Book Review: Total Family Makeover by Melissa Spoelstra

About the book:

Total Family Makeover: 8 Practical Steps to Making Disciples at Home (Abingdon, September 2016)

Train children in the way they should go; when they grow old, they won't depart from it. ---Proverbs 22:6

God calls us as parents to be key disciple-makers in our children's lives, but if we're honest, some days it's a battle just to get them dressed and ready for school on time. How can you mold their hearts when sometimes you can't even find their shoes?

In Total Family Makeover, author Melissa Spoelstra gives parents a way---a sort of spiritual track to run on---when it comes to building family discipleship. She focuses on eight key habits of growth:

-Spending Time in Prayer

-Reading God's Word

-Growing Through a Mentoring Relationship

-Finding Community in the Church

-Serving Others

-Taking Time to Rest

-Giving Back to God

-Sharing Your Faith

Disciples are made, not born. Whether your children are babes in arms or teenagers getting ready to leave the nest, making disciples at home starts with you! Give your family a makeover with this practical approach to helping your children learn what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

My Thoughts:  I thought this book was absolutely fantastic!  Chock full of practical ideas, but with the wise advice to pick a few ideas that are feasible for your family instead of trying to do them all, this book had the perfect balance between theory and practical application.

She devotes an entire chapter to each key habit of growth; first describing how Jesus modeled each attribute and how, as parents, we can too; and then describing how to train your children in these attributes, giving practical application ideas for each one. I loved it!

Not only did it give me ideas on how to teach my children, it also gave me ideas on how to improve in these areas myself!

I enjoyed all the chapters, but one chapter I enjoyed more than I would have originally thought was the one about finding community in church.  Some of her key points in this chapter....

Jesus calls us to a life of sacrifice, not convenience.

Jesus forgave others even in the face of betrayal and heartache within his faith community.  (umm, Judas?!)

Jesus calls us to function within the body for the benefit of others.

She really got down to our motives for attending church and the attitude we have when considering where to go to church, or whether to leave a church. Very insightful chapter!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it!

Thank you to Litfuse Publicity for organizing this tour and providing me with a complimentary review copy.