Book Review: A Family Shaped by Grace by Gary Morland

Book Title: A Family Shaped by Grace: How to Get Along with the People Who Matter Most
Author: Gary Morland.
Genre: Nonfiction, Family, Christianity, Relationships, Grace
My Rating: ⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆

"Your family is designed to be a place of honest vulnerability without rejection. Disagreements without anger. Foolish mistakes without embarrassment. Failure without shame. The place where they know you best yet love you most. An encouraging place to launch and a soft place to land." (p. 123)

A Family Shaped by Grace is not only a reminder of the importance of family relationships and how they affect every aspect of our lives but also a practical guide to cultivating those relationships to be stronger. We all desire for our families to be a haven where we will be loved for who we are. But sometimes those relationships become strained or broken. How can we fix them? 

Gary gives us practical tools we can apply to restore and fortify our family relationships. He explains some of the wrong tactics and attitudes we have and how to change them so that we exemplify grace in our families and give them an example that they can follow. 

Some of these tools are: Accept your family and each member unconditionally; accept your role and limits; be genuinely curious and attentive; make sure you hear and are heard; and embrace God's vision or them, not your vision. These are all simple concepts but when actually applied to our family relationships, they will change the way we interact with each other and allow God's grace to flow through us to our families. 

I would recommend this book to anyone who desires to have better family relationships. I really enjoyed the author's vulnerable, honest reflections on what did and did not work in his own family relationships. The tools he shares, although basic concepts, are good reminders of how to live in a way that exemplifies God's grace so that others can follow. I definitely recommend this book!

For more information about the author, read this page.

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I received this book from Baker Publishing in exchange for this review. I was not required to write a positive review, and have not been compensated for this. This is my honest opinion.