Reinvent: Start Fresh and Love Life! By Beth Jones Book Review

In Reinvent, Beth Jones begins the book by defining the word reinvent and this basically means to change something that make it look new. Beth is a preacher at Valley Family Church and has noticed that many people are struck in life and they are ready to reinvent their lives. In the book, she shared her personal story of her parents divorcing, enduring bullying in school, feeling rejected, overcoming cancer, and how she dealt with her dreams shattered. She also shared how she walked to church and found out who God is and how she suffered persecution from being the first believer in her family. She opened up about how God has reinvented her own life and changed it for the better. 

In the first part of the book, she looked at four reasons to reinvent your life and this included, “the gaps, crossroads, future, and love.” One of my favorite area she looked at was when she discussed gaps and how we need to explore our spiritual fruit in our life. She looked at the parable of the fruitless tree and one of the verses that stands out was found in Luke 13:8. This talks about how Jesus tells a man to leave the fig tree alone for a full year and he is instructed to dig around it and fertilize it. She was encouraged by this parable and she challenged believers to focus on one or two areas that they want to reinvent in their life. She created a list to display and show how some famous people lives changed in one year. Some of these included: Tina Fey, Oprah, Stephen King, Harrison Ford, Martha Stewart, Samuel L. Jackson, Morgan Freeman, and much more. 

In the second part of the book she looked at 4 questions, “what do you want, what do you have, what will you do, and why will you do it.” She explored the whole story about the Maven by going into detail and looking at the four questions. She is recently widowed with two sons and she is in a great debt. She is about forced to sell her sons as slaves to repay the debt owed. Elisha asked her what does she have and all she has is a jar of oil. She is told to go borrow a few empty vessels and come back and shut the door and pour the oil into them. Then she must go sell them to repay the debt and they will have enough to live on the rest. Beth goes back and retells the story in her own words and adds the key words from part one into her recap to explain it to readers. 

I would recommend this awesome book to anyone who is ready to reinvent their life. I immensely liked how open Beth was about her story and I was able to easily to connect to it. I enjoyed reading about how she was able to reinvent her own life and how God has used her since. One of my favorite topics she discussed was the power of renewing your mind with the word of God. I liked how she included scriptures to encourage believers on how to do just that. These verses included topics such as favor, blessing, joy, strength, wisdom, and much more. One of my favorite verses was Isaiah 43:16 and this one discussed how God can make a way where there is no way. I also loved how she looked at the Maven story and I will admit reading her take on the story was a really powerful example. I was able to see how God is able to reinvent everyone’s story, if they will just let Him.

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

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

https://www.amazon.com/Reinvent-Start-Fresh-Love-Life/dp/1546017259

Happy Campers: 9 Summer Camp Secrets for Raising Kids Who Become Thriving Adults by Audrey Monke Book Review

In Happy Campers, Audrey Monke explored the topic of camping and how positive experiences with camping can greatly change our children’s lives. She shared how she is a mother of five and an owner of Gold Arrow Camp in California Sierra National Forest. She revealed how she saw countless children who benefited and was in turn became a happier child for having the tools and experiences of attending a summer camp. In 2014, she also did a survey with six other summer camps that confirmed 80% of them felt happier. She also shared how mental, emotional, and physical health issues is rising and making it more difficult for summer camps. The other big issue she is seeing is the use of social media and phone usage that summer camps are having to help kids break free from. Another big issue she sees is parents trying to be in control and are being to overparenting. Her goal with summer camp is to teach children life skills to take home and thrive when they aren’t at camp. She wants kids to learn how to be self-sufficient and to help with daily chores and to grow into becoming more responsive adults. In the book, she tackled 9 secrets of camp such as, “connection come first, catch them doing something right, positive practices produce optimistic kids, grit is grown outside the comfort zone”, and much more. In the book, she also looked at the impact of counselors and how they train them to be positive and how they can influence children for the better. She also shared how she has them do a one on one chat with each child daily and many days they ask for a word of the day to describe how their day was. In each chapter, she does a sticky note solution, make it fun, around the campfire, family meeting topic, and diving deeper. 

