Reading, Writing & Pondering

How do you define Love? How do you find lasting love in our modern culture? Love defined by Kristen Clark and Bethany Baird have written a book to guide single women in to seeing love and relationships the way God sees them. Love Defined is divided in to five parts: Happily Ever Disaster, Bringing Back True Love, Single and Waiting to Mingle, Working Through the Nitty Gritty, and Living Well on this side of the Alter. Clark and Baird are sisters who write throughout this book about their own experiences, as well as the experiences of other people they know. They aren't relationship experts but they are the founders of GirlDefined Ministries and previously authored a book called, Girl Defined . Throughout this book, they share from God's Word as well as their experiences. At the end of each chapter, there is a short study to help readers grow and remember what they are learning. At the end of the book, there are two appendixes: Finding Freedom from Past Sexual Sin and Fif...

It is a rare treat to read a marriage book that captivates me as much as Confessions of a Happily Married Man by Joshua L. Rogers. I read much of this book in one day. In Confessions of a Happily Married Man , Rogers shares much of the story of his marriage coming from his heart. After the introduction, written by Greg Smalley from Focus on the Family, Rogers shares how he met his wife, Raquel, fell in love and were married within 9 months. Throughout the book, Rogers shares story after story of how God worked in their relationship to grow them both up to be more like Jesus to each other. Interestingly enough, with God, they had started working on each other shortly after Rogers proposed and his future wife accepted the proposal. Rogers candidly shares about how the couple worked out their issues around mundane things such as chores to how they worked out much bigger challenges such as in-law challenges, health issues, having children and a cross-country move. At the end of this b...

One of the most important thing to me in life is good relationships. At the same time, I think good relationships can be one of the hardest things to maintain in life. If you are looking for ways to help make all kinds of relationships be the best they can be, consider reading Real Life Love by Michael Gibson. Real Life Love is divided in to three parts: Growing in Love for Yourself, Growing in Love for God, and Growing in Love for Others. Gibson shares practical advice throughout the book that he gleaned while studying under his grandfather, relationship expert Gary Smalley. At one point, Gibson says in the book that the entire point of the book is to show you that you can have a true love that is better than what the world tells you to settle for. You are not doomed to a life in which your relationships really don't mean anything. Instead, readers glean seven principles to help their relationships be the best they can be and they also learn that real love comes from Jesus....

I grew up singing a song in Sunday School that told others "They will know we are Christians by our love." But what does that kind of love look like in our Christian lives? Becky Koptizke talks about how we can love those around us in Generous Love . Generous Love is indeed a practical and easy to use book. Kopitzke shares what a blessing is and how to bless those around us with the four P's: Presence, Possessions Perspective and Prayer. For each of those four P's, Kopitzke shares a list of 50 ways to make each one a practical way to love someone around you. She also shares stories from her life and those around her that gives examples of how to love. Then at the end of each chapter she includes questions to answer as you dig deeper. Generous Love offers a lot of solid practical advice and encouragement for loving others well. I enjoyed Kopitzke's down-to-earth writing style. I think she offers a lot of solid advice and information from the Bible. She also...