My First Prayer and Gratitude Journal - Review

My First Prayer and Gratitude Journal: Daily Blessings and Bible Verses for Kids

By: Pia Imperial

Publication: January 9, 2024 by Grosset & Dunlap

80 pages

Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction, Religious, Christian, Devotional & Prayer

Source: Publisher via Edelweiss (Thank you!!)

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Goodreads description--The perfect first journal for young ones beginning their journey of faith.

Complete with devotional prayers and daily bible verses, this thoughtfully designed journal encourages kids to be grateful for all the blessings in their life.

I started homeschooling my two oldest children this year. And one of the things I want to work with them both on is being grateful. In our home, we are blessed far above what we deserve. We don't deserve all that much. And yet, because we don't lack much of what we need or want, we often take for granted the blessings of life that God has given us. I want my children to be mindful and aware of all they have. So when I saw My First Prayer and Gratitude Journal, I knew I wanted to grab it for my kids to try out. My daughter is 8, and my son is 6. He's only in kindergarten right now, so doing this gratitude journal is a lot of writing for him. I ultimately decided that he doesn't have to fill it in yet, but it will be something I want him to do in the future. My daughter has been doing it every day.

There's a place for the date, a range of smiley-frowny faces the child can choose from for their mood of the day, and a section that says "I'm thankful for _____ because ________________." The gratitude journal also has a section for three blessings the day has brought and a Bible verse for the day or a moment of reflection with a question to be answered.

My daughter doesn't always enjoy filling this in, but as with children, they don't always know what's best for them. And even adults don't always want to do the things that are good for us either. I require her to continue to fill it in even if she doesn't want to. But for the most part, she's learned that this is just a part of her day, and she doesn't fight it. I've been interested in seeing what she's thankful for. It's also allowed us to discuss doing a task to the best of our abilities versus just trying to complete it so we can mark it off the list of things to do. But again, even adults don't always do their tasks at level 100 every time. Some days she impresses me with what she writes that she's thankful for that particular day.

I do hesitate to call this a prayer journal. We certainly should make sure not only that we're noting the things we're grateful for, but that we're also thanking God for those things in prayer. Yet, I don't see much in the way of prompting the child to do so. There are prompts in the moments of reflection that ask the child questions to make them think, and sometimes it tells them to write about an experience or how we can show our love to God. I wish there was a little more prompting to pray and offer thanksgiving to God in the daily layout. But I also understand they have limited space to utilize.

My First Prayer and Gratitude Journal is a good starting place for creating a daily habit in your child's life of looking for things to be grateful for. I like Scripture included in every other day's format. Every day would be even better. I do wish there was a more directed approach to guiding the child in prayer prompts. But as I said, this is a good first step. I would love to see this company offer a step up in the process as a second book option which would be a little more detailed. I see big benefits from doing this, and I love starting the kids young. I would recommend My First Prayer and Gratitude Journal for others starting their kids in this habit. I give My First Prayer and Gratitude Journal 4 Stars. I would give it 5 if there was more prompting to pray or guidance for the children in that area. Have you read or used My First Prayer and Gratitude Journal? If so, what did you think? Let me know!

Homeschool Bravely - Review

Homeschool Bravely

By: Jamie Erikson

Publication: April 2, 2019

208 pages

Genre: Nonfiction, Parenting, Christian, Education

Source: Personal Kindle Library

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Goodreads description--Quiet the voices of "not good enough" and step courageously into guilt-free homeschooling Many homeschool parents have a long-term relationship with self-doubt. "Did I make the right decision?" "Could someone else do this better?" "Am I robbing my kids of something by not sending them to ‘regular school’?" What if there’s a better way? Not a 3-step technique or a shiny, new curriculum, but a change in perspective that transforms the way you plan, teach, and homeschool? Homeschool Bravely teaches you to see homeschooling as a calling, helps you overthrow the tyranny of impossible expectations, and guides you through the common bumps in the road, including how Reclaim your hope, renew your purpose, and transform your homeschool. Because the truth God will use every part of your homeschool, even your fears, faults, and failures, to weave good plans for your kids.

I was inspired to homeschool when Little Girl was only 18 months old. I remember watching video after video on YouTube. There were so many pros and only a few cons. However, when she was two and a half, I realized we didn't have many other children her age around us. Our church is small, and at the time she was the only child under the age of ten years old. We enrolled her in a mother's day out program for three days a week from 8 am until noon. She loved it. And we came to realize how social she is. By the time she turned four, I was convinced she was smart enough to learn to read. And I still believe she could have. But I now understand that she wasn't interested at that time. And my pushing her resulted in frustration for her and for me. I started to feel like I wasn't capable of teaching her, or maybe she wasn't capable of learning from me. She seemed resistant all around. Her kindergarten year started when we were in the middle of our home renovation and were living with my parents. Baby Boy was also only 6 months old. Homeschooling her then would have saved me some drive time, but it also would have added extra stress on top of an already extremely stressful period in our lives. So we sent her to public school for kindergarten and first grade. And she had wonderful experiences there.

I started to move away from the idea of homeschooling because public school seemed to work out well for her. Yet I still had a couple of issues. I missed her terribly. I felt like she was missing on so much family time. When I picked her up from school, she was grumpy, irritable, and tired of being around other people. Yet Little Boy had been looking forward to playing with her all day. Nearly every day there were fights in the car before we even made it home from school. Add to that, Little Boy started getting into trouble in his K4 class. He was acting up, disobedient, and generally disruptive to the other students in class. His teacher suspected he may have ADHD. He has not been formally diagnosed, but I do think it's possible. I also think ADHD is overdiagnosed in our country. And so I began to explore options that might be better suited for him than being in a classroom for 6-8 hours a day. I came back to homeschool.

In all transparency guys, I am not a patient person. Parenting hasn't come easy to me in that area. So much of parenting feels like putting out fires in all directions all day long. Maybe I'm doing it wrong. Maybe I'm too reactive and not enough proactive. I'm constantly trying to improve myself as a person and parent. So this aspect of my personal struggles terrified me when I thought about homeschooling. Yet, I yearn for the opportunities to overcome my personal struggles, and teach my children how to overcome theirs. My reasons for homeschooling go beyond those I've mentioned here, but this is just setting up my journey and state of mind. I pretty much determined by January/February of this past year that we would try homeschooling. And so I set out to research in all the ways possible for resources, curriculum and help in any area possible. I saw this book recommended so frequently, that I knew I would have to check it out.

Jamie Erickson touched on it all. The fear. Other's people's reactions. Whether homeschooling feels like a calling for you or a convenient temporary thing. Dealing with the struggle of homeschooling a difficult child. The challenges of teaching a child that is struggling. The difference between schooling at home and homeschooling. And of course the entire point is pressing forward with bravery and handing your homeschool over to God to work in and through it and you.

Favorite quotes:

-"Fear will be a threat whenever you set out to pursue a desire that means something to you." Emily P Freeman A Million Little Ways

-And the work, when done faithfully, will always lead to worship. When I set aside my wants, my plan, my goals, and joyfully embrace the calling God has placed in my life to train my children in this short season, I am offering up worshipful praise to my King.

-Trouble will always brew when you allow your own narrative to speak louder than the whispers of God. But His voice is always there.

-Fortunately, hearing God's voice in the big things, such as a child's education, requires no more faith than it takes to find His voice in the everyday. He's not clutching it tightly just waiting to see if you can muster up enough strength and tenacity to peel it from His steely grasp. He's holding it out for you. He's inviting you to trust Him with it. Ambiguity is not in His nature. His plans are certain. His way is sure--especially for you, especially in this.

-God does not withhold His will from me, and He won't withhold it from you, friend. If you ask for wisdom for your child's education, He will give it abundantly--no secret codes or special security clearance required. Immerse yourself in Scripture, and it will become a compass, guiding you toward True North. His rhema will answer your heart cries and cast out your fears. What once looked like a coincidence will begin to show itself for what it's been all along, God's calling.

-My fear was not a sin, but my disobedience in my fear would have been.

