___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

​Mentorship has become a lost concept in the church today. When we do think about it, we imagine a rigid relationship all about rule keeping and meeting for coffee weekly. That doesn’t really appeal to most of us, especially in the millennial generation. As a result of this picture in our heads, we often tend to stick with deeper friendships only with those who have similar life situations to our own, all the while neglecting the benefits of relationships with generations older and younger than us. Meanwhile, we struggle with facing everyday challenges in our spiritual lives but feel that we have no way to navigate them. This often leaves us feeling so alone in our struggles or turning to peers that don’t have the experience to help us through our struggles.

​In her book, Adorned, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth shares through teachings from Titus 2 about the importance of women living out the gospel together by creating a culture of older women mentoring younger women. Beginning with the challenge of finding the courage to pursue both finding younger women to invest in as well as finding older women to invest in you, she begins to break down the heart of the doctrine of Titus 2, eventually breaking down each concept in the passage about what women, young and old, are supposed to be learning from each other. From reverence and abstaining from slander, to purity and self-control, Nancy spends individual chapters getting to heart of each concept and applying it to older and younger women alike. All the while, Nancy paints a powerful picture of how much better our lives would be and how much stronger the church would be if more women would take the challenge of living out the beauty of the gospel together.  Her teaching is so theologically strong, but is understandable and accessible to everyone. This book is one that all adult women in the church need to read. This book is also an excellent Bible study option with a study guide and video curriculum available, one that I personally participated in. Get your copy today!

If you like this book sounds like a good book for you, check out my reviews on some of Nancy's other books:
Lies Women Believe
Lies Young Women Believe (co-authored with Dannah Gresh)

​This is a book I was not expecting to read. But it proved to be exactly what I needed. In fact, I was hesitant to read it. This is because I have read a few books on prayer, and none of them were all that helpful. Even the book written by the Kendrick brothers for the War Room movie did not prove to help me improve my prayer life or prayer strategies as I hoped it would. This book proved itself to be different than the rest. It was relevant and powerful in every way. I read it at a time that I had so many issues weighing down on my heart, I didn’t know how to begin to pray through them. This book changed the way that I understand prayer. It also introduced me to the Priscilla Shirer as an author. She has a great writing style that is honest and relevant. I would recommend this book to any woman who wants to learn more about strategic prayer. I also look forward to reading and reviewing more books by Priscilla in the future ~ Bethel

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Prayer. It’s such a common word, but it is so common to misunderstand what this word can do. We often think of it as a conversation with God. It can often turn into a list of requests and tend to happened most consistently during times of trouble. It seldom happens consistently during times of normalcy and peace. We rarely see it as the weapon that it is, a weapon of defense against the forces of evil one, the one that seeks to destroy our faith by overwhelming us with the troubles of this life. We are often so burdened by these troubles that we fail to see the weapon that is right under our noses. But we also struggle with knowing where to start. It makes us ask the question: How can we learn ways to strategize our prayers to help stand against the devil’s  schemes?

​In her book, Fervent, Priscilla Shirer shares with women how they can pray specifically and strategically. Instead of taking about the in’s and out’s of prayer, she shares about ways that we can make our prayers more intentional to the issues at the heart of our lives. Each chapter walks through different areas of our lives where it’s important to develop strategies, shares practical insights on how to develop your own personalized plan, and shares Scriptures to help shape your prayers. Priscilla also shares personal stories to illustrate how her life was shaped by her prayers or lack of prayer. Starting with prayers for passion in our spiritual zeal, she covers nine other categories, including prayers of focus on the real enemy, prayers for family, prayers for the past, and prayers for relationships. At the heart of all of it is to help each Christian woman become the warrior that God has enable her to be by surrendering all the things we struggle with and allowing God to do what only He can do. All of this is done in a writing style that is fresh and relatable. There are even tear out cards to help you start writing down your own prayer strategies. This book is an amazing tool that can be used by any woman, regardless of age or stage of life you are in. Get your copy today!

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Purity. It’s made to feel like a dirty word in our culture, because it is something that our culture refuses to honor. And even those of us that try to honor it eventually come to realize that the impurity of the culture around us has seeped into our hearts and minds. We have a hard trying to wrap our minds around the topics of purity and sexuality in a God-honoring way, but we are afraid to ask the questions that will help us find answers and freedom. We are scared that we are the only one that has questions or struggles, so we clam up and are left in fear. It makes us ask the question: how can I learn the truth about God-defined sexuality?

​In their newest book, Sex, Purity, and the Longings of a Girls Heart, sisters Kristen Clark and Bethany Beal help us find the beauty and freedom that comes from choosing to pursue God-honoring sexuality. Helping us see that we all have experienced sexual brokenness and struggles with lust, they help us identify where our culture has steered us wrong by identifying four lies about our sexual design and challenging us to replace them with truths from God’s word about the way He designed our sexuality. They offer tools for combating temptations and the battles within your mind and take time to address many specific questions about “hush hush” topics and questions that they asked their readers during a survey. And finally, they help us see that God has help us walk the path of freedom from past and present struggles with our sexuality, helping all of us see that God can redeem anything in His time, including our sexuality, if we choose to walk in faith and surrender to Him. This book is much needed and powerful. It’s the kind of book I wished I had as a teenager. Kristen and Bethany are honest and relevant in their writing style, and have a genuine heart to help girls and women get back to the women God intended them to be. This is a book that I recommend to women and girls about 16 and older. Get your copy today!

