Book Review: "Don't Check Your Brains at the Door" by Josh McDowell and Bob Hostetler

I recently received a complimentary copy of the book "Don't Check Your Brains at the Door" by Josh McDowell and Bob Hostetler from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of the Booksneeze book review program. The opinions listed below are my honest opinion of the book.

In this wonderful book from Josh McDowell and Bob Hostetler, they write about how you can know what you believe about your faith and also to know why it is true. It is written mainly for teens in today's society; however, I enjoyed this book in reminding myself why I believe certain things. The authors take an approach of exposing certain myths that teens may believe or hear about their faith. They back up how the myths are not true with Scriptures from God's Word. They use humor as well to relate to today's teens which is wonderful. I also love that at the end of the chapters it causes you to dig deeper by looking up Scriptures to look farther into the lesson they have taught. I mainly requested this book to review because we are the teen leaders at our church and I thought it would be a good resource to have. I am also going to keep it for when my children are older and have questions about their faith or when their peers may challenge their faith.

Book Review: "The Blessing" by John Trent, Ph.D. and Gary Smalley

I recently received a complimentary copy of the book "The Blessing: Giving the Gift of Unconditional Love and Acceptance" by John Trent, Ph.D. and Gary Smalley from Thomas Nelson Publishing as part of the Booksneeze book review team. The opinions listed below are my honest opinion of the book.

All children long for the feeling of approval and unconditional love from their parents. In this book, this is what John Trent, Ph.D. and Gary Smalley call the gift of "the blessing." This book as won many awards including the ECPA Medallion of Excellence Christian Book Award. More than one million copies have been sold. This book is a wonderful book to keep in any parents' library to remind them of how important it is to give their children this gift. Trent and Smalley lists five essential elements to the blessing: meaningful touch, a spoken message, attaching high value, picturing a special future, and an active commitment. This book gives parents great advice on how to prepare children not only for their future relationships, but also their relationship with God. This updated edition also gives exercises, questions, and links for online resources for parents. I would recommend this book to every parent.

Book Review: "Bad Girls of the Bible" by Liz Curtis Higgs

I recently received a complimentary copy of the book "Bad Girls of the Bible and What we can Learn from Them" by Liz Curtis Higgs from Water Brook Multnomah as part of their book review program. The opinions listed below are my honest opinion of the book.

In the book, "Bad Girls of the Bible and what we can learn from them," Liz Curtis Higgs takes women on a Bible study of ten women of the Bible. She writes in a way that women can relate to these women of the Bible days. She explains how Eve had food issues, Lot's wife could not let go of her past, and many other stories of how we can relate to these women in our lives today. She also tells of the Sinful Woman and Rahab and how they left their histories behind to prove that these so called "bad girls" could have a wonderful and hopeful future. This book is divided into ten chapters and includes questions at the end of each chapter and also includes a study guide at the end. This would make a wonderful ten week session Bible study for a women's small group study. I feel that this book is well written and really shows how the women in the Bible struggled with many of the same things women today struggle with and how we have hope in Jesus and can learn from their mistakes so we don't fall into the same sins.