-Since the very beginning, Satan has taken the self-doubt of humanity, coupled it with some truth, and slipped in an ittybitty lie when no one was looking in order to dupe entire generations into believing God will never give a Christian any more than she can handle on her own. In this case, he’d like you to believe that if you were called to homeschooling it was because God knew you could do it— and so you better come through. Satan wants nothing more than for you to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and try to get this thing done all on your own. ... God didn’t call you to homeschooling because you could handle it. He called you because He could handle it.

-When you finally hand Him the reins, step back, and let Him do His thing, you’ll watch your liabilities become your greatest assets. His power will be made perfect in your weakness (2 Cor. 12: 9). As you decrease, He will increase (John 3: 30). Knowing that, why in the world would you ever want to just sit silently in your fear?

-God is at work right now in the midst of your fear to break your bonds of self-sufficiency.

-God is in the business of calling foolish, simple people to do great and mighty things—not because they are able, but because He is. ... Your glaring inadequacies will only stand to prove His might.

-And when we came to the end of us, we saw God. Without the fear, we would have missed His presence entirely. We wouldn’t have been looking for it. We wouldn’t have been waiting expectantly for it.

-The key is to set your sights on who your child is becoming and not just how he is acting at this moment. God is writing a story in the life of your child. And stories, at least the good ones, always have a beginning, a middle, and an end. It would be so much easier to skip to the last page— to the completed work.

-The middle pages are what make the last page so captivating. They’re where all the action takes place. The pretty resolve is only pretty because of the struggle that happened just before it. To remove the struggle is to remove the story. That’s not to belittle the struggle or to dismiss it away but to realize that the struggle is a necessary plot point in the bigger narrative.

-Most people believe that conflict and sibling rivalry are to be avoided. But it’s in the conflict that basic heart issues and differences are brought to the surface and can be dealt with accordingly. Without the conflict, the sin issues fester and multiply.

-What you don’t know, or perhaps what you may need to be reminded of, is that a “struggle” shows that you are doing something right. Struggle is a verb. It implies action; effort; giving it all you’ve got. If you are teaching a struggling learner, it means that you are, right now, developing a learner. You’re not sitting idly by or watching from the sidelines. You’re not growing comfortable with good enough. You’ve gathered all your pluck and moxie and are moving forward, helping him do the same.

-Joshua 1: 9, and the promise that God would be with me ministered to my heart. I realized that God wasn’t saying, “There’s the path; go down it”; he was saying, “Here’s the path that I have prepared for you. Take my hand, let’s walk down it together.” So I held tightly to His hand and took the first step. And then the next and the next.

-You can’t always opt out of the struggle for you or your child.

-But don’t forget that Christ’s best moments of teaching were wrapped in chaos too. In crowded homes, along the lakeshore, and even in the house of God, Jesus was familiar with messy living. He had to teach stubborn people who refused to listen.

-...should you feel dead to homeschooling because of the struggle that surrounds you, remember that God can resurrect anything. Pray He resurrects your love for your children, your calling, your commitment, and remember that this moment doesn’t define your entire homeschool. You are more than your worst days. Nothing is ever too far gone for His redemptive power. He is always working even when it doesn’t seem like it (John 5: 17).

-In His kindness to me, God’s shown me that in trying to do everything perfectly, I end up doing a lot of things with mediocrity. In His kindness, He’s revealed the idol I’ve molded out of my mothering. In His kindness, He’s encouraged me to stop wondering if I’m doing enough and has given me the courage to ask, “Am I doing what’s mine to do?”

-Your identity cannot be found in your ability to meet someone else’s quota. You don’t have to set yourself on fire just to keep others warm. God constrained Himself when He took upon human flesh. He gave Himself physical limitations. If God recognized the need to do less for a time, then why shouldn’t you? Why shouldn’t I?

-But by prayerfully making a don’t-do list at the start of each school year, you are mentally preparing yourself to be able to give a hard and fast no to those things that deplete you and leave you with little to give to homeschooling. You’ll have more room for the yeses that matter most.

-We go in with guns blazing, touting homeschooling as the answer to everyone else’s problems. We see a friend’s public- schooled child falter socially, spiritually, or academically and pridefully announce that homeschooling is the answer— the quick fix that will right every wrong. We see our “perfect” curriculum and our “perfect” methods and our “perfect” well- ordered plan and begin to prescribe it to our friends and their obviously- in- need- of- change children. We place homeschooling on the throne of God and forget that change comes only through Him.

-That’s God’s way. He forecasts victory because He can see all the way to the very end. He called Abraham the “father of many nations” before he and his wife Sarah ever conceived one child. He called Gideon a “mighty warrior” before the man ever set foot on a battlefield. He dubbed David as king when the kid was nothing more than a shepherd. And Peter? Well even in the midst of Peter’s cowardly denial, Christ nicknamed him the “Rock,” and made him a leader of the fellowship of Christ- followers.

-you can’t always tack a pretty system onto spiritual transformation.

-You are like the farmer carefully planting seeds that won’t actually bear fruit until much later. The field might look fallow and dormant, but many things are happening just below the surface. Your task is to plant while the soil is rich and fertile and then have patience like the farmer, allowing the invisible, silent work to happen slowly over time.

-If you’re willing, God wants to travel some long roads with your kids. Every mile will mean something, even the wandering ways and the missteps. It will all matter.

-When your abilities seem small, when you’re surrounded by people who could do it better, when your time and finances and patience are depleted, bring your small offerings to Christ. Trust that He can take your simple loaves and fish and create a feast for you and your children. Your impossibilities will become twelve baskets full and overflowing in His hands.

-God does not require your success, my friend, only your surrender. You’re charged with simple obedience. God is in charge of the results. But you can’t have one without the other. Don’t believe me? Take a quick flip through Scripture, and you’ll find that obedience always precedes the miracle.

And the quote that made me cry...

-The best part about simply obeying in faith and trusting God’s good plans for your homeschool is that obedience and trust take the pressure off of you. You don’t have to be a math genius if you’re not. You don’t have to be impressively patient if you’re not. You don’t have to have lots of letters behind your name if you don’t. You just have to believe God can and will provide—that He will take whatever small offerings you hold out and multiply them. You don’t have to stand at the back of the line fearing the fish and bread will run out when you get to the front. They won’t. He’s got enough for you. He’s got enough for me. Trust Him and just obey. The obedience always has to come first, then the miracle. God’s in the business of turning all of our nothings into somethings. He’s good at it. After all, He’s had a lot of practice; He’s been doing it since the very beginning.

-Bravery, on the other hand, exists in the present tense. It happens right here, right now. It’s not a lack of fear, mind you. It’s just a decision to do the thing even in the midst of fear. Bravery is the courage it takes to say with boldness, “Here is my homeschool, God. Here, too, are my fears, faults, and failures. They’re Yours now to face, fix, and forgive.” In my bravery, I might never say farewell to all my fears, but I’ll face them.

Homeschool Bravely is my first 5-Star book of 2023. It will easily be a book that I come back to over and over and over again. As I'm writing this review, we are only 3 days into our homeschool journey. These three days have been challenging for sure. My commitment is still strong. But I know days will come when I waver and wonder. And I know that coming back to this book will be just what I need because Jamie Erikson addresses nearly every potential breaking point that I can imagine. There is truth to be gleaned about the Christian walk outside of homeschooling. Simply following the call God has placed in our lives and stepping out beyond fear. I will recommend this book a ton, I know. Have you read Homeschool Bravely? What did you think? Let me know!

Praying the Attributes of God - Review

Praying the Attributes of God

By: Ann Spangler

Published: September 20th 2013 by Tyndale House Publishers

336 pages

Genre: Spiritual, Self-Help, Inspirational, Christian

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)

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Goodreads description--God Is Greater than You Think. Many people feel both drawn to God and afraid of him. How can they feel close to a perfect God whom their flawed self is incapable of pleasing? Fortunately, God has revealed truths about himself in Scripture that can untangle our confusion. In this daily guide to studying and praying according to the attributes of God, Ann Spangler resurrects old-fashioned words like holiness, omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. Far from boring us, these words, when excavated for their biblical meaning, paint a thrilling vision of God that can help us experience spiritual growth in a deeper way. They can also prevent us from making the colossal mistake of concluding God is too weak, distant, or uncaring to help us when we need him. In the tradition of her bestselling books "Praying the Names of God" and "Women of the Bible," this new daily devotional focuses on one particular attribute each week. "Praying the Attributes of God" will help you see that God is far bigger and far better than you could ever hope or suspect.

