Holding Your Family Together: 5 Simple Steps to Help Bring Your Family Closer to God and Each Other

by Rich Melheim

Imagine a home where every person feels loved, valued and heard. Imagine a family that seeks God’s wisdom, will and Word together. Imagine an intimate, affectionate community where every night is an experience of caring, sharing, comfort and peace.

You can make this beautiful picture a reality in your home. But it won’t happen by accident, you need a plan! Holding Your Family Together is a workable, powerful plan based on a simple nightly Share, Read, Talk, Pray, Bless. This is the FAITH5, and it has transformed families around the world. No matter your child’s age or your family’s unique situation, the FAITH5 can work for you. Inside you’ll find everything you need to get your family into a nightly habit that will open your hearts to each other and to God.

Does this sound like an impossible dream? It’s not, and you can start . . . tonight.
The Faith 5
1. Sharing highs and lows of the day
2. Reading a key verse of scripture from Sunday’s preaching/teaching
3. Talking about how the highs and lows relate to the Scripture and asking What is God saying to my situation?”
4. Praying for one another’s highs and lows
5. Blessing one another before turning out the lights on the day

232 pages, Paperback

First published April 16, 2013

Reviews

[Chrysanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book with a mission that will transform families and households! One of the best books on parenting and family life I have ever read.

[emyrose8 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I laughed, I cried... it moved me Bob. A book every parent should read. I first heard about Faith5 at this year's All Worker's Conference (Lutheran Educator's Conference) where Dr. Rich was a guest speaker. His speech was so awesome, it made me want to read his book. I'm so glad I did. It is uplifting and challenges the world's idea of parenting. I don't have any kids, but when I do, I plan to do the Faith5 every night. There are lots of cool facts about the brain/body/neuroscience in (mostly) easy to understand words. Sometimes it gets a little wordy, but it's worth it to power through.

[Lindsey Goetz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate Dr. Melheim's passion and sincerity. I also love the concept of the Faith5 and have seen similar practices bear fruit in our family's life (even though we haven't been calling it that). There are many interesting facts sprinkled throughout this book, but it felt unnecessarily long-- like there was a lot of filler added to turn an hour long presentation into a book. I skimmed a lot.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

admittedly I did not finish this book. What I read was basically a sales pitch for the program he uses (which we use through our church and enjoy.) I had a moment of empathy with the author thru an anecdote shared early on, but otherwise I was bored senseless every page I read.

[Gibs · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderfully useful book, and I'm glad I have it on my shelf. The authors "Faith5" plan has strong merit. He articulates the plan carefully, and from many different angles. His claims and conclusions seems well-researched and supported. In addition, he supports his suggestions with personal experience from both himself and others.

I rate the book only 4 stars because there is a great deal of redundancy throughout its pages. Sometimes that's useful; often not. I appreciate all the different angles and reinforcements, but I found myself skipping large chunks. Thankfully, the chapters are divided into nice, bite-sized sections, which allows the reader to determine quickly if that section will be useful to them. In effect, this allows the reader to scan the material based upon their prior knowledge of the subject.

All in all, however, Melheim has made a contribution to family ministry, and that is much appreciated. Parents looking for ways to take back their homes from television, computers, cell phones, and the like, will find great resources here.

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

"You can give immeasurable psychological, sociological, neurological and theological gift to your children tonight without spending a nickel."
Very fine suggestions for building and strengthening families that are under attack that would not take a lot of time or preoparation. Communications, self-esteem, problem solving, so many benefits. I have been looking for something and this might be it. The best time to start this would be 5 or 10 years ago. The second best time is tonight.

[Jen Jarman]

I found the practices of Rich Melheim to be spot-on in terms of raising young children, but do agree with some other folks whom I read the book with that his presentation style is somewhat "in your face" at times and can be turn off for others. The stories of real families using the Faith 5 practices in the home were helpful and the bonus material at the end of the book were a great asset to our group.

[Jeremy Pedersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book. It gives easy practices based on solid psychological, sociological, neurological (!) and theological rationale. Fascinating but easily readable. In fact, I will buy a few more of these books and give them to the families in my Lutheran parish as part of baptism preparation (we are already doing the practices at church as part of our church school.)

[Trace · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 star rating.

I liked this book... the Faith5 program makes sense and we already do our own version of this. The author throws in a lot of information about the neurological effects of these steps.... I found this FASCINATING! Lots of interesting tidbits of information...
BUT there was a lot of "filler" that I could have done without...

[Clarissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is wonderful. My family is already reaping the rewards and my kids can't wait to do "highs and lows" every night. You can apply these principles regardless of your religion with just a little tweaking.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the premise. Love the practice, and it was well-received by my two boys, ages 6 and 10. Looking forward to many more nights of pillow fights, sharing, reading, talking, praying, and blessing!

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is wonderful, and much-needed in the world today. I highly recommend it to all Christian parents.