Great Family Devotional

This new devotional from Dr. Tony Evans and his son Jonathan Evans will provide both single and married parents with a resource tool to maximize those family devotional times, such as the dinner hour or bedtime. 
The family virtues–based devotional provides 52 separate topics, one for each week of the year, and five devotionals within each topic that will guide devotional times Monday through Friday. This is a wonderful way to build a spiritually strong family week by week, day after day―a perfect way to head into the weekend. Topics range from the basics of the faith―such as salvation, spiritual warfare, prayer, forgiveness, and discipleship―to essentials of living as followers of Christ: money, prayer, family, friends, and priorities. 
The subject matter is simplified so even young children can grasp important concepts. This is a perfect resource for busy families.
Available on Amazon, Tyndale or other retailers

Meet the Authors:
Dr Tony Evans is one of America's most respected leaders in evangelical circles. He is a pastor, bestselling author, and frequent speaker at Bible conferences and seminars throughout the nation.
He has served as the senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, TX, for over 35 years, witnessing its growth from ten people in 1976 to now over 9,000 congregants with 100 plus ministries.
Dr. Evans also serves as president of The Urban Alternative, a national ministry that seeks to bring about spiritual renewal in America through the church. His daily radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on more than 400 radio outlets throughout the United States and in more than 40 countries.
Dr. Evans has authored over 50 books, including Oneness Embraced, The Kingdom Agenda, Marriage Matters, and Victory in Spiritual Warfare. He has served as chaplain for the NFL's Dallas Cowboys, and continues to serve as chaplain for the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, a ministry he has done for over 30 years.
Through his local church and national ministry, Dr. Evans has set in motion a Kingdom Agenda philosophy of ministry that teaches God's rule over every area of life as demonstrated through the individual, family, church, and society.
Dr. Tony Evans is married to Lois, his wife and ministry partner of 41 years. They are the proud parents of four: Chrystal, Priscilla, Anthony Jr., and Jonathan; and the proud grandparents of ten: Kariss, Jessica, Jackson, Jesse Jr., Jerry Jr., Kanaan, Jude, Joel, Kelsey, and Jonathan II.
For more information, visit: tonyevans.org

Jonathan Evans, a mentor, author, speaker and former NFL fullback treasures his relationship with Christ along with the opportunity to use his life to glorify God. Jonathan seeks to impact today's athletes, men and young adults by equipping and encouraging them in their faith. He is the co-author of Get in the Game: a Spiritual Workout for Athletes.

Jonathan serves with his pastor, friend and father, Dr. Tony Evans, both in the local church and the national ministry. They also teamed up together to write Get in the Game, a practical guidebook filled with sports analogies and spiritual truths aimed at strengthening readers with the skills they need for living victoriously.

Jonathan is a dynamic speaker at churches, conferences, men's events, banquets, youth, and FCA events. He is committed to developing the next generation of devoted Christian leaders.

Jonathan and his wife Kanika are the proud parents of Kelsey, Jonathan II, Kamden, and Kylar.

My Take:
I am very excited about this devotional. I have always enjoyed listening to Dr. Tony Evans messages and we have worked through several of his Bible Studies in our Sunday School Class. I am really looking forward to using this with my kids, when we finish up our current devotional book.

I found this devotional to be a wonderful asset to any family library and home. There are 52 topics covered that relate to family and living for God. It begins with Love and Respect, but moves on to the most important decision anyone can make, Salvation. Each theme is covered over a weeks time, generally Monday through Friday and families are encouraged to work through it together at the dinner table or other time they can gather for devotions. The devotions are not very long, but have great illustrations, and contain a Scripture verse to read, as well as, various activities families can do together that encourage laughter and bonding.  Interestingly, at the end of the devotional, unlike other devotionals, there is no prayer. That is because families are encouraged to develop their own prayer time together, instead of just reading a pre-written prayer at the end of the daily lesson. 

What I like about this book:
Dr. Evans is all about the family! Change in our homes, churches, communities and nation is going to start with the family.  Strong families build strong churches, communities, etc... 

I like that he focuses on themes our kids need to hear about and ways to apply this to our lives. They are relevant to today's problems, lifestyles, etc... Some that stood out to me were Purity, Respect, Self-control, Idolatry, Truth, Righteousness, Money, Fear, Courteous Speech, and that is just to name a few.

I like the activities that engage the kids. But I also think, it is possible, if you have older children, some of them may not enjoy participating as much as younger children would. I think it will depend on the age, attitude, and environment it is hosted in.

I like that this is a five day a week devotional. Most of us are extremely busy and just finding time to devote to family devotions isn't always easy. This gives a day or two leeway in case you can't do it seven days a week. (In our family we usually skip Wednesdays and Sundays especially because we are at church both those days/nights)

The only thing I found to "complain about is that the beautiful picture across the lower part of the cover is paper and doesn't stay on very easily. I would like it to have been an actually part of the cover itself.

I would highly recommend this book for your family! I received a free copy courtesy of Tyndale's blogger program to review. I was not required to give a positive review and all opinions are my own.