Confessions of a Happily Married Man: Finding God in the Messiness of Marriage by Joshua L. Rogers Book Review

In Confessions of a Happily Married Man, Joshua L. Rogers shared real stories and confessions that he has encountered in his marriage. He is an attorney and a writer. He starts the book by sharing a personal story of a baby monitor and how this story changed their marriage and helped them both to eventually become a stronger couple. Throughout the book, he shared about how they both met and went into details about both of their family’s background’s with marriage and divorce. He also revealed his struggles with woman and dating. He was very transparent about how they were opened right at the beginning of their relationship about their pasts. He also explored some of the first arguments they had in their marriage and how at first, he was so determined to win the case. Eventually on their second year of marriage a friend pointed out during a Bible study by Henry Cloud about how he didn’t like how he talked to his wife. This study encouraged them to do interview questions and Joshua decided to try it with his wife and got feedback from her and a few other friends. He admits in the book that this was difficult to hear the positive and negative but this helped him to work on his own character weaknesses. In the back of the book, he also included them in here where readers could also enlist one of their own personal friends and spouse in order to improve their own life. He also suggested going over the feedback with your pastor to help you interpret all the feedback. The book also into detail about prayer, sex, dealing with the in-laws, losing loved ones, and health changes. 

I would recommend this excellent book on marriage to every engaged and married couple. This book contained many stories about their marriage and how they dealt with arguments and conflicts. I liked how real Joshua was in revealing what he struggled with. I was surprised about how open they were about their marriage and he wasn’t afraid to be honest and real. This is probably one of the better marriage books I have read. I appreciated how honest he was with talking about their sex life and how he struggled at a time with sexual dysfunction. I can tell in the book he truly wanted to help readers to become vulnerable with their spouse and for them both to become one like Christ intended. I also liked how the last chapter his wife wrote her experiences on their marriage. I connected with the two appendix’s chapters that he included at the back of the book to help guide readers into fixing and improve their own marriage for the better. If you’re looking for a great marriage book, then read this one! 

"I received this book free from the publisher, Faithwords/Worthy Publishing for my honest review.” 

If you would like to purchase a copy of Confessions of a Happily Married Man, check it out on Amazon.com:

https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Happily-Married-Man-Messiness/dp/1546014217

Take the Day Off: Receiving God’s Gift of Rest by Robert Morris Book Review

In Take the Day Off, Robert Morris opens up about how we need to take a sabbath day where we can truly rest and become refreshed to carry out our God given assignment. He begins the book by revealing how stress is negatively affecting every one of us. He shared some shocking truths from studies about how stress is now the fifth leading cause of death. Next, Morris dives into the ten commands and looks at one of the forgotten ones which discusses that the sabbath day is the Lord’s holy day. He also reveals how God explained to Moses that His people were not to supposed to work. God created the Heavens and Earth in six days and God rested on the seven day. Morris opens up about how he struggled with resting and having a sabbath day. In the book, he discusses how he had to choose and fight for a sabbath day and he explains the different things he does on his rest day. He goes into vast detail about our four tanks, spiritual, physical, emotional, and mental that need to refilled. He explained that it didn’t have to all overly spiritually that we just need to find things that refresh us. Some of the examples he included was, read a book that you enjoy, solve jigsaw puzzles, hang out with good friends, enjoy being in nature, take a walk, and do anything that refreshes your life. Morris shared that we need to unplug and avoid social media and work-related tasks on our sabbath day.

I would recommend this awesome book to anyone who is tired of being overworked and they feel burned out on life and their purpose. Life is only getting busier and the sabbath mindset is going away. We’re conditioned to work and work harder to stay ahead. I liked how Morris shared that his own personal sabbath isn’t on a Sunday. It also doesn’t have to be overly spiritually some people just do things that help them to refocus their lives and help them to be refreshed. I will admit I don’t have a day which I call just my sabbath day. I recognized now how important it is to do this to help honor God’s commandments and also how to destress our lives. I appreciated some of the stories and examples he shared about how others spend their sabbath days. I’m willing to try and have a sabbath day as a regularly day of the week in order to help me to refocus and refresh my mind, soul, spirit, and body. 

"I received this book free from the publisher, Faithwords for my honest review.” 

If you would like to purchase a copy of Take the Day Off, check it out on Amazon.com:

https://www.amazon.com/Take-Day-Off-Receiving-Gods/dp/1546010165/                      

Born for This: My Story in Music by Bebe Winans Book Review

In Born for This, Bebe Winans opens up about his story and how he became a Gospel/Christian artist. He grew up in the music city of Detroit and in the book, he explains how he learned about his family roots. He grew up in a big family 10 siblings total with six brothers and three sisters. His family all were raised with deep Gospel roots. Music was a big part of this family and four of his brothers loved to perform and they found success on a national level and they started touring. When he saw his brothers perform, this stirred a passion in him that he wanted to become a famous singer. Eventually, he was given a chance of a lifetime to try out for The Praise the Lord (PTL) Club hosted by Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker in North Carolina. He tried out with his sister CeCe Winans. They passed on him and chose CeCe. Meanwhile, BeBe worked at a grocery store to make ends meet. He was eventually given another surprised chance one day he sung in the choir on “Blessed Assurance” and he included a special “whispers of love” saying to the song. Jim heard him and loved what he did and he became a member of the PTL singers. Throughout the book, he shared his experiences on the show and how they were the only African Americans on this show. PTL was also at the time trying to become more diverse. In the book, he also describes Tammy as his “white mother” and what he learnt from her. He also revealed how they became a duo and went on to record many albums together and solo albums. He touched a little on the topic of why they decided to leave and how the PTL Club program fell a few years later with all the controversy surrounding Jim and Tammy. 

I would recommend this great autobiography to anyone who enjoys listening to Gospel and Christian music. I haven’t heard much on Bebe Winans life story before reading this book and I was curious to dive into his book. I liked how Bebe explained his musical roots and how he became to be a Christian singer. I liked how open he was with his story and how PTL helped open doors for him. I liked how he shared how Bebe and CeCe became a duo and recorded many albums together and they even won a few awards. One of my favorite songs, they have done together is “I’ll Take You There”. I also connected with him opening up about the loss of one his brothers and how that changed his entire life and how difficult it was to say goodbye. If you’re looking for a new book to read, then check this one out!

"I received this book free from the publisher, Faithwords for my honest review.” 

If you would like to purchase a copy of Born for This, check it out on Amazon.com:

https://www.amazon.com/Born-This-My-Story-Music/dp/1546009892/