Our 24 Family Ways: A Family Devotional Guide

This is a very helpful tool. The schedule and material is well laid out, easy to follow, and customizable. I love all things Sally Clarkson. I wish I had gotten this earlier. I love all the verses that are used with the ways. I appreciate all of the thought provoking questions and ways to relate the scripture to real life. We have been using this for four weeks with our 4, 8, 8, and 10 year old. I especially like the focused prayer suggestions. Great addition to any home.

If only we all thought to write business plans for our families. What do you want your family to be like? What kind of culture do you want y our family to have? What core values are important to help your family thrive and grow closer together? That is what the Clarksons did when they wrote this book. They shared with us their plan for teaching their family members to respect each other, encourage one another, and learn to be a blessing to others in society. This book is a treasure and I love to gift it to young families so that they can catch this vision.

This book takes you through 24 principals in scripture. It is layed out to help you ask your children questions about how different situations in life should be handled, then lead your children through scriptures and gives questions about how to apply the principal in their life. Each of the 24 lessons has 5 days layed out, so 24 weeks. You could do a 6th day recap. There are pictures to copy for coloring and memory verse cards in the back also! In 22 years old parenting, I have finally found a gem!

As a family we are really enjoying this biblical family devotional. It is so well written and from the heart of parents who really care and love their children and wanting to share this with others. I love how every 'family way' character that you talk through together is so in depth and offers so many ways to have great conversations with your children and to line up those thoughts with biblical scripture and prayer. Thank you so much Clay and Sally Clarkson for your wonderful family ministry.

Loving this resource. Using it with 7 and 4 yea old. Most of the questions and conversation starters are geared for older kids (8+). But we plan to go through this once a year or so, meaning that we’ll be able to use some of the content now and some later.

I originally gave this four stars, but if I could I'd lower my rating because the more I think about it, the more certain aspects of it bother me. It is clear that Clay Clarkson has truly the best of intentions. And it's difficult to critique a devotional book honestly when you agree with the mission -- just not the delivery. I think devotions are a vital part of raising your family. I also think that breaking it down into these sort of "Mission Statements" about the legacy you want your children to take into the world gives the devotions relevance and obvious significance. I like the family ways Clarkson chose, because I think they give great guidance, and we will definitely return to these as my children get older. It's just... again sorry if it sounds mean... a little goofy. I don't know how many times I have asked one of the starter questions, and either had my family respond with either "WHAT??!!!" or laughter. Now, we're not a particularly cynical or sarcastic bunch, it's just how these are worded. One of the earliest examples from Family Way 1, "If you had a 'pocket parent' card that played a short digital message every 30 minutes, what would you want to hear? Not hear?" This was just responded to with a great big "HUH???" Surely there is a better way to word these. Another, from Family Way 6, "What would you think about a child who had an adult body? Why?" And from 7 "Sing an 'Amen' chorus loudly with off-pitch disharmony. Then sing it in unison and with harmony. What is the difference?" First off, you have to know an 'Amen' chorus tune to know what disharmony to sing. Also, you have to kids old enough to know harmony and disharmony. I just had my kids sing a song we all knew the wrong way. But what irritates me is that I think some of the "lessons" are way off. Sometimes dangerously so. For example, from Family Way 8, day 4, Clarkson paraphrases 1 John 4:19-21 as John reflecting "the teachings of Jesus about loving our fellow Christians." Really? Just "our fellow Christians"? That's not what I'd taken from this passage all the times I'd read it before. And if that's the case, then our mission wouldn't reach very far. I don't think it's just a typo, though, because in the "Speak to God" section for the same day, he writes again, "Ask God to help you love your family and other CHRISTIANS" (emphasis mine). No, we are expected to love the non-Christians too, to demonstrate Christ-like love to them. The Story Starters are also quite annoying. In fact, I just skip over them. It's so obvious what the answer is supposed to be that they don't really lend to discussion. The Bible verses are usually good, though, and back up the Family Ways appropriately, and that is the most important issue. So I do think that this is ultimately a good purchase. Just be prepared to skip over or modify and paraphrase the questions. Or maybe laugh... that's good too.

I have a lot Sally Clarkson's books for motherhood that are amazing and thought I'd give this one a try with the entire family. I love the coloring pages (I scan and print them so my kids can color them multiple times) and how everything is laid out. So easy to follow the lesson and questions to engage everyone. Love this!! I have 3 kids that are 5 and under and they aren't always cooperative, but it's easy enough to busy them with the coloring page and go over the devotional. Our family is growing and changing in our relationships with the Lord and one another!

Wow! This is an amazing family devotional. We recently lost my grandfather that was our fifth member to our family. Now as a family of four we are trying to relearn our family ways. This is the perfect thing. God has used this book in a mighty way. We are on week 3 and are already seeing so much growth! I cannot recommend this devotional enough!

Fantastic book. We really enjoying our devotion, family conversation.

If you are looking to set a biblical worldview in your home and devotion time and bring the fam together under loving values, this is the devotional for you

What a beautiful way to begin deeper discussions with your children and to gently guide them into a higher calling. You will be blessed to go through this with your children and you will be challenged in your faith and what you believe as well. A great way to grow together I would say

Well written and easy to follow. Highly recommend.

Love this book - promotes good family discussion .