I'm embarrassed to even think about how long ago I received Praying the Attributes of God for review. I've read Praying the Names of Jesus by Ann Spangler, and I have Praying the Names of God as well. I figured I ought to finish reading Praying the Names of God before I read Praying the Attributes of God. I was using Praying the Names of God as a guide for teaching my kids' Bible class on Wednesday nights for a while, but once my daughter was born, I took a break from teaching that class. And as a result, my progress in the book was put on hold. However, after Lies We Believe About God by William Paul Young made me sick to my stomach, I wanted a palate cleanser, and Praying the Attributes of God was on my kindle and much easier to access than my hardcover version of Praying the Names of God.

And thank God it was exactly what I needed.

Because I read Lies We Believe About God essentially right before Praying the Attributes of God I couldn't help but compare the two while I was reading this book. I told Husband that it was so refreshing to read a book about God that was actually based upon Scripture. Where I lamented in my review of Lies We Believe About God that what little Scripture was used as a source was completely taken out of context, it was exactly what I needed to read a book that was completely inundated with Scripture (Old Testament and New) concerning God's character and His attributes. I told my readers that if you want to know God then read His Word (The Bible). And I stand by that 100%. That is the only true way to know Him, but Praying the Attributes of God gives you a crash course on who He is based off His Word. Truly there was only one thing I believe I disagreed with and it wasn't about God at all.

Ann Spangler does a wonderful job magnifying God as He deserves. She talks frequently throughout the book about how if God were any different from who and how He is then He would be a weak God and not worthy of being served or worshipped. But He is exactly as He should be. And the way she structures each chapter truly serves to help you pray to become more like God--which should be our aim as Christians. We seek to imitate Christ, and He is the express representation of the Father.

I highlighted so much that going through my notes to find my favorite quotes to share with you guys was completely impossible.

Praying the Attributes of God is everything I look for in a book that's supposed to help me to learn more about my Father as well help me to transform myself into a closer representation of His image. I'm further from the mark than I wish to be, but that's why knowing who God is and what He's like is so important. How can we imitate Him or reflect His image to the world if we do not know who He is or what His character is like? Praying the Attributes of God gets 5 Stars. My only real frustration was the use of the New Living Translation. While this translation may not be considered a paraphrase translation, it is also not a literal translation. I personally try to stick completely to literal or word-for-word translations only. Have you read Praying the Attributes of God? What did you think? Let me know!

Lies We Believe About God - Review

Lies We Believe About God

By: William Paul Young

Publication: March 7th 2017 by Howard Books

272 pages

Genre: Non-fiction, Christian, Spirituality

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)

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*Note: The above links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--From the author of the twenty million plus copy bestselling novel The Shack and the New York Times bestsellers Cross Roads and Eve comes a compelling, conversational exploration of the wrong-headed ideas we sometimes have and share about God.

Wm. Paul Young has been called a heretic for the ways he vividly portrays God’s love through his novels. Here he shares thirty-three commonly uttered and sometimes seemingly innocuous things we say about God. Paul exposes these as lies that keep us from having a full, loving relationship with our Creator.

With personal anecdotes and sharing the compassion readers felt from the “Papa” portrayed in The Shack—soon to be a major film starring Sam Worthington and Octavia Spencer—Paul encourages readers to think anew about important issues including sin, religion, hell, politics, identity, creation, human rights, and helping us discover God’s deep and abiding love.

I didn't love The Shack by William Paul Young. I liked that it challenged me to think more deeply, but I fundamentally disagreed with a lot of the theological aspects about God as described by it. Truly the only way I made it through reading The Shack was to remind myself that it was a work of fiction. I wish I'd re-read my review of The Shack before deciding to request Lies We Believe About God, but I didn't. What I did was remember that while I didn't agree with everything William Paul Young said...it did cause me to think. And since I've been overwhelmed with a feeling of how much and how often so many people believe things about God that just flat aren't true, I was intrigued by this book. I was hoping that it would be a great reference to be able to refer people to when they misunderstand God's nature. Yet again...I was WRONG. Instead what I found was that William Paul Young himself believes quite a few lies about God.

You guys...there was SO SO SO much wrong with this book. I truly wish I could break down every single lie within this book...every single misrepresentation and present you with a rebuttal. I wish that I could, but it isn't the purpose of my blog to do so. My purpose is to review the book and what I thought about it. So I'll do my best to do so.

If you choose to believe in God there has to be a standard or a place where you receive your information about Him. You can't just make it up...although many people have. So...where do you go? Where do you find the information needed to find out who God is and what His character is like? HIS WORD. He has revealed Himself to us through His Word--The Bible. God revealed Himself and divinely inspired over 40 different authors from all manners of vocations over a period of 1500ish years using 3 different languages. For this book to be cohesive and non-contradictory is impossible without Him. Yet it is because of Him. So what I expected to find when reading Lies We Believe About God was a bunch of Scripture to back up these "lies". Instead what I found was William Paul Young quoting his own works of fiction. There are 32 references to/quotes from The Shack in Lies We Believe About God. This is not including any references to William Paul Young's other books (Eve and Cross Roads). In a 272 page book, that's roughly every 8.5 pages that he references his own book, his own thoughts as a source of information about who God is. In comparison there were roughly 14 references to New Testament Scripture within the main chapters of this book. That's roughly every 19.5 pages. So William Paul Young references his own books more than 2 times the frequency of Biblical text. (Granted, I didn't search for Old Testament Scripture references, but I also didn't cite his references to his other two books either.) He does have a chapter at the end of book that has an additional 33 references from The Bible. This means that overall the Bible is only used within Lies We Believe About God 15 more times than his own books. You guys...this is unacceptable. If you want to learn about God, you don't go to a human's work of fiction. That's no better than making things up yourself. You go to the Source. God's own Word about Himself.

There were many times when I felt like William Paul Young was arguing over semantics. Yes, I'm a firm believer that our words mean something and it is important to choose to right words in our conversation and speech so that we convey the message we mean to convey. Let's take one chapter titled "God is disappointed in me." He argues that there is a difference between disappointment and grief. "Disappointment largely revolves around expectations and imagination. I expect you to act a certain way, or I expect a specific outcome..." "This is precisely why God is never disappointed in you. God has no such imaginations or illusions. God knows you, completely, fully, and with unrelenting affection. You don't surprise God. God delights in you, as you delight in your own children; God also grieves for and with you when you act inside your lies and darkness--but not because God expected more of you." This is semantics. Whether we "disappoint" or "grieve" God because of our behavior, the outcome is the same. He is not pleased. Yes, He can and does still love us despite our actions, but William Paul Young is giving off the impression that it doesn't matter what you do...how you act...and I don't see how anyone who has read the Bible can come to that conclusion. In fact, if you've read the Bible, you don't get 3 chapters in (on page 3 in my own personal Bible) before man's actions make a huge impact and "grieve" God. Semantics. And this isn't the only time this happens. It happens frequently throughout this book.

In connection with my point about William Paul Young quoting and referencing himself and his own published books more frequently throughout the main body of Lies We Believe About God, I felt often times that he was just "making things up because they sounded good." There were often times when his thoughts were poetic. And that's hard because I believe that God is a poet. His Word is beautiful. His thoughts are beautiful. The magnitude of His knowledge and planning and working is beautiful. He is so multi-layered. Everything about Him from the way that He thinks and acts to His very character. He can be 100% Love while also being 100% Justice at the same time. And so there were times when the poetry of what William Paul Young suggested about God sounded good to my human ear, but when bounced against the Scripture it just didn't add up. I don't claim to know all there is to know about God. I don't claim to be perfect or to have a perfect understanding of Him, but having read The Bible cover to cover each year for the last 5 years and I'm working on my 6th straight read-through I feel pretty confident in being able to spot false teaching about God like this.

