Tag Archives: devotional

Review: The Friendship Initiative by Amberly Neese

Book Review and Content, Christian World-View, Nonfiction, , , ,
The Friendship Initiative by Amberly Dawn Neese

The Friendship Initiative: 31 Days of Loving and Connecting Like Jesus
Amberly Neese
Abingdon Press
Published May 4, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Friendship Initiative

We long for connection. Despite faster internet connections, better WiFi hotspots, and more ways to stay connected than ever before, our lives still feel less and less connected. We desire healthy friendships but feel less equipped to make and foster them. In THE FRIENDSHIP INITIATIVE by Amberly Neese, we dive into the friendships and connections Jesus made in the Bible and discover 31 keys for building relationships. Each devotion includes Scripture, a devotional reflection, practical application ideas, and suggestions for reflection and prayer.

Keys for relationship building include: exercising grace asking/answering questions having compassion exercising humility being present reaching out to those who are different and more Readers will…

Find encouragement and practical help for connecting with others in their everyday lives. Focus on loving others as Jesus did. Discover 31 Keys for building relationships.

My Review

I kind of have mixed feelings about this book.

I liked the discussion questions best. They were really deep and often asked me to examine things that I definitely needed to look at in my life. So I felt like those were really right on for me and very revealing about what’s happening in my life and my heart.

The author’s personal stories were good, too. They were entertaining and fun, but they explored real issues. I think that style would make a lot of readers feel at ease and feel connected to the author.

The scripture verses in each chapter usually involved Jesus interacting with someone and then discussed a facet of what he did and why we should emulate that. I thought those were good, usually pretty basic things, pretty solid stuff. It’s good to be reminded of those things.

Some of the examples and the personal stories connected the scripture examples directly to friendship and how friendships and connections are made. But others were kind of more personal or more specifically for a person’s relationship with God– which are great things to learn about, I just felt like there were chapters that didn’t relate to friendship really, and that made me wonder why that chapter was included in this study? I felt like they needed a stronger connection to helping foster friendship and connections to be in the book.

Another thing I also thought was interesting was the way the book focused so much on stories from the Bible in which Jesus had these one-off encounters with people. Each story selected was a powerful story. I guess sometimes it felt like the book was equating being friendly with friendships. I think I expected the study to maybe focus more on examples of friendship from the Bible or maybe Proverbs about relationships? I’m not sure.

The thing that drew me to the book was the idea that I could learn how to make deeper connections with people or to have healthier friendships. I think the discussion questions really nailed me on some things. I think I wanted that same level of depth from some other parts of the book, though.

All in all, I feel like this is a pretty solid study for someone maybe newer to faith or looking for some core lessons on how Jesus treated people.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
I think this author is white, but I’m not sure.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Based on Bible verses and assumes the reader is pursuing a Christian life.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support running this blog. I received a free copy of THE FRIENDSHIP INITIATIVE in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Girl Talk by Lois Walfrid Johnson

Book Review and Content, Christian World-View, Nonfiction, , , , ,

Girl Talk: 52 Weekly Devotions by FaithGirlz
Lois Walfrid Johnson
Zonderkidz
Published May 4, 2010

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

A while back I reviewed a girls’ bible study that left me disappointed—both in the appropriateness of the subject matter for the age group and in some of the teaching. Since then I’ve been on the hunt for a devotional or study that my eleven-year-old and I could do together, something that addresses some of the issues she faces on a daily and weekly basis.

Girl Talk is set up in chapters, one for each week. Each chapter begins with a story in which the main character faces an obstacle or choice. Sometimes the story ends with the dilemma unsolved, and the questions instruct the reader to share what she thinks should happen next and why. Other times the character makes a choice (good or bad) and the reader is asked to evaluate the outcome.

The issues raised definitely fall within the kinds of things my daughter and I frequently discuss. The girls in the stories face issues with friends at school or bullying. They struggle with family situations and challenges with parents or siblings.

Each Girl Talk story is followed by a series of discussion questions meant to be tackled over each day through the rest of the week. The chapters begin with a scripture that addresses a key issue from the story and end with a written prayer also relating to the topic from the chapter.

If you do the devotional this way, it should only take a few minutes to read the story and answer a question on each day. If you wanted to use the book for a more concentrated study, I think it would make a great source for a weekly meeting, as the questions all relate to each other and gradually lead to a conclusion.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with this book, and I’ve already talked to my daughter about doing the lessons together. She’s really excited. The only thing I can think to say that I wish was done differently was the fact that culturally it felt very bland. I think it could have been cool to see more of an ethnic feel and some diversity to the characters featured in the stories. Other than that, I loved it and definitely recommend it to girls looking for gentle but grounded, practical devotions.

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12

Cultural Elements
A few of the girls featured have ethnic names. One is Chinese, a couple are Spanish. Beyond this, the stories read pretty generically in terms of race or culture. It would have been cool to see them infused with a more diverse feel. I recognize they’re really short stories, and there’s not a lot of time for developing setting and character, but I think it could have had more of a diverse feel than it did.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
See review. The devotional explores real life situations and girls who want to behave in a manner consistent with Christian values. The lessons instruct girls using Bible verses and prayer.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
In one of the stories, a girl’s mother drinks too much and neglects her younger sister.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.