Making Room for Life: Trading Chaotic Lifestyles for Connected Relationships
This superb workbook has an enormous audience: Christians whose lifestyles have gotten too hectic and over-scheduled. The American plague of busy-ness has caused epidemic fatigue and spiritual discontent--crippling the love and connection within many households, according to Randy Frazee, a senior pastor of Pantego Bible Church in Fort Worth, Texas and author ofThe Connecting Church. Frazee is a warm, self-revealing, and sensible narrator--like a Christian Dr. Phil, counseling readers on how to get their priorities straight. He talks about our ridiculously over-reaching lifestyles (admitting his own tendencies) and suggests calling day planners "24/7 planners" or "Chaos Planners."  He asks readers to consider organizing their days into a "Hebrew Day Planner"--meaning following God's design of integrating a day of rest into the week. "If we violate this design, we are abusing our bodies and souls, and little by little we diminish our effectiveness," he writes.Frazee is adamant when it comes to re-shaping the family lifestyle. For instance, he confronts parental over-achieving and workaholic tendencies with a loving vengeance. According to Frazee, "Dragging our children away from home in the late afternoon and evening hours to transport them to adult-driven, highly structured, age-graded activities" can result in many losses for children--including less creative play, less chances to for leadership or mentoring, a strain on health (too much fast foods and too little rest), and the loss of the family meal. He devotes numerous pages to the "slow food movement"--offering suggestions for reclaiming the family meal with easy family recipes, setting the table, saying grace, and cultivating dinner conversation.  Like a good workbook--Frazee includes an interactive section at the end of each chapter for jotting down thoughts and noting "personal action steps" as well as suggestions for leading a small group discussion. Devout Christian or not--this is an excellent basic book for many frantic households. --Gail Hudson