I don't want to judge his person...his heart. That's not my job or my duty or my desire. God is the judge. However, I felt like pride and arrogance were pouring from the pages of this book. Nearly every chapter felt full of both. I even read his acknowledgements where he says "I am surrounded by people who love me, but aren't impressed. Thank you!" Even though this was an attempt to appear humble, it didn't read so to me. It read falsely. Or at the very least "thank you all for not being impressed by me because I'm so impressed with myself." It's funny because I told Husband that this felt so starkly contrasted against Shaken by Tim Tebow where humility truly poured off every page. I felt like Tim Tebow is a truly humble person from his book and where he might struggle with pride, the effort to crush it was palpable. And this is not the same vibe that I got from William Paul Young.

I mentioned earlier the chapter at the end of Lies We Believe About God. He titles it "A Catena" which means "a connected series or chain". And ironically, because I've read The Bible from cover to cover it felt so obvious to me that these verses used to convey a specific message were pulled so completely out of context. You can use Scripture to prove just about any point sadly. The Bible even says "There is no God" (Psalm 14:1). But that's pulled out of context because the verse says "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" I think we've all witnessed how words and phrases taken out of context can give a completely unintended and false meaning. Watch any court TV show where a witness's words are twisted by a stealthy lawyer. You'll see it happen. I told Husband that reading those series of verses, Words from God's mouth, strung together out of context made my stomach hurt. Seeing God's Word twisted to mean something that it doesn't...it made those words ugly. And the sad part is that someone who might not know better could be misled by them. Context is so important. I myself have used a verse here and there to prove a point, and I don't know that doing so is wrong if you're not using those verses to make a point outside of what Scripture as a whole harmonizes to say. Yet the person unfamiliar with the Bible and what the context should be would never know. This is why reading it (the Bible) for yourself is so important. It is crucial. Not just taking the word of a preacher or family member. Definitely not taking the opinion of an unbeliever who might have "thoughts" about God and who He is and how He thinks. And not even taking the word of someone who appears to know much about God. You have to search and read the Bible for yourself.

I feel certain that there was much more that I wanted to say about William Paul Young and Lies We Believe About God, but what it truly boils down to is "this man does not know God." Don't read this book to learn about God. Read The Bible. William Paul Young references his own (FICTION) books more frequently throughout the meat of Lies We Believe About God than he does any other source--especially The Bible. This is not the book, nor the man, to go to if you want to know God. And I personally won't be reading any more of his work myself. Lies We Believe About God gets 1 Star. Have you read Lies We Believe About God? What did you think? Let me know!

Shaken: Discovering Your True Identity in the Midst of Life's Storms - Review

Shaken: Discovering Your True Identity in the Midst of Life's Storms

By: Tim Tebow

Published: October 25th 2016 by Waterbrook Press

224 pages

Genre: Nonfiction, Sports, Biography

Source: Publisher via Blogging for Books (Thank you!!)

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*Note: The above links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--First, he was a beloved college football champion, Heisman trophy winner, media sensation, and best-selling author drafted in the first round of the 2010 Draft. Then he had a miracle playoff run with the Denver Broncos before being traded to the New York Jets. After one season he was cut by New York. Next he was signed by the New England Patriots then let go after training camp—a scenario that repeated itself the following summer with the Philadelphia Eagles. Tim Tebow has achieved big victories and plunged the depths of failure, all while never letting go of his faith, even in the face of doubt and disappointment. In Shaken he explains why neither the highs nor the lows of his life can define him—and he reveals how you, too, can find confidence in your identity and know who you are. In revealing passages, Tebow pulls back the curtain on his life, sharing the vulnerable moments of his career that have shaken him to his core—while also teaching the biblical principles that will enable you to keep the faith, no matter what comes your way.

I'm not what you would call a football fan. I went through a period where I was engaged to a guy who was a fan and during that time I'd watch college games with him. After we broke up, I tried to continue watching the game but found that I would get angry when my team wasn't doing well or a ref called a penalty that I didn't agree with. I didn't like who I became while watching football, and I didn't like what I saw of people who say and do things in the name of "football rivalry" to purposefully anger and upset their friends, relatives, and even strangers. I know most of this is in "good fun" and not meant to truly be offensive, but other times offense is exactly the intention. Football isn't at fault here. Humans are.

But even as far back as when I was still engaged to the avid football fan, Tim Tebow was quarterbacking at Florida. I remember watching a few games that he played in. He was good, but what I was most impressed with was his openness with his faith. Since I stopped watching football before he graduated college I didn't really follow his career. I do remember watching an episode of Lip Sync Battle where Tim Tebow battles Nina Dobrev. He stuck with songs like "The Eye of the Tiger" and "Take Your Time" (by Sam Hunt), while she performed "Cheerleader" (by OMI) and "Let's Get It On". I was impressed by his lack of response toward Nina on this episode. She specifically chose "Let's Get It On" in an attempt to make fun of his decision to wait until marriage for sex. He didn't seem offended by her at all. She came off (to me anyway) as trying to flirt with him like she might be the one to show him what he was missing from his archaic and idealistic views on sex. I wasn't impressed with her, but his behavior stuck with me.

One day, I was driving to my mom's house and I was listening to K-Love (a Christian radio station) where Tim* was giving a radio interview about his book. I heard him talking about how our identity is not in what others think about us or what our job is or in our current situation. No. Our identity is in Christ. I was impressed, and I thought that I remembered seeing Shaken available for review. When I got home, I went and requested this book immediately.

And here's the thing, once I started reading...I couldn't stop. It took me 2 days to read Shaken which has to be close to a record for a nonfiction book for me. I was so impressed with Tim's writing, with the words he chose to use, the stories he picked to illustrate his points, even the amount of Scripture he included...pretty much all of it.

I was affected by the humility of this guy who has been in so many unique life situations. He comes off as humble but I'm not sure how much of it comes naturally to him versus how much is a choice and a conscious decision he makes to be so. He mentions frequently that he tries to live his life with intention. He's a firm believer in personal growth, not just physically but mentally and spiritually. He discusses frequently overcoming one's personal feelings in the moment (because those are subject to change with the wind), and make the difficult choices time and time again...to get up and work out, to say no when it's easier to say yes, to choose Christ, to put anger and disappointment on the backburner and CHOOSE differently. He seems like he's got this part figured out (even though I'm sure he still fails at times in this area). He makes the choice to humble himself and turn his attention and focus back to God...in the high moments and in the low.

One thing I really appreciated was that people might easily think that even his lows aren't as low as what some people endure. And no one knows that better than Tim. He has a love for God and a love for others that prompted him to create a charity which puts him in frequent contact with those who are facing life and death or chronic pain. He knows that what he's been through may not compare with that of others. But pain is relative. And what is the most painful experience of my life is still the most painful experience of my life, even if it doesn't compare to the life someone else has lived. Tim uses the stories of others that he's met and come in contact with throughout his journey and his foundation to further illustrate his points. Often times when his aim was to be a blessing and an encouragement to these people, they have ended up being the blessing and encouragement to him.

Those who represent God in this world and claim to be Christians are often being lifted to a higher standard. They're expected to be perfect, above reproach, always "on" so to speak. But they're just people too. Tim is just a human being like we all are. He makes mistakes. Yet in today's society, when public figures make mistakes for the world to see there is very little of forgiveness offered to them. They are publically ridiculed and labeled a hypocrite at the least. But as Tim accurately states, only Jesus has lived as a human and lived perfectly. He is the example. He is the standard. It is to Him that we look, and Him that we aim to imitate. Not Tim Tebow. Not any other celebrity. Not even those who claim to be Christians. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:1 "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ." And what Paul means is that we should imitate him ONLY as he imitates Christ. Sure...imitate Tim in the ways that you see him imitating Christ. But if you see him veer off course, then follow Christ and not Tim. But don't be surprised when humans miss the mark. It's okay to be disappointed in them, but offer them forgiveness knowing that often you miss the mark as well.

I took note of many sections of this book. Sometimes entire pages were worded just perfectly to illustrate the point he was trying to make. I had a hard time narrowing down the sections that I wanted to share with you all, but I feel like these give the best glimpse into this book. Here are my favorite quotes:

-One day, according to the world, I'm on top of my game, adored, praised, and respected. And the next, I'm at the bottom of the heap, cut, criticized, and torn down. You know what I've learned in the process? How important it is not to allow either the highs or the lows in life to determine who you are.

