After listening to only a couple of episodes of The Elisabeth Elliot Podcast, I was quickly drawn to her humor and abundance of wisdom. One episode in particular, A Peaceful Home, from her series Call to Surrender, led me to read her book The Shaping of a Christian Family.

As a new mom, I was hungry for wisdom and intrigued by the home life she fondly remembers in her podcast. The first couple of chapters tell the coming of age story of her mother Katharine Gillingham and how she met her husband, Elisabeth’s father, Phillip E. Howard Jr. Although interesting, I quickly moved through these chapters on family history to get to the main event, the life she lived as Elisabeth Howard. 

Each chapter delves into different areas of her home life that exemplify how a Christian family lives out God’s word on a day to day basis. 

Perhaps the entirety of the book could be summed up by John 15:13

 “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”- John 15:13

This verse seems to be a catalyst for the many ways in which every member of the family carries out his or her duties, spouses' treatment of each other, and children’s attitudes towards their parents and each other as well.

While Elliot appears to be influenced by many people including India missionary Amy Carmichael, along with known authors like Oswald Chambers, it is clear that her greatest influence was that of her parents. 

Throughout the book Elliot shares her parents’ reasoning for why they parented her and her five siblings the way they did. Although simple and maybe strict, her parents emphasized the importance of being consistent in the discipline of their children from an early age. As I read the book, I could not help but think about how strict the writer’s parents were. Interestingly, as the book drew to a close, Elliot mentions a time in which an audience member at one of her talks approached her with this very sentiment. It seems that while others may perceive the Howards’ home life as a strict one, the laughter and love found within her home outshines that of the seemingly strict rules Elisabeth and her siblings grew up with. 

Do not be misled by the title ‘The Shaping of a Christian Family’  because there is a lot for the unmarried to learn from this book as well. It is not necessary to be a mother or wife to learn the valuable lesson of being on time. Elisabeth Elliot recounts her father’s view that to be late is to steal “an irreplaceable commodity, time.” 

Similarly, in a society that takes pride in saying things like “I’m just winging it, life, eyeliner, everything,” doing things in a flippant manner seems to be the norm these days. 

Oftentimes, the uncertainty of someone’s lack of responsibility can cause fear or anxiety. Thankfully the author shares about the discipline of diligence she developed in her upbringing. One particular example Elliot depicts is her experience as a college student in which her regimented Monday through Saturday gave her the freedom to enjoy the sabbath. She was free to enjoy her Sundays by resting and even napping while others were catching up on school work.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book especially for women who did not grow up in a Christian home or one in which both parents were believers. The beginning of the book can be a little confusing considering there are pieces of her father’s journals and fragments of her mother’s articles and so the author’s voice can be mistaken for that of her parents. However, the pieces of wisdom found in this book are ones that can be carried and applied to everyday life to create and help readers to cultivate a peaceful home. 

As she mentions in the preface and afterword of the book, the story she tells is simply a “description not a prescription” of how this Christian lived. While we may differ in preference, we can, like the Howards, turn to God’s word for guidance on how we can live out our lives.

The question to ask ourselves whether we read this book or not is if we live a life surrendered to God what would our homes look like? Not because Elisabeth Elliot gave her readers insight into her home life in ‘The Shaping of a Christian Family’ but because of who God is in our lives.