God Gave us Love

A while ago, we received the "God Gave Us Love" board book. We have several of the other "God Gave Us ...." books and were excited to read the newest addition to this set of books.
Each book in this series focus on the faith and questions from a little bear cub, and this one in particular is about loving others whom we may find difficult to love.
I believe the author does a great job relating this story to little children. The pictures are captivating and the story itself very engaging. My 2 year old daughter really enjoyed this book as I read it to her.
I loved this book and look forward to reading it to my daughter and son for years to come!

Real Marriage

My husband and I are big fans of Mark Driscoll. We really like his sermons and were really excited to see this book come out. We actually read this book together, and although we feel like this book didn't really contain any new information from Mark, it was a great reminder of our marriage between one another. I will have to say, I wish there had been a little more content in the discussions about friendship and life together. There was just so much heavy discussion about sex, which I understand is one of the main reasons people file for divorce, that I feel like the other section was neglected. Sex is important in a marriage, but so is doing life together. Although this isn't my favorite book about marriage, I did enjoy reading it with my husband!

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!