. I just finished her book Desperate, another good read, which informed much of my podcast on a vision for home and homemaking. Sally is still actively writing books and releasing her podcast, At Home with Sally, as of the release of this article. Read her stuff. Pass on her stuff. It’s great! I promise.
The Life-Giving Home is a book written in conjunction with her daughter Sarah Clarkson. In this book, they create a vision for a whole year of nurturing a place for ‘belonging and becoming.’ This is the life-giving home. Written in chapters that align with the months of the year, they give themes and ideas for how to use your home to point your children to God through your everyday actions by incorporating Christian habits. Some of the monthly topics include creating a culture of love, finding beauty where you are, and engaging with your heritage of faith. I highly recommend this book!
I also recommend The Life-Giving Table, a partner book to The Life-Giving Home. This book focuses on how the dinner table can be a place that nurtures faith, ‘one meal at a time.’ One insight I learned from this book is the way that our dependence on food actually can point us to God. When we recognize how God made food and our dependence on him, to show that we are dependent on God for our daily bread and that everything we have must work together for his good purposes. It just makes you realize how important and valuable our relationship with food is. This book not only lists important theological insights; it also gives some yummy recipes like Cinnamon rolls and more. Sally recently wrote another book, Tea Time Discipleship that gives more recipes and delves deeper into the idea that food (and tea) can be an avenue for cultivating a heart for God.
This book does a great job of giving you tips and ideas on how to raise a healthy family. But, don’t worry! This is not a book that recommends crash-course diets or whatever is the fad right now. Jodi Mockabee is a mom who has been around the block and uses science-backed practices to implement habits that foster health not just in the body but in the mind and spirit as well. She gives ideas on how to live healthily while also juggling all the responsibilities of home and work. She also frames all of her recommendations with her understanding of the gospel. You will walk away with a decent toolkit for creating a healthier family and christian habits after reading this book!
- Memory Making Mom: Building Traditions that Breathe Life in Your Home by Jessica Smartt
Memory Making Mom, by blogger, podcaster, and author Jessica Smartt, is jampacked with ideas of how to create traditions in your family that will build your family culture. This book has no shortage of ideas for celebrating what makes you a family! She does a great job of including ideas for each time of the year, that you can build on year after year. This is not just a book filled with ‘Pinterest’ ideas that you will never do! She also gives plenty of low or no-cost examples. This book also gives lots of great wisdom and advice on parenting in a way that puts God first in your home by including Christian habits. It’s a must-read!
Whether you are a homeschooling family or not, one of the best ways to connect with your children is to read aloud at home. Stories create a shared family culture. With every new tale, you are creating inside jokes, building character, and showing your children a better way. Sarah Mackenzie, the host of The Read Aloud Revival, gives great advice and recommendations on the best books to read to create a home where your kids fall in love with reading and your family grows closer to each other.
- Parenting with Love & Logic: Teaching Children Responsibility by Foster Cline and Jim Fay
There are so many types of parenting styles out there, and all of them have their own benefits and drawbacks. Parenting with Love & Logic explains the Love & Logic parenting styles. This is a measured parenting style that falls in between Permissive parenting styles and Authoritarian parenting styles. In particular, this book recommends a practice of establishing your boundaries and what is acceptable to you and communicating those things with your children. If your children cross the boundaries you set, there is a predetermined consequence that everyone knows. Obviously, you have to make sure that you are picking the right battles with your children, but I felt like this book equipped me well for the ‘terrible twos’ and ‘threenager’ years. This book gives me Christian habits of parenting to help navigate the sticky issue of parenting in my home.
Books for family devotions, worship, and discipleship
Other books that can be great additions to your family are those that are written for you and your kids to go through and read together. The following books would be a great choice if you are interested in creating a time of family worship or family devotions with your kids. Each will help you to incorporate the Christian habits necessary to disciple your kids.
- Long Story Short & Old Story New by Marty Machowski
These two books are written to cover the entire bible. They are set up as weekly devotions that cover a certain portion of scripture each week and tie it back into the greater message of the Bible and the gospel. The questions are well-written and spark discussion. I was a little overly ambitious and tried to do some of these devotions with my 2-3-year-old, and they were definitely too advanced for him then. However, now that he is closer to four he is understanding the topics better.
- The Jesus Story Book Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones
This is a very well-written children’s bible. It is a paraphrase, and you have to understand that the author is teaching a certain doctrinal system through her bible. But, it is so well-written and thought-provoking. Instead of the Bible being ‘dumbed’ down, it is just made clearer for your children. I highly recommend it. Each story is only about 5-10 minutes to read, and each captures the attention of my rambunctious toddler.
- The Ology by Marty Machowski
The Ology is a book that teaches doctrinal truths to your kids. I have not read this one with my children, but it is highly recommended by several other parents.
- Big Truths for Little Kids by Richie and Susan Hunt and Big Thoughts for Little People by Kenneth Taylor
I am using these books with my preschoolers. They are simple and quick but do a good job of teaching certain lessons to your kids. Big Thoughts for Little People focuses on letters and ties in a lesson with that letter (aka G is for God with a corresponding Bible Verse). Big Truths for Little Kids focuses on the Catechism questions. Each set of catechism questions goes along with a quick story that is engaging.
- Then Sings My Soul by Robert J. Morgan
Then Sings My Soul is a collection of 150 hymns throughout history. Each hymn’s sheet music is included along with a short history of the hymn. I have really enjoyed going through the hymns and reading about each song’s rich past. The histories are too advanced for my young kids, but I think when they turn school age they will retain more of the information. I go through one hymn a week with the intention of going back through the hymns after I finish the book.
What did you think? Leave a comment with the book that you find most interesting in the list! I hope they equip you to create Christian habits and the family culture that glorifies God and draws you closer to one another. Which of these Christian habits will you include in your life?
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