-...I made a conscious choice not to quit. Not to gripe. Not to pout. Not to let others define me. And not to live in disappointment or regret. Believe me when I tell you, I wanted to be angry! And I was tempted to say in that place. But I had to get back to the place of trusting God.

-"God was authoring a bigger picture," Mark told me. "He always gets you to where He wants you to be in spite of yourself."

-..."God fills up so much of my life with good things that I don't miss what I don't have anymore."

-Imagine there is no God. Then you were not created for a reason. You aren't special. You are the accidental, unintentional result of motion, matter, time, and chance. Tim Keller said, "If your origin is insignificant and your destiny is insignificant, which means someday nobody will even remember anything you ever did, have the guts to admit your life is insignificant."

-"No matter the outcome, healed by Him or taken home to live in eternity, we win."

-A lot of what it means to work out your faith muscle is to choose to live above your feelings, to remember that He is God and that you are not.

-Feelings are normal. They can change on a dime. They come. And they go. We need to understand this and learn how to live above them, not by them.

-When we ask questions, when we doubt, when we wonder if God is going to pull through, or wonder why He didn't pull through, or wonder why our miracle is taking so long, or why the miracle never came at all, remember that doubt is normal. God isn't scared of our questions. Bring them to Him. It is better to vent to Him than to run from Him.

-God will come through in some way or other. Sometimes in the form of an answer to prayer, other times in the form of comfort, peace, and perspective far above what's possible in our human strength.

-"God will never waste pain that's offered to Him."

-Often, we make the mistake of comparing God to someone who represents Him, either poorly or wonderfully. Problem is, because we're human, we may mirror God's heart beautifully one day and pretty awfully the next. ...Don't let your relationship with God and your ideas about Him stem from those who represent him.

-I promise you this: God will use your giftings and abilities in His way and for His plan. It might be to influence one person or one million. Rather than focus on trying to figure out or influence how He will make it happen, focus on Him.

- Don't limit what He can do on how you limit yourself. Be yourself, and let God be God.

In young adult fiction, I can't tell you how many times I've read a book that discusses how bad things have happened in the life of the character and because of those bad things the character has determined that God doesn't exist or at least doesn't care about the character. Because I've come across this so frequently in my reading journey, there has to be an audience that connects with these feelings. Either the authors of these books or many readers. Likely both. But here's the problem with these scenarios...bad things happen to all people. Live long enough and chances are that something traumatic is going to happen in your life. What makes any of us think we're special enough to avoid tragedy in this fallen world? If God acts to prevent bad things from happening in your life then what about the millions of people who don't avoid tragedy? Or was there something you did to deserve special treatment? Of course not. We're all dearly loved by God. But we have all also sinned and fallen short. This world is sin-cursed. Time and chance happen to us all. C.S Lewis said, "Life with God is not immunity from difficulties, but peace in difficulties." Tim does a great job discussing situations where doubt in God's ability to save us and His love for us could easily creepy in and devour. Yet the examples he used were full of people who were confident in God's love for them and His plans for their lives--even unto death at times. This isn't an easy thing to come to terms with, I understand. But he does a great job conveying this in just the right way.

Despite my lack of football interest (you totally don't need to be a fan in order to enjoy this book) and my lack of following Tim's career, Shaken: Discovering Your True Identity in the Midst of Life's Storms called to me. My brother (coincidentally also named Tim) recently went through a job situation that could have shaken his faith, but it didn't. Like Tim Tebow, my brother's faith in God having a plan and a path for his life made his situation endurable and even borderline exciting (not that he didn't have to battle a myriad of other emotions throughout the process). I've witnessed situations similar to what Tim discusses in this book, not only with my brother, but also with my cousin who--though she lost her physical battle with cancer--showed strength, grace, and an unwavering faith to anyone she came in contact with. Shaken is a book that I would recommend to anyone who might need a reminder of whose they are.

I read Shaken with a pace that I don't often feel for nonfiction books. I was interested in the overall message as well as the glimpse into the person of Tim Tebow that it gives. I found myself getting teary-eyed in more than one section. And more than anything, I'm impressed with the way that God is using Tim to reveal Himself to the world. I was well on my way to giving Shaken 5 Stars until I came upon the last page or so of the book. While I love the thought of reaching out to those who might be reading this book and find themselves wanting a personal relationship with God (I don't see how they wouldn't), Tim's explanation of how to do so falls short of what I find in my own study of the Bible. Search the Scripture and you will not find "the sinner's prayer" anywhere. You will find example after example in Acts of sinners being converted to Christ. What you see there goes a bit beyond the steps he outlined. I always refer readers back to the Source, the Bible, God's Word, to determine what is truth and from God versus what is from man. (Here's an article that might direct you to some specific Scripture to read.) This small piece of the puzzle had me feeling like a more accurate rating of Shaken for me is 4 Stars. I have no doubt that God is using Tim Tebow and his platform to reveal Himself to many. And this book has made me want to make changes in my own life for the better--specifically in the area of showing love to others--and there's just about no better recommendation that I can give. Have you read Shaken: Discovering Your True Identity in the Midst of Life's Storms? What did you think? Let me know!

*Pardon my frequent first name usage. He references himself as "Timmy" throughout the book so much that it's hard not to feel like I now know the dude on a first name basis.

**I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. All thoughts are my own.

Beautiful Me: Believing God's Truth About You - Review

Beautiful Me: Believing God's Truth About You

By: Stasi Eldredge

Published: January 1st 2016 by David C. Cook

240 pages

Genre: Nonfiction, Spiritual, Religious, Inspirational

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)

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*Note: The above links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--In this ninety-day devotional, Stasi Eldredge takes excerpts from her book Free to Be Me and pairs them with prayers, Scripture, and positive declarations. Day by day, she turns you back to the truth that God sees you as beautiful beyond measure—and he delights in dreaming big dreams for your life!

I cannot say enough good things about Captivating by John & Stasi Eldredge. That book blew me away. So when I saw this devotional available for review on NetGalley, I had to snatch it up. It took me longer than it should have to start reading it because I was reading a different devotional at the time. That being said, daily devotionals aren't my favorite types of books. I mean I read them and enjoy them, but I'd really rather dive into a book and read large sections at a time and take breaks when I feel like it rather than read one small section or chapter per day. And so yeah, that's what I did with Beautiful Me too. I'd read like 20 or so devotionals at one time and then take a break from the book for a week or two.

Regardless of how I read books like this, Beautiful Me is an outstanding devotional. I do recommend that you read Stasi's other work--specifically Captivating--before digging into a book like this one. It's not necessary, but she goes so much deeper into some of the same topics within Captivating than she does in the devotional style that she uses in Beautiful Me. Either way, I just kept thinking about the many other women in my life that I know and love that I just know could benefit from this book--even my 12 year old niece. Any woman that might be struggling with confidence issues when it comes to her beauty and self-worth...well that woman could benefit from this book (which is just about everyone, right?).

As I did with Captivating, I found myself highlighting up a storm in Beautiful Me. I wish I could share with you every single section that I highlighted, but that would be too much (what's below is probably too much) and at that point you would really just be better off reading the book yourself. Still, here are my favorite quotes:

-You actually can't be anyone else--that's why it's so exhausting and unsatisfying to pretend. God made you you on purpose.

-Jesus came for your heart. To ransom, rescue, and restore the true you. He hasn't been moving heaven and earth through all eternity so that you would behave yourself. Fit into the crowd. Mind your manners. No. He wants to woo and win your heart for himself so that you will love him with it and live your life from it.

-When we have a change of heart on the inside, it manifests itself on the outside, not the other way around.

-Though my past has shaped me, I am not my past. Though my failures and the failure of others have had an effect on who I am, they do not define me. Jesus has won my victory!

-Our worth is not based on what we do, which life path we choose, or what we believe. Our worth is inherent in the fact that we are image-bearers of the living God.

-Nothing--nothing--undoes the harmful effects of suffering as our choice to worship Jesus in the midst of it. That doesn't mean we must give thanks to God for every wicked, evil, hard, painful, excruciating, grief-filled thing that happens in our lives. That would be calling evil good. No, my sister, what the Scripture says is to give thanks to God in every situation, not for every situation.

