​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)

​In her first book, Gay Girl, Good God, Jackie Hill Perry shares her incredible testimony of God’s redeeming grace as he helped her overcome her struggles with same sex attraction. A childhood including an inactive father and abuse at the hands of someone she trusted, brokenness was a theme of the early part of her life. This eventually result in her pursuing same sex relationships, embracing masculinity instead of womanhood, and drug abuse. But one night, while she was home alone watching TV, God got a hold of her heart. Without a church or a preacher, God revealed to her that her sin would be her death and that she needed to repent and change her ways. And that’s exactly what she did. She broke up with her girlfriend, slowly started to change her clothes, and started going to church. She eventually met and married Preston Perry, a man who also had brokenness in his past. They are now the parents of two little girls. Although Jackie knows that struggles with temptation will be an ongoing battle, she also knows that power of God’s grace in her life, if we choose to pursue. She also addresses working through same sex attraction from a biblical perspective. Jackie’s testimony is powerful and moving and her insights into living in victory over sin is something that everyone can relate to. Aside from its biblically grounded perspective on same sex attraction, the story of the redemption in Jackie’s life makes this a book that I would recommend to practically anyone. 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 

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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

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.

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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

​My mom had talked about Chapman’s original book about the five love languages since I was young. But it was only recently that I discovered that there was a version written specifically to single adults. When I found out about it, I was so excited to read it. When I finally got it, I couldn’t put it down. I finished it in two days. These concepts about love languages are something that every person needs to read. But I believe it’s especially significant to learn this in your singles years, because it will build into any future dating relationships and in marriage. I absolutely recommend this to any of my single friends, and for anyone that isn’t single, there is probably an edition of this book written for you. Do a little research and get it. You won’t regret it ~ Bethel

Love is expressed is many different ways, but these expressions don’t always mean the same thing to different people. Something that is meaningful to one person may not be to another. This can make it hard for us to figure out how to best express love. This doesn’t just apply to romantic relationships. This can make things difficult for all relationships: family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, roommates, and the list could go on. It’s so hard to know how to relate well to each other when we struggle to express love in a way that others can relate to. This can seem to be an especially hard struggle for single adults, especially those who haven’t ever been married. It makes us ask the question: how can I learn to love others better as a single adult?

​In his book, The 5 Love Languages (Singles Edition), Gary Chapman walks us through the five “languages” in which all human communicate love, and how singles can apply these love languages to all relationships in our lives. Some feel most loved through words of affirmation. Some feel and express love best through receiving or giving gifts. Some feel most loved through acts of service. Some feel loved through spending quality time with those they care about. And some feel and express love best through physical touch. Out of each of these languages, everyone has a primary love language in which makes them feel the most loved. But understanding and learning to communicate all five are important for us to find ways to love others more. Chapman walks through what these love languages look like lived out with parents and siblings, as well as those that may be looking toward romantic relationships in the future. He also talks about relating to roommates, classmates, and coworkers. He even walks through single parents loving their children better. All of this is presented in friendly and relevant writing style that anyone can understand.

​These truths about love languages are profound, especially in a day and age when we are quick to make things about ourselves. But this book is a great tool to help us reach out beyond our own love language into the other languages so that we can love others the way that Christ did. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is currently single, or anyone who wants to figure out how to relate to singles better. If you don’t fit into those categories, there is probably an edition of this book written for you. Get your copy today!

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