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher as part of my involvement in the book's launch team and for the purpose of this review 

​
To check out my review of Kristen and Bethany's first book, Girl Defined, click here
To check out my review of their second book, Love Defined, click here

The release of this book had me quite excited. Not only are the other books in this series excellent, but I know that if anyone knows how to connect with and relate to tween girls, it’s Dannah Gresh. This book is an incredible resource to parents and youth leaders that work with tween girls. And I believe this book to be a game changer. It will be amazing to see a group of girls grow up that will have the opportunity to read this book as tween, Lies Young Women Believe as teenagers, and Lies Women Believe as adults. Because the younger we are when we learn to replace lies with the truth, the stronger the next generation will become in standing up for the truth and therefore impacting their world with that truth and the love of Christ. Therefore, I cannot recommend this book or this whole series enough! ~ Bethel

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lies. They are all around us. No matter where we go in our world today, we cannot escape them. And it seems that they are being fed to us at younger ages. Lies about who we are. Lies about who we should become. Lies about the people around us. It makes it hard for kids to grow up in a world where lies are being presented as truth with no way to figure out what truth really is. This seems especially true for girls, with the pressures to be beautiful, smart, and popular. If they are unable to learn the truth when they are kids, they will build their life on lies that will be so much harder to detangle when they are older. It makes us ask the question: how can we help girls today learn the truth that will set them free?

In her book, Lies Girls Believe, Dannah Gresh, along with help from editor Nancy Demoss Wolgemuth, walks through lies that tween girls struggle to believe and help them discover the truth that will set them free. In this colorful book with fun illustrations, these girls are given tools to help them figure out how to recognize lies and the “sticky feelings” of guilt that come when we buy into lies. After walking through the nature of lies and where they came from, Dannah addresses 20 lies that are believed by many tween girls (based on surveys of tween girls, and their moms and grandmas). She tells each truth and addresses the lie that is usually believed instead, helping them see that truth really is the better choice. Each of these chapters concludes with a “truth lab” where girls can “test” these truths in their lives. Dannah concludes by showing them ways to figure out other lies in their life so they can replace them with truth. All of this is done in a relatable writing style that will allow the girls to feel like Dannah is their friend and mentor they trust. They are plenty of opportunity to journal and use color pencils to make the book all the more relatable. This book is powerful and will be a game changer for the tween girls of this generation that choose to read it and take to heart what it says. I personally recommend this book for any tween girl between the age of 9-13 years old. Girls and their moms should get their copy today!
​
Moms, make sure to check out A Mom’s Guide to Lies Girls Believe, written just to help you help your daughter on this journey.

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

When I first heard they were updating this book as well as the teen counterpart, I was curious about it. But I originally only pursued reviewing Lies Young Women Believe (co-authored by Dannah Gresh). After some time and research, I was excited to discover that they now have a male counterpart (Lies Men Believe by Robert Wolgemuth) and are about to release a pre-teen counterpart too (Lies Girls Believe by Dannah Gresh). Since there are so many other books in the series and the topic is so close to my heart, I decided it was time to read the book that started it all. When I finally started reading it, I couldn’t put it down. Literally. I finished the 300 page book in one night. I found myself in love with Nancy’s sincerity and passion for helping women of all ages be freed from the lies that hold them back from the life God has in store for them. Although there are a few lies I struggle with myself, I also found that through many recent experiences, some of these lies that used to hold me back no longer have a hold in my life. That made reading this book a milestone in my spiritual journey. It has also helped me strengthen my ability to identify lies for what they are so they have be replaced with truth. I am now looking forward to reading more books by Nancy in the future, as well as other books in the series.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In our culture today, we are constantly being fed lies. Lies about ourselves, lies about God, lies about identity and our relationships with others. These are just the beginning of a list that could fill a whole book in its own right. They cause us to live our lives apart from what God has in store for us in light of His truth. Although everyone regardless of age or gender deals with lies, some many of the lies prevalent in our society are directed at women both young and old. 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 lives our lives in light of the truth, when these lies make it difficult to distinguish the truth from the lies. It makes women ask the question: how can I identify and stand up under the lies that I am believing?

​In the updated version of the bestselling book, Lies Women Believe, Nancy Demoss Wolgemuth explores many of the lies that women believe so that they can discover the truth that sets from free. Identifying with the first woman to be deceived, Nancy encourages women to identity that the lies they have believed are holding them back from the life God has in store for them. After giving some methods for identifying the lies, Nancy walks through a total of 45 different lies believed by women based on surveys. Some of the lies are ones we wouldn’t necessarily say out loud, but have proven to be believed by many of our actions. She includes sections about lies we believe about God, ourselves, our sin, priorities, marriage, children, emotions, and circumstances. There is also a newly added chapter about sexuality that was written by Dannah Gresh (who co-authored Lies Young Women Believe with Nancy). Nancy discusses the root of these lies and with both love and conviction tells us the truth as it is laid out in God’s word. She doesn’t shy away from the difficulties of addressing these deep-seated lies but instead chooses to help the reader root them out in God’s grace so they can live in the freedom of the truth. At the conclusion, Nancy shares an incredible list of truth to combat the lies she addresses, including Scriptures to help you absorb the truth. I appreciate the honesty and integrity of Nancy to stand up for the truth in a society that struggles to distinguish truth from lies, as well as the heart she has for the women she helps. If you are women, either single or married, either young or old, this is a book worth reading. Get your copy today.

To check out my review of the teen version, Lies Young Women Believe, click here