True Beauty

"Fierce Beauty" is a wonderful reminder for women that true beauty is not how you look, but rather how you live. All females long and desire to be beautiful, and I remember several years ago having a conversation with my then fiance, now husband, about what it means to be beautiful. During the converation I was so confused when he kept telling me I had a beautiful heart. I wanted to be physically beautiful, forget the heart stuff. I know see I couldn't have been father from the truth about how our Heavenly Father looks at us. Today, women are constantly bombarded by our culture and the media that beauty is defined by how clear your skin is, how few wrinkles you have, how thin you appear to be, how toned you arms are, and I could go on and on. This is looking at the outward appearance, but scripture tells us "that man looks at the external, but the Lord looks at the heart."
Kim's book nails it on the head with her book and illustrations showing us what it really means to be beautiful. Her short stories make it an easy, fun read and I would recommend it to women of all ages.

Not My Favorite

I recently received "The Jesus Mission" by Steven K. Scott. I wasn't quite sure what to necessarily expect from this book, but the cover led me to read this book, as it stated "Christ completed 27 missions while on earth. Take up the 4 He assigned to you."
To be honest, I'm not really for mathmatical equations when it comes to the lessons God teaches us through scripture, and I feel as if this book in particular had 5 points here, 4 points there, and so forth. I would have much rather been encouraged by the number of things  I felt drawn out of the text, rather than they be pointed out to me every turn of the page.
The book is written into 3 different sections: "Intimacy with God, the Way He Wants It, The Missions Christ has Given to You, and What You Never Knew About Jesus That Will Change Your Life." If you are picking up this book and wanting to know your mission from the beginning, you might be a little disappointed to discover that it is not revealed until much later in the book. Throughout the book, I felt as if the author really did not have a specific purpose, and therefore his voice gets lost throughout the text. This isn't my favorite book on the subject of missions and purpose in life, and I can think of many other books I would recommend before this one.

NLT Giveaway!

Starting on November 29^th until December 24^th at the New Living Translation Facebook page we're giving away lots of great prizes and something free for you just for singing up.
By visiting the giveaway entry page (located on the NLT Facebook page, the link is under the profile picture) and entering your name and e-mail address you'll be entered to win the following prizes:

• One random person each day will win a Life Application Study Bible Family Pack (Guys Life Application Study Bible hc, Girls Life Application Study Bible hc, Student's Life Application Study Bible hc, Life Application Study Bible hc, Life Application Study Bible Large Print hc).
• One Random person each week will win an Apple iPad 2!

Everyone that signs up gets a free download copy of the Life Application Bible Study – Book of Luke!

Great book for the busy person!

"The Lucado Inspirational Reader" is a compilation of various quotes and sections from Max Lucado's 25+ books. It is broken into 27 chapters, with each chapter focusing on a particular topic. I felt as if there was nothing that this book didn't touch on, and I believe that this would be the perfect book to have on hand to reference or read cover to cover - whichever would work. If you enjoy reading Max Lucado's writting, then this is the perfect book for you!

Resource to better parent your son or daughter

With having 2 children of different sexes, I desire to raise them in a god glorifying way. In his book "Secure Daughters Confident Sons," Glenn Stanton delves into the world of gender and why it matters when raising our children. Boys and girls are different, one is not superior or inferior to the other, they are simply different, and in this book, boy and girls are clearly celebrated for how God made them. This book is a great resource for parents to better understand their child. With today's society mainstreaming the gender roles, this counter-cultural book will help to better equip us as caregivers. This book focuses on looking at the child as an adult, be it a man or woman. How to we want our children to be when they are no longer in our home? Stanton also strives to help parents understand how to help their daughter feel loved and cared for, while encouraging their sons that they have what it takes. 

While this book does include Christian principles, I would definitely say this book is not solely a Christian read, and I would recommend it to parents!

Walk though the Christmas Story with this DVD

My favorite holiday is Christmas, and in the midst of typing this, I am preparing to put away all of our fall decor and replace it with our Christmas decorations. When I was offered the opportunity to receive and review this DVD series by Tyndale, I was ecstatic! I am always wanting to learn more about the true meaning the holiday I adore so much. 

This DVD series contains 4 episodes on 2 different discs. Each episode takes the viewer through the various places and customs of the places important to the Christmas story. The narrators of this series are5 individuals, all from quite different backgrounds:an artist, Christian, agnostic, talk show host, and a Native American. Each individual journeys to Israel for different purposes, but all with the mission to learn more about the birth of the King. 

The video content of the DVD was very well done! Is is definitely of professional quality and is not your typical amateur documentary.  I also really enjoyed the tour guide for the video as he showed the places, history, and customs. As my husband was watching the video with me one night, he commented on the fact that he had never thought to consider what Mary and Joseph might have eaten, which was thoroughly depicted in the video. 

For me personally, I was not in love with this video series. For one thing, you can tell this was made to be broadcast on the television, as there are awkward breaks throughout each episode. Secondly, I was not a huge fan of the different individuals giving their personal impression of what was going on throughout their journey. I think this video would have been much better had it included simply a tour guide though the holy land with out the additional commentary. There is not much Christian content in this video, which was also discouraging. 

If this were free on T.V., I would more than likely watch it, but I would not want to purchase it for my personal use in my home. I think watching it one time would be enough. 

Remind Your Daughter She is a Princess!

This book is a sweet reminder for any little girl about how much God loves them and how they can glorify Him in their personal relationship with their Father, the King. Each page has a little written to your little princess from God and a correlating prayer that the little girl can offer up to God. The letters are so sweet and well written. I will say though, that I was not thrilled about the illustrations or borders. I thought it dated the book quite a bit. Although my daughter is still a little young for this book (I would recommend ages 5-9), I can not wait to use it with her when she gets a little older. In a day when being a princess is the popular thing to dream of, you can make that a reality by reminding your sweet one that she is a daughter of true King.