Wow. What an amazing book. I had read this book back in 2008 before I was married, or was even thinking about raising children, and it was an amazing read then. Now, I'm married and expecting a little one and it's even more amazing! I seriously took 13 pages of notes on it in my journal!!!! I know, a bit overboard, but it's one of those books that you gain so much wisdom and little tidbits from you just want to have them in one place where you can check often. This book has helped me rethink my priorities as a woman (I always feel old when I refer to myself as a woman, anyone else? no just me? ok...), using the Bible as a guide (which it should be for all things) and highlighting things I can do daily to live a fuller life in every area. I don't want to go into SOO much detail because I know people don't read long posts--but just come along with me for a bit...she relates our fullness in life to that of the Seven Sacred Pools in Hawaii (like a waterfall). This describes the huge impact we can have for our own life, but also in the lives of countless others when we get these things right. Let me try to explain the picture to you. There's a pool way at the top of the mountain, which no one can see, and that is like your relationship with God, your prayer life, your deep connection with Him and His Word. He fills us and replenishes us when we seek him first in our life and are filled with his Holy Spirit. 

When we are full from that pool we are overflowing into our next pool, our husbands. God gives us the ability to tend to nurture and grow in servitude to our most important human relationship. Soon this pool overflows to that of our children. Children are gifts to us from God and He entrusts them to our care to love them, to train them and teach them about his ways. Soon that pool too will overflow and flow abundantly into our homes and filling it with God's love. Whether it be by the spiritual life of your family, the feeding, and the love that you give to them to make a home a retreat and a beautiful place until it soon overflows into our dreams and plans and how God wants us to serve others. "Having been filled from the pools higher up the mountain, we now plunge in. WE submerge ourselves in this fresh pool of knowledge, discipline , and training" and soon that too overflows pouring into an ocean of ministry and service that God will use to build His people up--you never know where that pool may end or who it may reach because it has not limits. But you see the key is, that each pool can only be filled if the one above it is overflowing. Do we make is so that our hearts of overflowing for God, our husband, and our children, our home, and then into other areas of ministry? Do we take the time to nurture each of those priorities first and let God fill us to overflowing? I find that sometimes I think that the top pools don't need to be filled and I busy myself with the maybe not most important areas, even if it is a church event, or a ministry-but it doesn't prove to be helpful because the other pools aren't full. It's hard to serve my husband and have a good relationship with him when I don't have a good relationship with the Lord. There is a quote she uses often in the book and it this: "Good, better, best, never let it rest, until your good is better and your better best." You can apply that little childhood quote to soo many areas in your life, especially when making decisions, choosing your attitude, how you schedule your time etc. If you aren't married or don't have children you might not have these pools yet, but it's still crucial to understand your priories and fill up the time in your life from the top pool down. 

There were so many amazing quotes and so many references to the Bible and other great books by numerous authors have really just made me LOVE this book. The book isn't just about the imagery of the pools,  in fact thats only one section in a chapter! But I feel that it describes what she focuses on in the other chapters--devoting most of it to a woman after God's heart. It's one of those "back to the Bible basics" for woman, and can be applied to a woman anywhere in life--from young and single, to newly weds to wives of many years, to single moms, to working moms, to say at home moms, from biblical scholars to new in the faith. I hope you woman will pick it up and not just read it, but see how you can use it to grow  and become a woman after God's own heart. 

