Review: Put Your Dream to the Test: 10 Questions to Help You See it and Seize it by John C. Maxwell

I recently read Put Your Dream to the Test by John C. Maxwell. The premise of the book sounded good to me. Do you have a dream? How do you know if you can achieve it? Follow these steps...Reading the cover, I thought that this would be the gist of this book. What I got was something different. Some really obvious things that tell you that you will be able to achieve your dream were laid out in the book. It was so simple and obvious, I could have written these ten questions myself. I lost interest about halfway through, but I did continue reading it as I was reviewing it for Thomas Nelson Publishing's Booksneeze program and felt they would appreciate a full review. What are some of these questions? Is my dream really my dream? Do I see it clearly? Is it within my control? Do I have a strategy? Do I have people in my life that will help me realize my dream? I guess to someone who really didn't know where to start, this book would be a good jumping off point. But when you already have a dream and realize what you need to do to get there, this book is not for you.

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I receive these books free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their 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.”

Love & Respect: The Love She Most Desires, The Respect He Desperately Needs by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs

This book was first recommended by the pastor at my church who spoke about it in a teaching on the book of Ephesians. When it came out to review, I jumped at the chance. This book builds upon solid biblical principles with respect to how husbands and wives should treat one another. As a wife, I can say that I definitely desire love. I asked my husband about it, and he does want respect. This isn't debatable at all. This book does establish a sound basis to build upon and it is biblically based, so that is a good thing. The only thing that I really didn't like about this book is that Eggerichs seems to make the assumption that women always view things in certain ways and men always view things in other ways. He makes assumptions that are a bit old fashioned about women staying home and taking care of the family while men go out and work. Unfortunately it doesn't always happen that way this day and age. So sometimes the roles are reversed a little and the woman has to work hard all week at work while the man is home with the kids. Love and respect are still relevant in this scenario as I'm sure the man still wants the woman to respect what he is doing at home, but most of the stories he describes are "traditional" husband-wife roles. Again, that's the only problem I had with the book. It's a wonderful read, easy to read and follow, a lot of personal stories that are indeed relevant. The hardest part is putting it into practice. This is a book I'm sure I will pick up and read again numerous times. I will definitely recommend it to friends and family.
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I receive these books free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their 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.”

Your Money God's Way by Amie Streater

Your Money God's Way by Amie Streater is an insightful look at why we, as Christians, have so much difficulty staying out of debt. Ms. Streater outlines seven "counterfeit convictions" that often take us away from where we need to be as Christians. She talks about how to clean up our misconceptions about money and focus on a view that is Biblically sound. God would not want us to be broke, our lives to be chaos, etc. so we should turn to God's word in The Bible to direct us. Many Christians do this, but run across those "counterfeit convictions" and get trapped in that mindset. One thing that really struck me was the discussion about giving. Part of the discussion talks about our intentions and our attitude when giving. The insight that we should "learn to say no" is very important. We should not feel like horrible people when we refuse to give a loan to a friend. We need to make wise financial decisions and we also need to reflect God's intentions for us. We need to remember that our money, though we work for it, ultimately is God's money. I recommend this book to anyone who is struggling financially and even those who aren't really struggling. Those who are comfortable and have more than they need can learn concepts about giving (tithing) from this book as well.
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I receive these books free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their 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.”