One of my favorite chapters was the one about grit and living outside of our comfort zone. This chapter discussed the importance of helping children to step outside their comfort zone. She looked at three different zone areas such as, “blackout, growth, and comfort” where children live and engage in life. She explained 5 ways to grow grit to assist children into growing up and she also looked at 3 things parents can do to help their children to step out. She was very open in sharing that she has recognized that kids do better on trying new challenges when their parents aren’t watching them.  

I would recommend this awesome book about how camping can change your children lives to anyone who is looking for something fun and different for their kids. I liked how she went into detail about sharing her experiences with camping. She included personal stories she heard about how some of the children’s lives changed. I immensely liked how she had a “make it fun” activity for every chapter such as watch a family video, 100 memories recap, and shared outdoor activities. I also liked how she included instructions on how to limit the phone usage for children and rules we can put in place. This book opened up my eyes about the power of camp and how it can be a great tool in helping children to discover new things and to gain responsibility and to take the lessons learned back home. 

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

If you would like to purchase a copy of Happy Campers, check it out on Amazon.com:

https://www.amazon.com/Happy-Campers-Secrets-Raising-Thriving/dp/1546081798

Supernatural Courage: Activating Spiritual Bravery to Do Great Things by Mickey Robinson Book Review

In Supernatural Courage, Mickey Robinson explored the topic of tapping into the power of supernatural courage and this courage can only come from our Creator. He explained how the Holy Spirit is always there to help us through all of our circumstances. The world is constantly bombarded with fear and many of us struggle with how to handle and deal with our fears. Mickey looks at one of the commandments found in Joshua 1:9 about fear. This talks about how God commands us to be strong and courageous, and God is with us wherever we go. Some of the courage topics he looked at was, “hope, be humble, fight, strengthen yourself, use spiritual gifts, forgive, preserve”, and much more. In the book, he looked at Biblical examples how they handle supernatural courage from God and some of these included Jesus, Joseph, David, Paul, Peter, Joshua, to name just a few. 

In the book, he shared how he discovered his career in becoming a professional skydiver. He loved to live in the moment and loved the thrill he felt in jumping out of planes. He shared a personal story about how his life changed. One day, he took a trip with four other skydivers and two of them were rookies. The engine quit and the plane ended up crashing. Mickey revealed he was on fire and he ended up suffering from third-degree burns over his whole body, loss of using his right hand, a brain contusion, and blindness in his right eye. In the weeks to come he was down to 93 pounds and he had multiple infections. The doctors gave him no hope and his body functions started to shut down. He describes how he felt like he was dying and how he realized the power of Christ’s spirit was alive in him. He felt God healing him and the same power that raised Jesus was inside him. He explained how he declared how he was going to walk out of the hospital again and how he experienced supernatural courage from Jesus and he was able to walk again. He also shared how he had supernatural courage in believing and commanding blood to flow in his right hand to help revive the use of his hand. Miraculously, his right hand was healed and the doctor couldn’t believe it. He also goes into details about the healing he experienced in his right eye and how God gave him hope and caused his spirit to rise alongside with the use of the Holy Spirit. 

I would recommend this excellent book on supernatural courage to anyone who is ready to discover the keys in relying on God’s power to assist you in overcoming and facing whatever life throws at you. I immensely connected with all of the stories that Mickey shared and even through his personal pain he still believed God for His incredible power to guide and help him through whatever he faced. One of my favorite examples, he revealed was the story about forgiveness and how he had to practice this during a difficult time. His son Michael was born with cerebral palsy and they always believed God would bring them a miracle. When he was 12 years old, they took him to a top specialist to help him with his back and spine. The surgery didn’t work and caused him to lose many more functions of his body. He explained the hurt and the malpractice of the doctor and medical staff and how he had to choose to extend mercy and forgiveness. I also liked how each chapter included meditation scriptures and promises found in the Bible, prayer, activation statements, and a declaration to say over your life and circumstances.

"I received this book free from the publisher, Bethany House/ Chosen for my honest review.” 

