Dug Down Deep ~ Joshua Harris

Okay. I found yet another book everyone should read.

Dug Down Deep is Joshua Harris' brand-new book. He basically talks about his journey from not really taking hold of his parents' beliefs about the Christian faith, etc, to claiming them as his own. 

Something he emphasizes in the book is something he calls "humble orthodoxy", which is basically learning doctrine so that you can know more about Jesus Christ. As opposed to getting all knowledgeable about theology so that you can one-up other people. 

We should be learning more about God 

because we love him and we want to be like him.

Makes sense, huh? 

This is another one of those books that I want to just cram into everyones' brain.

So go read it, if you please. ;-)

His Rules

This was also on my "20 Books This Summer" list, and I read it a couple weeks ago.

It was different than I was expecting... it wasn't about courtship, really, but more about preparing for marriage--and not in the learn-how-to-sew-and-make bread kind of preparing. 

It is written to both young men and young women, which seems like it would be hard, but they do a really good job...partly because it is written by a guy and a girl.

They had a lot of good things to say about the fact that your relationship with God is the most important thing in preparation for marriage. If Jesus isn't your all-in-all, then you'll try to make your spouse that, which is a recipe for disaster.

I highly recommend the book!

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years ~ Donald Miller

I loved this book. Not only was it a good wakeup call, but it talks about several things that I have been specifically thinking a lot about lately. 

Donald Miller has written several books--his most popular being Blue Like Jazz. I read it a couple weeks ago, after my sister read it and loved it. (Read her review here.) I liked it, but there were definitely things I disagreed with, and although the overall topics were good, they weren't as impacting to me. Mama read it after I did, and she loved it, so she ordered some more of Donald Miller's books, which included this one.

His writing his amazing. I know several people who aren't fans of his rather odd style, but I love it. He says things in very unusual and beautiful ways. I just want to memorize the whole book! :-) Although he has very different theological views, I think almost everything he said in A Million Miles in a Thousand Years was dead-on. It does have some content, so it is recommended for older readers. (Maybe 14+).

The gist of the book is this: Each of our lives is a story, and we should make the best story we can out of it. It really tied into what I have been thinking about lately, deliberate living. Consciously thinking about what we are doing, where we are headed, how we are impacting the world by what we do every day.

I get so excited just thinking about the book. I want to read it all over again!

Here's a quote from the book--

"Once you live a good story, you get a taste for a kind of meaning in life, and you can't go back to being normal; you can't go back to the meaningless scenes stitched together by the forgettable tread of wasted time."

I highly recommend the book--it is entertaining, convicting, and just plain amazing.

Have you read it? What did you think?

"A Man Worth Waiting For" by Jackie Kendall

This book contrasts Boaz, the godly, honorable man from the Bible, with "bozos" (lame guys), and encourages young ladies to hold out for a worthy Boaz instead of a jerk.

There are four parts to the book. Part 1 has three chapters. Chapter 1 is an in-depth study about Boaz from the book of Ruth, chapter 2 assures us that the man worth waiting for is not an extinct ideal, and chapter 3 talks about the characteristics of a bozo.

Part 2 discusses the "essential elements of a man worth waiting for". I thought this was excellent--she wasn't saying he has to be perfect, but rather he has to be striving to be more and more like Jesus. She included lots of comments from men and women that had answered her questionnaire about what they thought the characteristics of an ideal man were. This helped me form my official list. :-)

Part 3 talks about "your role in locating a bozo". Basically, your role is to become a "Ruth"! The last chapter talks about practical ways to guard your heart, grow in godliness, and be content where you are.

I really enjoyed the book, and definitely recommend it! Some of her standards about dating I didn't exactly agree with, so I would read this book at the same time as "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" to get a balanced view. :-)

Set-Apart Femininity by Leslie Ludy

READ THIS BOOK!

I thought it was very, very good. It delved into a lot of topics that I have thought about, and helped me to cement my opinions and views on several things. One of the main things she emphasized is summarized in this quote from the book:

"If you ever catch yourself "putting off" happiness until you finally get married, or thinking that when you finally meet your spouse all of your dreams will be fulfilled, that's a sign that Christ hasn't fully captured your heart. If Jesus Christ isn't enough right now, then he won't be enough after marriage either. And you'll always be seeking fulfillment from the wrong things--setting your marriage for disillusionment and tension."

This is something I have been thinking about a lot recently-- it has to do with so many issues that young women face, like insecurity, boy-craziness, self-hatred, loneliness, and discontentment. If we make Christ our all-in-all, we won't have the driving desire to be married, have a boyfriend, or flirt with every guy that crosses our path.

Not only will this keep us pure right now, it will save so many problems in marriage. In my post on love, I talked about this a little. When we think one person is all we need in life, we just set ourselves up to have the relationship fail.

She also had some good thoughts on how to be friends with boys without it getting out of hand. There is a post brewing about this topic, too. :-)

Book Review ~ The Divine Dance

I read this book a couple years ago and it really affected me. In a cleverly metaphorical style that is very fun to read and easy to understand, she teaches girls that instead performing for the world and begging for attention, they should be "dancing" for God alone. 

Every girl wants to be beautiful. She wants to be admired and adored, and too often we morph into whatever we think those in the world around us want us to be. And we never feel fulfilled because God didn't design us to perform for other people, but rather to perform for Him. This is a very important point for girls to grasp, because it is integral to most issues we struggle with.

I recommend this book very strongly. I think it can be helpful to girls from below eleven or twelve, up to married adult women. It would be a good book to read and discuss with your mom. View Shannon Kubiak Primicerio's website here.

Have you read "The Divine Dance"? What did you think?

The Truth About Guys by Chad Eastham

This book is along the same lines as For Young Women Only, but I like how it is just written by a guy for girls. Besides telling girls things they should know about guys, he has a lot of pretty hilarious random facts about guys. 


If you are having a bad day and feel unloved and horrible, he has some really sweet self-esteem boosting stuff you should read. :-) I think most girls are more likely to believe stuff that come from guys, and not only is the author of the book a guy, but he is a young, funny guy.

I really enjoyed his writing style, and it was super fun to read. I definitely recommend it! 

Book Review ~ For Young Women Only

This is one of my favorites. It gives a fresh and accurate perspective on a lot of things that girls should know about. It's basically a book all about guys for girls!

The book is based on a survey taken of young men, and it includes the results throughout. So we girls really do get the inside scoop on what is going on inside guys' heads. Some of it I already knew ( I do have three brothers), but a lot of it was really eye-opening.

I thought that the chapter on modesty was especially helpful, because guys are telling us what is hard for them. If you are struggling with your attitude regarding modesty, copy one of the quotes and put it on the wall in your closet! It's easy to think they should just get over it and we shouldn't have to have less fun because of their stupid problems, but this book really is really convicting to that attitude. They are wired differently, and we just can't fully understand the way they think.

Another thing that was really emphasized, was that guys really crave respect. We gals want to be loved, and so we assume that's what they want most too. One of the survey results showed that a much greater percentage of young men would rather be respected than loved. A lot of it can definitely help in relating to any guys, whether it's your dad, guy friends, brothers, or a fiance.

Book Review

This book deals with common problems that many young women struggle with. It systematically goes through many different lies and replaces them with truths.

It has 12 chapters, each dealing with a different area of lies that girls believe. These include Lies about God, Satan, myself, guys, relationships, faith, sin, media, and the future. It really brought to my attention lies that I didn't even realize I believed.

I really liked the way they formatted the book, too--fun and very easy to read.

You can see the blog that the authors made to go with the book here.