Although I have enjoyed and been inspired by all of the books released by Kristen and Bethany, I believe that this book is by far their best yet. In certain respects, I feel like this book was both written for me and could have been written by me with my life stories inserted into it. I don’t know if I have ever experienced that while reading any book written by other authors. The challenge of trusting God with the twists and turns of your story is a message that will resonate with every reader that chooses to take its message to heart. Being a part of the launch team and helping plan the launch of the book has just been the icing on the cake. This is a book I cannot recommend enough ~ Bethel

Change. Disappointment. Rejection. Worry. All of us have experienced these detours from the narratives we had planned for our lives. No matter how well we plan things out or how good our intentions may be, life is bound to throw us some curveballs. Knowing how to navigate these changes is hard and often painful, especially when we are dealing with major life changes. We want to believe that God is good, but it can be hard to understand His plan or feel His presence when we feel the rug ripped out from under us again and again. It makes us ask the question: How can I learn to fully trust God when life doesn’t go the way I expected?

In their book Not Part of the Plan, authors Kristen Clark and Bethany Beal dive deep into helping their readers navigate the twists and turns of their story while trusting God fully. Kristen and Bethany open up in a way they never have before about their stories not going according to plan. Through Bethany’s years of unfulfilling longings for marriage and Kristen’s years of struggling with infertility, they discovered that even when life doesn’t go according to plan, God is good, ever-present, and can bring us hope and peace amid heartache and disappointment. Pairing their stories with Scriptural and practical truth, this book is designed to help young women to work through past and present detours in their stories. Each chapter includes prayers, reflection questions, and challenges to help them dive deeper. This book is honest and real in a time in history when everyone has faced challenges due to changes from a worldwide pandemic. This is a book that every young woman needs to read. Get your copy today!
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*I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of this review

Note: This is an affiliate link, which will allow me to earn a small commission from every sale made at no cost to you

Check out my reviews of Kristen and Bethany's other books:
Girl Defined
Love Defined
Sex, Purity, and the Longings of A Girl's Heart
Shine Bright

To learn more about my next book, Redeeming the Beast, click here

In their devotional, Shine Bright, sisters Kristen Clark and Bethany Beal help young women get into God’s Word with 60 days of Scriptures, journaling prompts, and other spiritual exercises. Sharing stories and insights that are both new and familiar to the followers of their ministry GirlDefined, Kristen and Bethany connect the Scriptures they share with real-life experiences in a way that is engaging and relevant. Through the variety of Scriptures and topics they discuss, you are given a picture of what it looks like to become a woman defined by God’s Word, which will give the readers the ability to “shine bright” for Christ, if they choose to embrace these truths. This book is well-written and well-designed (the cover is so cute!). Designed to encourage the reader to build consistent Bible study habits, this book would a great option for any teen girls or young women that want to develop the discipline of doing devotions. Get your copy today!
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*I received a copy from the publisher for the purpose of this review as part of my involvement in the book’s launch team

NOTE: There have been issues with their book distributors and keeping the books stocked. If you are interested in ordering the book to support the launch (which I totally recommend), their publisher Baker Books is currently running a sale of 30% off and free shipping. For more info, click here

​In this segment, Josh Taylor of the Blimey Cow YouTube Channel and I discuss my book Beyond Your Wardrobe, how modesty is about our attitude as much as it is our outfit, and how the purity's movement's insistence on presenting a list of rules caused more problems than it solved

To learn more about my book, Beyond Your Wardrobe, click here

To watch the documentary on Joshua Harris' book on Amazon Prime I Survived I Kissed Dating Goodbye, click here: https://amzn.to/3a3425p
​(This is an affiliate link, meaning that I earn a small commission at no charge to you if you rent or purchase any product through this link)

Make sure to go check Josh's channel, Blimey Cow: https://www.youtube.com/user/blimeycow

Loyalty is sometimes hard to understand and is often hard to practice. When we get into difficult situations, we tend to want to look out for ourselves or do what’s best for us instead of sticking by someone going through a hard time. We sometimes let our fears and worries get the best of us when it comes to following through. It seems to be the way of the world that tween and teen girls are growing up in. This makes many of these girls ask the question: Does God want me to be loyal, even when it’s hard?
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In her new True Girl Bible Study, Ruth: Becoming a Girl of Loyalty, Dannah Gresh breaks down and walks through the story of Ruth to help tween girls learn how to understand and practice biblical loyalty in our world today. With the clever use of graphics, fill-in-the-blanks, space for underlining Scriptures, puzzles, and examples relevant to them, girls will be engaged as the story of Ruth is presented to them in style and format that is palatable for their age. They are given tools to help them understand what the Scriptures say so they can figure out how to apply it to their lives. Through it all, girls will be reminded that when as they learn what it means to be loyal, God will always be loyal to us because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. If you have a daughter age 7-12, this is the perfect study for her. Get her a copy today!