If you would like to purchase a copy of Supernatural Courage, check it out on Amazon.com:

https://www.amazon.com/Supernatural-Courage-Activating-Spiritual-Bravery-ebook/dp/B07VLC3HJQ/

Peace Pirates: Conquering the Beliefs and Behaviors that Steal Your Treasure in Motherhood by Ashley Willis Book Review

In Peace Pirates, Ashley Willis explored the confessions from a mother on raising children, four peace pirates that steal our joy, and the treasure we can discover in Biblical mothers. She begins every chapter by revealing key principles and a personal story from a mother. She ends each chapter with a prayer for mothers. Ashley has a total of four boys and explains throughout the book the joys and struggles she has gone through in parenting. She goes into detail about how she feels like a pirate and some days she feels like she is being toss around in the sea. She explains that the weapons are harsh words, eye rolls, frustration, and acting out events. She admits that sometimes she feels guilty in not being the perfect mother and she is transparent about comparing herself to other mothers. In the second part of the book, she tackled four peace pirates that steal our time and our joy. One of these included, comparison and she looks at different types of mothers that influenced her positively to try and become a better mother. Some of these included, “the planner, free-spirit, all-natural, creative, handy, fit, and much more. She does this to show mothers that all mothers have something unique to bring to parenting their kids and we all have a collection of strengths. We don’t have to waste time comparing ourselves to others. 

One of my favorite stories, she opened up about was a story about her third son, Chandler and how he is a screamer and is a loud person. One day, the teacher was very vocal about how frustrated she was with him and how he wasn’t doing well in school. He was acting out making noises in class. Eventually, she decided to observe him and that same day he got in trouble for being too rough, not painting in the lines, and how he got angry about not being called on to answer questions. She talked to her son later and he shared how he never got any good stars and how he felt his teacher never saw him doing good things. Ashley finally found some help when she took him to an occupational therapist and he was taught how to behave in different setting and this immensely helped him. The teacher still didn’t give him any stars and he was still feeling discouraged. Ashley revealed how she struggled with having peace in this and she felt like a failure for not helping to change the teachers perceptive of him. She explained how she felt the teacher couldn’t see past his past and how she struggled with how to take his personality. She shared how she had to surrender her hurts and give it to God and release things she couldn’t control. 

I would recommend this awesome book to any mother that is feeling overwhelmed, struggling with comparison, losing their peace, and feeling they aren’t being a good enough mother. I especially like how open Ashley was in the book and how she shared personal stories that mothers could relate to. Parenting isn’t easy and there are always opportunities for us to lose our peace when our kids are acting out. I truly believe this book contains the tools to help mothers to learn how to become better moms and it will help navigate the rough raging waters of parenting. I also appreciated how she looked at Mary’s life of motherhood and the treasures we can learn from her life. I immensely believe this book would be an incredible blessing to mother’s on Mother’s Day. 

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

If you would like to purchase a copy of Peace Pirates, check it out on Amazon.com:

https://www.amazon.com/Peace-Pirates-Conquering-Behaviors-Motherhood/dp/1546013423

Winning the War Within: The Journey to Healing and Wholeness by Jason Vallotton with Kris Vallotton Book Review

In Winning the War Within, Jason Vallotton, explored the topic of the war that is within us and how we all try and avoid the conflicts in life. He looked how Jesus describes a believer’s life and how in His name we can cast out demons, speak in tongues, pick up snakes, and place hands on people believing for their healing. He shared how we all have suffering and storms in life and we have to learn to preserve. In the book, he reveals the heartache he experienced when his wife left him after nine years. He describes how he dealt with his loneliness, disappointment, rejection, and the pain of letting go of the vision of happier ever after. He explains how we was able to work through his pain of prison and to get wholeness. 

