Cole's 10th Birthday

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Fully Alive

"Fully Alive: A Journey that will Change your Life" By Ken Davis As president of Dynamic Communications International, Ken Davis teaches speaking skills to ministry professionals and corporative executives. In this book, Davis candidly opens up about his own struggles to live "fully alive"- moving beyond what culture teaches us about happiness and embracing a spiritual wholeness that can not be found here on earth. Davis provides personal stories to show how even though is spoke on God's love to thousands of people, he struggled with his own personal relationship with Jesus. Davis saw a need to change his life physically (through diet and exercise), spiritually and emotionally. The book outlines practical steps to help anyone achieve a life more fully lived. Too many times, I have read books and felt overwhelmed with the advice suggested- who has time to do all that? However, in "Fully Alive", Davis does a great job of keeping the steps practical and reminding readers to just take it one step at a time. He shows his own struggle to keep moving forward and how persistence and prayer finally got him to higher ground. There are several thought-provoking passages that I am hoping to use in formation classes with my own parish, especially the one where Davis shows God's use of the "original social media" (think Moses and the IRock) in comparison to today's technology craze. He demonstrates that God used social media to convey information but when it came to building a relationship, Jesus (man in the flesh, personal connection) was the only way to go! While Davis is generous is showing his flaws, he is also generous is tooting his own horn. The reader in consistently reminded how rich, well-known, sought after and how he owns his own airplanes. It gets a little distracting. Overall, this is a great volume and would definitely recommend it. Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Tough Guys and Drama Queens: How not to get blindsided by your child's teen years by Mark Gregston is a MUST READ for ALL parents. Gregston has lived with teen for more than 38 years at his residential counseling center and has turned his years of experience into this easy to read volume. Gregston applies biblical truths into practical tips on how to listen to your teens and recognize the ever changing world that they are faced with. Part 1 deals with "What's so different about today's culture?" Not only addressing the changes in technology and media, this section also awaken parents to the mistakes we might be making by "overparenting" and, therefore, raising under-responsible youth. The book then moves on to parenting practices to avoid and those that really work in parts 2 and 3. Gregston uses real life examples from his counseling center to demonstrate his points. Every parent wants to protect their child. That's natural. It's also natural for us to want to give them more than we had as a child. The problem with both of these tendencies, is that it is easy to overprotect and overgive our children, leading to naïve, irresponsible and entitled young adults. I love that Gregston not only gives real life examples of what doesn't work and why it doesn't, but also shows better ways to connect with our children. Gregston talks about building relationships with our teens and why that is more important now than ever. We want to raise responsible, confident young adults and the only way to do that is to turn over control to them during their teen years and to let them make mistakes without judging them. As parents, we spend our children's elementary years pumping them full of our ideas. During the teen years we must give them the chance to try those ideas out on their own and must trust that we've done our best. Parents must be engaged with our teens and build a solid relationship with them so that as mistakes happen, and they will, our teens will want to turn to us.As a Catholic mother of two, I've always felt it best to parent on the side of conservative. While I still feel that to be true, Gregston has shown me practical ways to expand my limits while still maintaining our family's values. **Disclaimer: I was given an copy of this book from Booksneeze in exchange for my honest opinion, no other compensation was given.

Cole's First Communion

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The Truth about Forgiveness by John MacArthur

The Truth about Forgiveness by John MacArthur Don't let the small size deceive you; at only 114 pages, this book is a huge gem. For instance, take this little quote from page 14, "Guilt is a spiritual pain in the soul that tells us something is evil and needs to be confronted and cleansed." WOW! this book is honest. While I was expecting a text to tell me more about how I should forgive others, I found an eye-opening look at how God alone can forgive sins. I appreciate that MacArthur is brief but honest in his approach. Not only is the book full of scripture, but it talks about how those scripture verses affect us today. He looks at how Paul (nearly 2000 years ago) outlines the social problems that still plague us today. But he doesn't leave it there. MacArthur delves into the beauty of confession and at relying on God to lift you up. A priest once told me that sin is like a black ball in your soul. The longer you hold on to it, the larger it will grow. It's only through confessing your sin that you can turn it over to God and allow his to fill that void with his love and Grace. MacArthur affirms that time and again. I will end the same way the book does, with this quote from 1 John 1:9, "We confess our sin so that the Lord can cleanse our conscience and give us joy." Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”