-We can choose to let suffering soften us or harden us. We can choose whether we will allow it to make us more compassionate or let our hearts become jealous of others. We can choose whether we will love Jesus in it or resent him for it. Only one set of choices will make us more beautiful.

-The battle is waged and won in our thought life: in your mind and in your heart.

-In our inner worlds, we feel alone. And being alone is the first thing that God named as "not good" (Genesis 2:18).

-You don't want to give to young men the power to tell you who you are--how valuable, how lovely, or how wanted. They don't have the right to validate you as a woman.

-You are made in God's image, right? Down to your feminine core, you express something about the heart of God to the world. And what does every woman's heart long for? To be loved. To be chose. To be a priority to someone. Think of how deeply this runs in you. Now you know something central about the heart of God. He wants that too.

-The world does not need yet another young woman who despises the lovely creation that she is. God does not long for another girl who rejects herself and, by extension, him. The world needs a woman who is thankful for how God has made her, trusts that he is transforming her, and actually enjoys who she is. It's a good thing to like who you are. God likes you! We get to like ourselves too! When you like yourself, you are free to enjoy others, and in your presence people experience an invitation to become and enjoy who they truly are as well.

-In Christ, I am no longer unclean. I have been cleansed. I am no longer a sinner. I am a saint. I am no longer unwanted. I am sought after. I am no longer ugly. I am beautiful. I am no longer guilty. I am blameless. I am no longer under condemnation. I am innocent. I am no longer in bondage. I am free. I am no longer alone. I am loved.

-Sin, failure, or your past does not define you. You are forever and only defined by the finished work of Jesus Christ. You are a daughter. A bride. And you are beautiful.

Beautiful Me was a highly enjoyable and even beautiful at times--go figure. I think that this devotional can be beneficial to all kinds of women with a myriad of different struggles. And even all different ages, from the pre-teens who understand feeling like they don't fit in to the elderly who may have a lifetime of hurts and scars that need to be redeemed. I'd easily give Beautiful Me 4.5 Stars. Have you read Beautiful Me? What did you think? Let me know!

*Side Note: I don't like the fact that Stasi Eldredge chose to use paraphrase translations on occasion for the Scripture used. Paraphrase translations can sometimes significantly alter the meaning of a particular passage. And as always, anytime I review a Spiritual book I have to recommend that you always go to the Bible to compare any of the author's thoughts against what the Bible actually says.

The Praying Woman's Devotional - Review

The Praying Woman's Devotional: Let God's Word Change Your Life

By: Stormie Omartian

Published: February 1st 2015 by Harvest House Publishers

208 pages

Genre: Religious, Christian, Spirituality, Self-Help

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)

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*Note: The above links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--"Lord, Your Word tells of the magnificent and miraculous things You have done for people, and I know You are the same today and in the future as You were in the past. I pray You will do miraculous things in response to my prayers as well." --Stormie Omartian What inspires your personal encounters with God? Those moments when you tell Him about your needs and thank Him for all He has done for you. Those times when you praise Him for His greatness and awesome goodness. Does Scripture inspire your prayers? This collection of devotions will give you short reflections on Bible passages that will remind you of all the magnificent and miraculous things God has done. And it will help you see what God not only can do in your life, but what He can do in the world around you in response to your faith-filled prayers.

I've read and loved so many of Stormie Omartian's books. The Power of a Praying Woman is one of my all-time favorite books that has helped my spiritual relationship with God. So when I saw The Praying Woman's Devotional for review, I knew I had to jump on it. The problem is that I tend to read these kinds of books very slowly, so I'm really late getting this book read and reviewed. My bad.

I'm not sure that I have too terribly much to say about The Praying Woman's Devotional. I enjoyed it. It's packed full of short daily messages and prayers that fit a myriad of situations we women face in our lives. I didn't connect as deeply on an emotional level with this devotional as I did with The Power of a Praying Woman, but I believe that to be due to the short nature of each topic and prayer. The Power of a Praying Woman goes further into each subject than The Praying Woman's Devotional. However, The Praying Woman's Devotional is perfect for the woman who wants to quickly focus her day on a specific topic.

Like the other Stormie Omartian books I've read, there is much that I could quote here. My favorite quotes:

-Only God can cause love to grow in your heart where there is none. Only God can bring to life love that has died.

-One of the most important things about being in a spiritual family is finding power in prayer through unity. When believers are in unity, there is a dynamic that adds power to our prayers and the confidence that God will answer in power.

-When we pray, we reassert our faith that God keeps His promises. What we said out loud, or silently in our hearts, proclaims the truth of God's promises that we have read or heard in His Word.

-If we don't take control of our minds, the devil will.

-Help me to never be full of myself, but rather to always be freshly filled with more of You each day.

-As the people's holiness went, so went the state of the nation.

-We need to praise Jesus that He is our healer whether we are healed at that moment or not.

-I have found that no matter how bad I feel, when I praise God I always feel better.

-How often do we plead for God's direction and, not liking what we hear, decide to go our own way?

As always, I don't agree with 100% of what is stated within this book when it comes to what is required for salvation.Go to the Bible for more information about that. But regardless, this book holds a lot of great material for daily focusing of our thoughts. While I guess I prefer books that dive a little deeper on each topic, The Praying Woman's Devotional is a great choice for short, focused topics.The Praying Woman's Devotional gets 4 Stars from me. Have you read The Praying Woman's Devotional? What did you think? Let me know!

For the Love - Review

For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards

By: Jen Hatmaker

Expected Publication: August 18, 2015 by Nelson Books

224 pages

Genre: Religious, Spiritual, Christian, Inspirational

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)

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NetGalley description--The popular writer, blogger, and television personality reveals with humor and style how Jesus' extravagant grace is the key to dealing with life's biggest challenge: people.

The majority of our joys, struggles, thrills, and heartbreaks relate to people, beginning first with ourselves and then the people we came from, married, birthed, live by, live for, go to church with, don't like, don't understand, fear, struggle with, compare ourselves to, and judge. People are the best and worst thing about the human life.

Jen Hatmaker knows this all too well, and so she reveals how to practice kindness, grace, truthfulness, vision, and love to ourselves and those around us. By doing this, For the Love leads our generation to reimagine Jesus' grace as a way of life, and it does it in a funny yet profound manner that Christian readers will love. Along the way, Hatmaker shows readers how to reclaim their prophetic voices and become Good News again to a hurting, polarized world.

You guys, I’m not even sure what to say about For the Love. I read listened to 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess several months ago and loved it. Everything from the message to the voice to the audio narrator was inviting. When I saw that Jen Hatmaker had a new book coming out, I jumped on it. I hesitate when requesting religious books for review because while I do read these type of books regularly, I don’t read them frequently enough or fast enough to really feel good about being able to review them by the release date. However, For the Love’s release date was so far in advance from when I requested it and the book so short (only right at 200 pages) that I thought I could make it work. Little did I know that I would read this one just as quickly as a fiction book. That just doesn’t happen to me very often. After reading several books recently that either felt irreverent as a whole or at least partially irreverent I felt like I needed a good dose of some reaffirming religious content. Jen Hatmaker seemed like a good bet.

The first twenty to thirty percent of For the Love had me highlighting large sections of text a time, emailing them to my friend Kay (the one who suggested I read 7 to begin with), and generally laughing out loud. This lady is hilarious. And on point. Only Jen Hatmaker could write an entire chapter dedicated to “Leggings are not pants” and “Tights are not leggings.” But there were serious subjects too, about the pressure we put on ourselves to be not a jack of all trades but a master of all trades—especially in the mom category. Even being an expected mother, I can totally see myself already placing these burdensome standards on myself that she discusses. Plus the first section of “thank you notes” in the style of Jimmy Fallon were also hilarious. I found myself nodding my head and “amening” throughout almost all of the first half of this book.

