The Blessing, by John Trent and Gary Smalley

The Blessing, by Gary Smalley and John Trent is a book I received from Booksneeze publishers to review, but it is not a new book, rather a revised and updated book from 1986. The new version includes links to online resources that are supposed to enrich your experience. There is a "Blessing Challenge" that calls one million parents to choose to change the life of a child by giving them their blessing. And equipping one thousand churches to create an ongoing culture inside their church that helps parents live out the blessing for a lifetime.


You can carry out that blessing challenge by utilizing the five elements of a blessing described in the book. These five elements include:

* Meaningful Touch
* A Spoken Message
* Attaching High Value
* Picturing a Special Future
* An Active Commitment


I appreciate, even agree with, most of the points made in this book. It is a great basis for parenting in a loving, healthy manner. As an adult child of dysfunctional, alcoholic parents, I can relate to the needs for the coping skills lined out in this book. But, as a Christian parent who has been in childcare and very involved in the upbringing of my children for over thirty years, I must say none of this is new to me.

The Blessing is just basic parenting repackaged, in a Focus on the Family, Strong Families.com kind of way. There is nothing wrong with either of these organizations, but they are in this to make a buck. I would, however, pass this book on to a novice parent because the tried and true elements of unconditional love can never be a bad thing, even when presented in such a way. We all want to be valued, loved and blessed.

The God I Never Knew by Robert Morris.

This book, which will be released in August, is a detailed explanation of the third person of the Godhead, The Holy Spirit. In his introduction Morris relays a personal antidote from when he was headed to Bible college and his pastor warned him to "watch out for people who talk about the Holy Spirit". I could relate to that, I remember in my early years as a believer being a bit wary of friends who spoke of the Holy Spirit too much. In high school we even had a name for them, we called them Holy Rollers. As my relationship with the Lord has grown and become more mature, more real I have found that I have a completely different view of the Holy Spirit, so I was anxious to read this book.

The book strives to give you a proper understanding of the Holy Spirit's role in our daily life. Many people see God as a vindictive God that is out to get us, which is not the true picture of who He is. The Holy Spirit was sent to comfort and help us, to guide us and be our friend. To be with us forever.

The book is divided into seven parts, which makes it easy to read. The parts are entitled as follows:
Part One. Who is This Person? Helper. Friend and God.
Part Two. What is this Person Like? His personality. His Soul.
Part Three. The Grand Entry. Wind and Fire. Pentecost
Part Four. The Power Transfer. Immersed. Three Baptisms, Three Witnesses.Empowered to Live.
Part Five. The Giver. Acts of Grace. The Discerning Gifts.The Declarative Gifts. The Dynamic Gifts.
Part Six. The Language of Friendship. Why the Controversy? The Word and The Language. Beneficial Language. The Choice is yours.
Part Seven. The God You need to Know. Your New Best Friend.
I found parts four and five to be most interesting. Morris explains his view on Charismatic Christianity. He talks about the spiritual gifts of speaking in tongues, the gift of discernment, the gift of faith, the gift of healing and the gifts of miracles. He shows how these gifts are available to all Christians, not just those in ministry, or some type of Super Christian (none of those exists!). Not everyone is going to agree on his take, but a book is just a persons interpretation of the Bible, not the Bible itself.
The advanced review copy I received to review did not include a study/discussion guide that will be in the book when it is released in August. I think this book would make a basis for a lively, interesting group study and discussion. I was provided this book from Waterbrook, the publisher for no charge in return for my review.

Eat Your Peas, Faithfully.

Words by Cheryl Karpen. Art by Sandy Fougner is a lovely little gift type book that I was delighted to receive to review by Thomas Nelson's Blog for Books program, booksneeze. I read this book aloud to my husband last night as he drifted off to sleep, what positive words to hear as you turn in for the evening.

I have several young women in my life that I would love to give this book to as a gift. I will consider buying more of these, and definitely recommend this book for anyone looking for a gift for a friend.The art work is bright, fresh and simple. I would even consider framing a few of the pages because I think they are just that special. The entire book is a very uplifting and happy experience. I love that it is all based on the word of God, not a bunch of new age mumbo jumbo. I was thinking by the title this might be geared toward a younger age set, but the "eat your peas" is something the authors Mom always told her, thus the name of the book. I am glad I chose this book to review and happily recommend it as a book you should read, making it a great gift. I received it free from the publisher, but this in no way affected my review.

Tandem by Tracey Bateman

Tandem, a novel, by Tracey Bateman is published by Waterbrook Press and was provided to me free of charge in exchange for a review. I honestly can't give a review because I couldn't bring myself to read this book. It is my very first DNF (did not finish) since beginning to do book reviews. I have held on to it for a long time, thinking perhaps I could "talk" myself into reading it despite my dislike for the subject matter, but I just could not get past the fact that I am reiviewing books for what touts itself as a Christian publisher and the storyline is vampire centered. A total sellout to me and one I am just not comfortable with. So, my reivew is that I can't recommend this book. I can't. How in all seriousness can a Christian publisher even consider such a thing? Award winning author or not, I feel another avenue is needed to sell this book. That is my opinion.

In Constant Prayer By Robert Benson

In Constant Prayer is a book in the ancient practices series by Robert Benson, published by Thomas Nelson. I chose to read it because I had read about the practice of praying the office in another book I had read, I am not really familiar with the practice and thought this book might help me to be more informed.

Praying the office is a pattern of worship and prayer that is offered to God at specific times throughout the day, it is meant to be used by all of the faithful of the church so that the church might be continuous in their prayers and always focusing on God. By church I refer to the mostly Catholic church, I on the other hand was brought up in a protestant, evangelical church and had never even heard of the office until a few years ago.Even upon reading this book it wasn't until the last chapter that I found exactly what the office is exactly. I sought this book to learn more about the office, all I really learned about it is that it is methodical and a very different approach to prayer than anything I have ever been taught.

Benson did give some definitions of exactly what the office is. I am now informed as to the mechanics of the office. Which is a somewhat good definition, because to me the office is just a mechanical repetition of the same rote of a listing of words, day in and day out. You can change your verses in the middle, but the beginning and the end remain the same. If, by some chance, God happens to show up during one of these perfunctory prayers, you are blessed. But the idea I came away with was that you really don't expect God to be there. That is not my idea of prayer. Perhaps I am missing the meaning.

I tried praying the office. I felt practiced and like I was reciting poetry, Rehearsed and stiff. Perhaps if I did it long enough I would see a benefit, but so far it has not been a life changing experience.

The book however, was helpful. If you are interested in what the office is all about it will help you to see a bit about it. It will not make it totally clear, but I expect God has to open your eyes for that.

This book was provided to me free by the publisher in exchange for my unbiased review.

slow going

only kind of book i am reading these days....
but you will get no complaints from this Gram ;)