* I received a copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of this review

To read my review of Dannah Gresh's book Lies Girls Believe, click here
To read my review of Dannah Gresh's book True Girl, click here

To help promote my book, I am going to be giving a sneak peek of the contents, one this week and one next week. Each one will be a section of a chapter that will hopefully give you a taste of what the book is about. This first sneak peak is the first few pages of Chapter 1 - "Lies We Believe About Physical Beauty". It features a story from my college trip to New York City. If you enjoy it, make sure to like and share it to spread the word. Thanks ~ Bethel

While I was a student at a Christian college, I got to spend a week in New York City for a seminar class. That trip was an experience I will never forget. I had never been to New York, and it was only the second time in my life I had traveled by airplane. This class called “Exegeting the City” helped us learn how to make Christianity work in an urban context. I learned so much on that trip, but there is one experience that stands out from the others because it taught me a lot about what the world perceives about fashion and beauty.
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One of the points that our professor was trying to communicate to us is that rich people are people, just like you and me, even if there was a cultural gap between us. To help us bridge the gap, we were given a special assignment. Together we walked to one of the fanciest retail stores in the United States, Bergdorf Goodman’s. We were given instructions to go into the store, find the formal clothing department, and try those clothes on. The men went to the men’s store across the street and the ladies when into the women’s store. Even before we got to the formal wear department, we all felt like a fish out of water. We finally got to the formal gowns, it was like we were on a completely different planet. We looked through the dresses together, but most of us were scared about trying them on since we would have to ask the attendants. I was quite nervous myself, but I had been preparing myself to do this since I had a friend tell me about this assignment. So I was the brave one that asked first. I will never forget the contrast in the attendants’ reactions. The first one was polite and helpful, as would be expected. She even let me know that the dress was available in other colors. But the other one gave me a glance that said, “You don’t have enough money to be touching that dress.” I guess my clothes had given away that I was not part of the first percent clientele that they usually served. But that glance of judgment based on my clothes is something I have never forgotten.

​The nice attendant helped me to my fitting room and eventually, the other girls worked up the courage to ask as well. The fitting room was the size of my current bedroom. (Ok, maybe not, but it was still huge). It even had one of those round modeling podiums. The dress I picked was a silver strapless mermaid with layered fabric. Although it was pretty, it almost seemed like the kind of dress I could find in the prom department of a local department store. I’m sure the materials were superior quality, but it didn’t seem like the kind of dress I would search for in a store like this. I took some pictures and took the dress off. Up to this point, I don’t think I had taken notice of the price. But I wanted to make sure I documented it, so I finally looked at the price tag: $4,330. I remember thinking to myself: who in their right mind would pay this much for a dress like this? Part of me started to think that the rude attendant had a point.

Addressing the Lies

I believe this sales attendant had bought into the many lies that the culture fed her about a women’s value. In our culture today, we believe a lot of things that just aren’t true, whether we realize it or not. Buying into them will cause us to live our lives apart from what God has in store for us. So many of the lies we believe can be as a result of deception from our own emotions or our struggles with shame. Either way, it makes us harder for those of us that are trying to live our lives in light of the truth.
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To me, some of the most pressing lies we face have to do with our self-worth and our physical appearance. This is an area of life that can very easily be influenced by the father of lies, making us question who we are and why our lives even matter. Because the beauty standards that society puts before us are nearly impossible to obtain, we spend our time chasing something we can never reach and therefore are never satisfied. If we don’t learn how to have our identity firmly rooted in Christ, we will never find the heart motivation behind the need for modesty in our world today. So we are going to begin this journey by walking through several different lies many of us have come to believe about our physical appearance...

Like what you read so far? Then make plans to order your copy of Beyond Your Wardrobe today! Preorder is available now for the ebook through any of the following links:

Paperback will be available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and more by February 21, 2020.