And then we get to the second half of the book. I won’t say the book took on a more serious tone as there were some rather serious topics discussed in the first half of the book, but I guess the humor was dialed back a notch with this second half. Perhaps that’s because this section was about how to deal with yourself. The remaining sections of the book were about dealing with people who live in your house, friends, neighbors, strangers, enemies, church, church people, not-church people, and God. It’s easy to laugh at ourselves I guess, but throw other people into the mix and waters can get muddy. For the Love still had plenty toward the second half of the book that had me nodding my head and amening. It gave me some good ideas on things I’d like to try when dealing with others and some things to think about. But I also found myself annoyed and confused about a few things.

There were a few references to the gay community which is a huge topic in our culture today, but mostly I came away from that subject unsure about Jen Hatmaker’s thoughts or convictions on the subject. I feel like she addressed this in the way that she did on purpose. It wasn’t the purpose of this book to discuss this subject in detail, but I wasn’t sure what the message was that she was trying to relay about this either. I was also unclear about her thoughts/definition of the church. This feels like semantics because there’s the biblical definition of the word “church”, what it means, and what all is entailed in it, and then there’s the 21st century American definition of the word. Why the difference matters isn’t always clear to everyone, but it does. And in the end, I wasn’t sure whether Jen Hatmaker was using the word in the biblical way or in the American 21st century way. Sometimes I felt one way and then others times I felt the opposite. One last complaint is that while it’s apparent that Jen Hatmaker is familiar with the Bible and what it says, For the Love was a little full of shoulds and shouldn’ts with very little actual Scripture used. Let me clarify, I don’t think this book was meant to be some big instructional manual (which I actually liked). It ended up feeling like a bunch of thoughts and realizations that Jen Hatmaker has had throughout her life. Conclusions that she’s come to. Etc.

At times, the overall message of For the Love felt like it was missing and some of the chapters felt disconnected. When I got finished I had to stop and really think back over the book to see if I could even recognize a common theme. It wasn’t really until I went back to the table of contents while writing this review that some of it made sense. I don’t know if that’s one of those “pregnancy brain” things that I’ve struggled with or if the lack of cohesion was an actual issue in execution.

Favorite quotes:

-Folks who thrive in God’s grace give grace easily, but the self-critical person becomes others-critical.

-We need to quit trying to be awesome and instead be wise.

-There’s a difference between humility and insecurity, and self-effacement does no one any favors.

-How many trot out that tired cliché—“I’m waiting for God to open a door”—and He’s all, “I love you, but get going, Pumpkin,” because usually chasing the dream in your heart looks surprisingly like work.

-A good parent prepares the child for the path, not the path for the child.

-I worry we consider “success” to be a product of the parent’s diligence more than the child’s.

-Lean honestly into every hard place, each tender spot, because truthfulness hurts for a minute, but silence is the kill shot.

-Married tongues should be shredded with the amount of ugly words bitten back.

-Loneliness can be a prison, but we have keys. You needn’t wait for someone to open the bars.

-You can’t pour antidote into poison forever and expect it to transform into something safe, something healthy.

In the end, For the Love is definitely a book that I enjoyed and got something out of. I enjoyed the first section the most. And while I find myself wanting to recommend this book to others, I also want to advise caution. I always direct readers to the Bible itself for any “how tos” or “should/shouldn’ts”. If there’s anything you read in For the Love that you just aren’t sure about, the best thing is to bounce what it says against what the Bible says. The Bible always win. The parts that had me laughing out loud made me want to give this book 4 Stars, but the parts that left me confused or concerned knocked that rating down to 3.5 Stars. Have you read For the Love? What did you think? Let me know!

7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess - Review

7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess

By: Jen Hatmaker

Published: January 1st 2012 by B&H Books (first published December 19th 2011)

228 pages

Genre: Nonfiction, Spiritual, Christian, Religious

Source: Borrowed from the library

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*Note: The above links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--American life can be excessive, to say the least. That’s what Jen Hatmaker had to admit after taking in hurricane victims who commented on the extravagance of her family’s upper middle class home. She once considered herself unmotivated by the lure of prosperity, but upon being called “rich” by an undeniably poor child, evidence to the contrary mounted, and a social experiment turned spiritual was born.

7 is the true story of how Jen (along with her husband and her children to varying degrees) took seven months, identified seven areas of excess, and made seven simple choices to fight back against the modern-day diseases of greed, materialism, and overindulgence.

Food. Clothes. Spending. Media. Possessions. Waste. Stress. They would spend thirty days on each topic, boiling it down to the number seven. Only eat seven foods, wear seven articles of clothing, and spend money in seven places. Eliminate use of seven media types, give away seven things each day for one month, adopt seven green habits, and observe “seven sacred pauses.” So, what’s the payoff from living a deeply reduced life? It’s the discovery of a greatly increased God—a call toward Christ-like simplicity and generosity that transcends social experiment to become a radically better existence.

My friend, Kay, recommended 7 to me a while back. Her Bible class group went through it and she really enjoyed it. I’ve had it on my TBR list for at least a year if not more. I finally saw that the e-library had it available on audiobook and so I jumped on it.

Some background information though might be important. My husband and I live in a 1800ish square foot house built in the 1960s. Even before we married, 6 years ago, we’ve been working to renovate the house. It’s a slow process—even slower because we actually live in the house. We’ve painted. We’ve replaced. We’ve pulled out. We’ve thrown away. Oh and we’ve painted some more. One thing that was not a priority in the 1960s apparently was storage. Our closets are tiny. The kitchen is small (though not tiny), but the kitchen cabinets are tiny. A regular size box of cereal or bag of chips will not fit in one of our cabinets. We can stack one regular sized canned product on top of another. That’s about as tall as most of our cabinets are. The shelves are not adjustable. But it’s just the two of us, right? (For now.) And all things are relative. While I sit here and complain about the storage space available in our house, the real problem is that we have too much stuff with nowhere to put it. After my dad visited the Philippines on a mission trip where most people he encountered live in bamboo houses, and we heard through the grapevine about a family in Africa who was trying to get enough money together to build a mud house I started re-evaluating how blessed I am over the lack of storage space I have. All of this has had me thinking about my own personal excess in life. Enter 7.

The title and description pretty much sum this book up perfectly. The author, Jen Hatmaker, had a poor child temporarily staying in her house comment on how rich she and her family was. This really stuck with her. With some direction/motivation from something a friend of hers was doing, the idea of 7 was born. As the description says, she identified 7 areas of excess in her life: food, clothes, spending, media, possessions, waste, and stress. Each area was designated a month—30 days—of focus on reducing the excess. Again…repeating the description above, but 1) Food – Only eat 7 foods; 2) Clothing – Only wear 7 articles of clothing; 3) Possessions – Give away 7 things each day; 4) Media – Eliminate the use of 7 media sources; 5) Waste – Adopt 7 green-living habits; 6) Spending – Only spend money in 7 places; 7) Rest – Observe “7 sacred pauses” each day.

One thing that I like about 7 is that Jen Hatmaker isn’t trying to project this experiment on any and every one. She simply saw 7 areas in her life that she could cut back on and set out on her own personal experiment that she just so happened to write a book about, documenting her experiences. Sure she learned some very valuable lessons each month, and sure she would recommend those lessons to anyone, but she’s not saying throughout this book “you need to try this”. Of course, friends and family and strangers who have heard about her experiment have decided to try it for themselves, but this isn’t something that she’s projecting onto other people.

I loved the lessons that Jen Hatmaker learned, and I really do want to implement some of these ideas into my own life. There are so many things lying around my house that aren’t being used by me that someone else might be able to benefit from. I have clothes upon clothes upon clothes that I don’t wear. Let’s face it, a large portion of those clothes currently don’t even fit. I’m thankful that my life isn’t as busy as some. But yet I often find myself feeling overwhelmed, overworked, and exhausted mentally if not physically. Implementing practices that will lead to a more “rest”-filled life sounds like heaven. Point being…there are definitely areas I want to make some changes in my life to cut back on excess as well.