He explored the concept of the God’s spot and he asked everyone to look at who we are putting at the center of our lives. He shared how he struggled with this and he put his wife in his God’s spot. He expressed how he had a high pleaser personality and he hated conflict. He backs this up by looking at Psalms 23 and how this scripture explains how God is our Shepherd and how God is with us through the valley of the shadow of death. He discovered four ways to re-center our God spot and how we can let God back on the throne over our lives. He traces back to his childhood and how he struggled with fear and how it even led to him in accepting Christ a lot of this was out of fear of being left behind after watching a film. In his childhood, he sneaked into his parents to sleep on their floor and he had fears of dying and being alone. When he was fourteen-year-old he shared how he hated being home alone and how he would load a gun every day in case someone broke into their home. He revealed how he was taught by his dad to take every thought captive and how he learned to change his thoughts. He was able to overcome strongholds of fear and to recognize the lies before they took over control of his life. 

I would recommend this amazing book to anyone who is experiencing struggles in their own lives and they are having a difficult time dealing with conflicts and they are overwhelmed. I immensely connected with his story of being afraid of being alone and how a film of being left behind drew him into receiving Christ. I was also led to salvation in the same way it was just a different movie then his was. I related to his personal story and have experiencing some of the same fears he has. I liked how he looked at the God’s spots in our lives and how we can change it and redirected it back to God being the center of our lives. In reading the book, I can’t help but wonder if maybe this Covid-19 virus is also supposed to bring us all back to Christ being the center and it’s to show us all that jobs, church, friends, family, school, and anything else isn’t supposed to our God for our lives. We are supposed to have Him at the center. I also liked how he included discussion questions at the end of each chapter to guide readers into thinking about their own lives and help them to find their wholeness. I believe this book has the power to assist readers into dealing with their pains, shattered dreams, and wounds and help them in working through the path to wholeness.  

"I received this book free from the publisher, Bethany House/ Chosen for my honest review.” 

If you would like to purchase a copy of Winning the War Within, check it out on Amazon.com:

https://www.amazon.com/Winning-War-Within-Journey-Wholeness-ebook/dp/B0821L9P37

Breathe Again: Inhaling God's Goodness, Exhaling His Blessings by Ed Newton Book Review

In Breathe Again, Ed Newton explored the topic of breathing that is found in scripture and how God has chosen to breathe his breath into things. One of the ways, God did this was when he created the whole world and creation with just speaking it into existence. Ed also noticed how God formed Adam and Eve and how God chose to touch them instead of just speaking them into existence. Next, he encourages readers by explaining how no one is an accident and God took the time to formed every single person and we all have a purpose. In the book, he also looked at a few other ways the power of breathe is found in the Bible such as, “exhaling praise to Him, the power of Jesus taking His last breath, the truth discovered in the valley of dry bones, God’s power in the end battle between satan, and much more. 

In the very beginning of the book, he shared a personal story about how his youngest daughter, Liz had multiple health issues relating to her ear, nose, and throat and constantly had respiratory issues. One day, they were all supposed to go to a wedding and Liz had trouble breathing. They decided that he would just take her to the hospital and eventually it grew a lot worse than they thought. She stopped breathing and he describes having to call out for help. He explains how he had peace from God during this time. They gave her a shot and she was able to breathe again and he reveals how his daughter received a breath for God. This helped him to recognize the importance of breathing and how we each of us exist because God has given us that breathe. We don’t have the next breath promise all we have is right now and that’s a gift. 

I would recommend this amazing book to anyone who is ready to breathe again following a pain, lost, disappointment, and hurt and they don’t know how they will ever breath again. I appreciated how Ed opened up at the end of how this book has taken years to be released. Many publishers turned him down and it has finally seen it’s light. I can’t help but wonder maybe it’s because people need to read this book during and following the Covid-19 and they need encouragement. Maybe as a whole we all needed to be reminded how we were created by a loving God and how Christ died for all of our sins and how we can have hope that when God breaths into someone their lives are changed for the better. I loved how throughout the book, he covered the beginning of the Bible, middle, and the end battle and how the importance of God’s breath changed history and will even change the future. One of the most powerful chapters was about Christ taking His last breath for us and how we received grace and forgiveness and how we can receive salvation. When we take our last breath here on Earth, our next breath will be with our Creator. 

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

If you would like to purchase a copy of Breathe Again, check it out on Amazon.com:

https://www.amazon.com/Breathe-Again-Inhaling-Goodness-Blessings/dp/1546033629