Book Review: Praying the Scriptures for your Adult Children

Jodie Berndt has written other books in her "Praying the Scriptures" series of books, but this is the first and only book I have read. While I'd like to read some of the others, I was drawn to this book. As parents, we are 'at that age' where our oldest will be heading to college soon and several friends have already moved into that next stage of life where children are either just leaving for college or jobs, or have already left. I just can't believe how quickly time has flown by since our firstborn was a newborn!
How important it is to not only raise our children in the light of God's Word, but also to continue to pray for them as they prepare to move out on their own. What better heartfelt words to pray than those right out of the Bible. This book goes well beyond this stage (career, marriage, health issues, etc.), but it's just the stage we are personally coming up on that I tend to be focusing on.
I know it will be difficult to take our eldest to college and drive away; makes me tear up even thinking about it! Yet, I/we trust God to work His will in his life; praying Scriptures over him is a reminder that he is God's first. We will never stop being his parents, even if our roll as parents changes.Whether you have a child who is floundering or "knows" where he's going, making Godly choices or is following a wayward path, good health or poor health, experiencing things we never wanted them to dealt with or living out her life for others--Praying the Scriptures offer insights and personal stories from others who are praying for their children. Personalized prayers with Scripture are included at the end of each chapter. May this book be a blessing to you and in your prayer life.

Book Review: Adored - 365 Devotions for Young Women

Adored: 365 Devotions for Young Women is a beautiful hard cover devotional book. I'll admit it: I'm drawn to beautiful covers and hard cover books! Considering this is a read-every-day-for-a-year book, it was a wise decision to make it hard cover. Each day's devotion is a Bible verse and a short commentary on the verse and/or how to apply that verse to middle/high school. While I'd prefer more Scripture each day, each Bible verse does carry it's own beauty, wisdom, and truth. Perhaps focusing on a verse a day is just what some young ladies need to grown their desire for God's Word. I'd consider this age-appropriate for grade 7 through grade 10. It does discuss bullying, dating, social media and friendships (among many other topics); depends where your daughter fits into the topics at hand as to whether it will be more or less relevant to her life. The Scripture is always relevant; perhaps not all the topics it's related to (ex. social media).

Book Review: Brave Beauty ~ Lynn Cowell

Brave Beauty, by Lynn Cowell, is a short chapter semi-devotional. It contains 100 mini chapters that talk about or tell stories about relevant things in the life of a middle school-aged girl. There are some self-quizzes and very short fill-in journal entries (not in every chapter though) with thought-provoking questions. Our daughter loves this kind of thing. My only disappointment come with the fact that it isn't really a devotional book. Most chapters reference a verse of Scripture that is applicable to the chapter topic. In addition, each chapter ends with a very short prayer. However, I was disappointed to see so little Scripture in light of the book's purpose (as stated on the back):
-See who God says you are
-Talk about tough stuff
-Discover how people of the Bible handled hard things
-Learn more about God and how He helps us
-Explore how God's words can help us become fearless and brave.

We purchased a devotional book for our daughter to go alongside this book. In all, Brave Beauty addresses topics that 8-12 year-old girls would find relevant and easily opens discussions between friends, and between mother/daughter.