During the time she was writing this book, Jen Hatmaker (I keep wanting to call her “Jen” like we’re friends) and her husband, Brandon, were in the process of adopting two Ethiopian children. All of the sections in this book related to her adoption were particularly moving to me. When she discusses being completely disgusted with her natural born children throwing out almost a pound of chicken fingers simply because they did not have ketchup to go with them when her soon to be adoptive children likely went to bed with hungry bellies was particularly emotional. And even more than that, during the last month—the Rest month—when Jen (I’m rolling with it) and Brandon were both struck with a strong desire and need to pray for their adoptive children (not even knowing who these children would be exactly), and then she finds out that the exact day they were pressed with this need is the exact day the 5 year old little girl they ended up adopting was being abandoned at the orphanage. Now that…that got me for sure. Moments like this were sprinkled throughout the book, and I’m thankful for getting to experience this book and see God work in the lives of people I don’t know and have never met. It warms my heart and builds my faith.

Ultimately I think of all the blessings that I’ve been given stewardship over in my own life, and I have to ask myself whether I’m being a good steward or not. And that’s one thing that 7 helped me to do—to realize how much work I have left to do. I highly recommend 7 to anyone who is feeling overwhelmed in their lives. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Cut back. Give away. Donate. Repurpose. 7 gets 4.5 Stars from me. Have you read 7? What did you think? Let me know!

Also, side note...the narrator, Rebecca Gallagher, of the audiobook did such a good job that I just KNEW it had to be Jen Hatmaker reading the book herself. Yet when I went to double check that fact, I realized it was someone else entirely which means I was highly impressed.

The Power of a Praying Husband - Review

The Power of a Praying Husband

By: Stormie Omartian

Published: April 1st 2014 by Harvest House Publishers (first published July 28th 2001)

272 pages

Genre: Religious, Christian, Spirituality, Self-Help

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!!), Husband owns an earlier version

( Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository | Booksamillion.com )

*Note: The above links to Amazon, Book Depository, Booksamillion.com are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--Stormie Omartian's bestselling The Power of a Praying series (more than 23 million copies sold) is rereleased with fresh new covers and new material to reach a still-growing market of readers eager to discover the power of prayer for their lives.

In this deluxe edition of The Power of a Praying Husband, beautifully bound with a padded cover, Stormie helps you pray even more effectively for your wife. By sharing stories and examples from her own marriage, she shares how you can intercede for your wife in areas where she longs for your prayers, especially in her priorities emotions motherhood fears sexuality.

With comments from well-known Christian men and a foreword by Stormie's husband, multi-Grammy winning music producer Michael Omartian, this is the perfect gift for any man wanting to develop the discipline of prayer.

I think just about any woman who makes it through The Power of a Praying Wife will find herself curious about The Power of a Praying Husband. Just what does Stormie Omartian tell my husband to pray for me about? At least that’s how it was for me. I read and loved The Power of a Praying Wife and many of Stormie Omartian’s other books. I love the topic-focused prayer approached that Mrs. Omartian takes in her books. Each one has brought some new “treasure” or “gold nugget” (as my dad would say) for me and my prayer life.

That being said, I do have to admit that The Power of a Praying Husband has been the book I’ve connected with the least out of all the others I’ve read—minus The Power of a Praying Church. I feel like this is because this book isn’t directed towards me as I’m not a husband. I can definitely see that if my husband were praying the prayers for me that Mrs. Omartian outlines and if he were covering all of the aspects of my life that she focuses on I would feel the deep impacts of those prayers as would he. I tried to approach the book as another stepping stone towards growing myself individually and I did to an extent, but I kept getting pulled out of this book because of the book being address to husbands. I almost feel like it’s unfair for me to even rate the book given this, but I still know that The Power of a Praying Husband could be an extremely effective teaching tool and useful for husbands everywhere to dive deeper in their prayer lives, specifically in relation to covering their wives and marriages in prayer.

I don’t have much else to say about The Power of a Praying Husband. There were parts I was “amening” in regards to the picture of a typical woman that Mrs. Omartian paints. I did notice the increased sports metaphors in this book geared at helping men think and understand in their own terms. Yet my husband isn’t a sports fan—like at all—so I don’t think he’d relate much to those metaphors. However, so many other men out there probably will.

Some of my favorite quotes:

-Without prayer, the success of our marriages depend on our own wisdom and effort.

-“It’s not a matter of who needs to change; it’s a matter of who is willing to change.”

-Whatever you don’t pray about in your life you leave up to chance.

-Our flesh takes over when we decide to be self-centered instead of self-sacrificing.

-If God has asked you to pray for your enemies, how much more does He want you to pray for the person you are supposed to love and with whom you have become one?

I didn’t spend much focused time on the study guide portion of the book because this was again not focused toward me as a woman, but based on a skim it looks like a good tool to utilize. As always, there are some differences in my beliefs and Mrs. Omartian’s. I say this every single time, but search the Scripture for all the answers. Anything you need to know can be found there.

All in all, The Power of a Praying Husband was a good read from the perspective of a wife. I’d give this one 3.5 Stars. Have you read The Power of a Praying Husband? What did you think? Let me know!

The Power of a Prayer to Change Your Marriage
The Power of a Praying Church
The Power of a Praying Kid
The Power of a Praying Parent
The Power of a Praying Wife
The Power of a Praying Woman

The Power of a Praying Parent - Review

The Power of a Praying Parent

By: Stormie Omartian

Published: April 1st 2014 by Harvest House Publishers (first published July 1st 1995)

224 pages

Genre: Religious, Christian, Spirituality, Self-Help

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!!)

( Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository | Booksamillion.com )

*Note: The above links to Amazon, Book Depository, Booksamillion.com are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--Stormie Omartian's bestselling The Power of a Praying series (more than 23 million copies sold) is rereleased with fresh new covers and new material to reach a still-growing market of readers eager to discover the power of prayer for their lives.

This beautiful padded hardcover edition of The Power of a Praying Parent (2 million copies sold) will surely find a new home in the lives of Stormie Omartian's worldwide audience.

After decades of raising her son and daughter alongside her husband, Michael, Stormie looks back at the trials and joys of parenting and the power found in praying for her children. In these easy-to-read chapters, she shares from personal experience how you can pray for your kids' safety character development school experiences marriage and so much more.

Stormie's now grown-up children, Christopher and Amanda, reflect on the way their praying parents raised them--and what a difference it made.

Perfect for new moms and dads as well as those a little further along in the journey, The Power of a Praying Parent is a must-have for anyone caring for a child.

I'm not a parent yet, but Husband and I are getting close to expanding our family. So when the opportunity came up to read and review The Power of a Praying Parent by Stormie Omartian, I jumped on it without thinking twice. I can't give you testimony of how these prayers have worked to change my children's lives because I just don't have children yet, but throughout her other books, Stormie Omartian has taught me that I don't have to wait until prayers are needed over a specific topic in order to begin lifting that subject up in prayer. I can begin by praying preventative prayers. And that's what I did while reading through The Power of a Praying Parent.

And yet, while I might not have children of my own to pray for them to attract and maintain Godly friends and role models or to live free of unforgiveness, I do know several young children that these prayers are needed in their lives. While I was reading The Power of a Praying Parent and praying preventative prayers for my future children, I was also praying over these subjects for the children that are already in my life, specifically my nieces and nephews.

I've discussed many times how much Stormie Omartian has taught me about prayer, and I've asked myself if it's truly necessary to read each of her books. I'm not sure it's necessary per se. Stormie Omartian does cover some of the same topics, stories, and messages in each of these books, but I've realized that repetition is good for me. It's necessary for my growth, because I forget so frequently the truths about prayer that she covers. I have also found that while she has taught me with each book how to pray specific, focused prayers, Stormie Omartian also presents a new way of looking at things for me, and she spells things out for me in a way that makes me think and challenge myself.

As per always, The Power of a Praying Parent is a guide with great principles that will point you back to Source. God's Word is the ultimate pattern and truth. Everything that Stormie Omartian discusses must be compared against God's Word. But ultimately, I think The Power of a Praying Parent is a must read for all parents and potential parents. Starting your child's life off with focused prayer is the best way to ensure they grow into all that God has for them throughout their lives.

The Power of a Praying Parent gets 4.5 Stars from me. Have you read The Power of a Praying Parent? What did you think? Let me know!

Other reviews of Stormie Omartian's books:
The Power of a Praying Wife
The Power of a Praying Woman & Upon Further Review: The Power of a Praying Woman
The Power of a Praying Kid
The Power of a Praying Church
The Power of Prayer to Change Your Marriage