Grow Review: Amazing Adventures, Creative Connections and Daring Deeds

For those of you who are in the midst of raising families (or maybe are hoping to some day), this may be a good book to put on your future-books-to-buy list. Amazing Adventures, Creative Connections and Daring Deeds is a book dedicated to the grow of a family’s faith together.

What often happens in American church life is that we leave the growing and fostering of our children's faith development to the local church down the street. While I don't think we intend to ignore the responsibility, I think it just sometimes gets lost in the shuffle. For some of us, the days rush by so fast that we are surprised when it's the weekend. All the plans we had for intentional spiritual formation of our children are still in our journals or are pinned on our boards. Maybe next week, we think.

While a book can certainly not solve this problem (if it were only that easy), I would recommend it as a quality resource for families who are looking to read and serve together as they humbly follow Jesus as a family.  Not only does the book focus on reflection, Scripture and serving the community in which we are located, but it could bring the family together by pushing everyone out of their comfort zone.

For example, one chapter talked about giving generously, and I suspected that the “action” challenge would be something generic like give a few boxes of mac and cheese to your local food shelter. But, the authors (Tim and Alison Simpson) surprised me by challenging the family to pack up EVERY SINGLE PIECE of unopened non-perishable in the house and take it to a food bank or shelter. Gulp.

Pick this one up. This isn’t for the family who wants to do a little fuzzy devotional together, but for a family who wants to be challenged in growing outside of their comfort zones, with the hope of these kind of things becoming an everyday part of life.

As we approach the beginning of the season of Lent, perhaps this may be a devotional that families in our blogging community could go through.  While it's not "lenten" in theme, it may be just what we need to take that next step in growing in faith with our family.

What are some resources that you have found to be valuable in the faith development journey of your children?

p.s. This post was adapted from my initial review, which can be found here.