Tedd Tripp goes through the most important parts of what it means to be a Christian parent. He discusses the importance of discipline and communication with your children at every level of their growth, and the most important factor of having goals for your "child rearing." Spouses need to come together discuss and pray about what their goals are for their children. Here are some common goals parents have that Tripp listed: Is it to have the most athletic kid? To have a psychologically balanced child? To have the smartest best educated kid? To have the most well behaved child? To have a "saved" child? To have control over your child?  He walks through many of these goals and helps point out the good--and also the not so good in them. Do you have goals for your children? Are they God oriented goals? or are they goals that are self serving and worldly? OH my, I'm not even there yet, but I can tell that parenting is going to be a difficult task and this book definitely made me think a lot about what some of the most important things are when raising kids. I'm so glad someone gave me this book now so I can start to think about these principles before it's too late! 
What will my goals be for raising my children? How do I shepherd my child's heart? How do I help them see the sin in their heart which leads to their actions? Who am I trying to serve? Is what I'm doing pleasing and honoring God? Those are some of the questions that I am now thinking about and most are what this book goes through--from every stage of childhood; infancy to teenage years. 

I wont go into to much more because I really think it is so crucial for every parent to read this book for themselves if they are interested in shepherding a child's heart for the Lord.  And if you never read it--at least be in search through the Bible, the most important book for life, and for raising children. I believe, if you are a parent, it is probably one of the most important roles God has called you to, you probably don't want to go into it blind or neglect what he says about it. All other books on the subject are just helpful and practical (if they come from a biblical perspective), but the Bible should always be where we start and finish. Best wishes to all you parents out there, I know we will need your prayers as we start this exciting journey and we will pray for you as well! -Britt

I love History and I love reading about Leadership. Why? I believe it the one of two most understudied and misunderstood things in our culture today--and both are major subjects lacking in our schools today. This book is an incredible example of teamwork and how people need to work together in order for their businesses, teams, organizations, or families to work together. 
I love reading about our founding fathers and Phillips goes into so many details about the coming together of our nation. If you are lacking on your history knowledge a little bit, read this, it's also an amazing "refresher" for the learned historians as well. The book most specifically focuses on George Washington (he's so cool, really....I mean the guy is incredible!), Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, of course Benjamin Franklin, and many more. It focus' on how each individual leveraged different skills in leadership to help the country go from being a a big nobody (in Great Britain's eyes) to the United States of America. Imagine trying to convince a group of "people" they should declare independence from one of the greatest super powers in the world at that time, with one of the largest armies, and with one of the most advanced navies...just to name a few things, but that is what these men and many others did. America did not start out easy, nothing great ever does. The Revolutionary War was not easy, in fact we were losing most of the time, but because men like Washington led his troops valiantly and people like Thomas Paine renewed the moral of the culture and the troops, America pulled through.Then--just when you think we're all set and on the right track-- after winning the war, they had to deal with bankruptcy, the different states each wanting to be individual and not united, a failing Articles of Confederation, a bunch of angry regiments who weren't getting paid, and many many MANY more problems. America could have easily fallen apart after the revolution if not for the courage, determination, and leadership of our founding fathers. Think we could learn a bit from these guys?? I think so. 

I know I did a horrible job of trying to explain my love of this book and the stories that are in it, but I would almost classify this as a must read for anyone seeking a position of leadership, whether that be in your family, in schools, at work, in church or through other organizations. We can't rise to a position of leadership and expect to know everything...people are well, they are people, and it takes a Leader to unite them and move them together in a common direction. This book is a great place to start! Enjoy! -Britt

Have you ever come across the story in the Bible about Benaiah? I had never recalled hearing the name before and I didn't realize that what this guy did was probably one of the most courageous acts recorded in the Old Testament. Here's the passage: "Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, performed great exploits. He struck down Moab’s two mightiest warriors. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear." 2 Samuel 23:20-21. So thats it. No big deal right? It's just one of those passages you read and forget about not putting much emphasis on any part.  Well, Mark Batterson took hold of this small passage from scripture and created a book about overcoming risks, setting big goals, and chasing big dreams, not small ones, but "lion size" dreams. I tend to place God in a box thinking that there are some things he can do and some things he can't with my life but what this book showed me was that with God all things are possible and he WANTS them for us, more than we want them for ourselves. 

Not everyone goes looking for lions to  slay or scrounges around trying to grasp opportunities, but Benaiah did, and he was well rewarded for it (He became King David's personal Body Guard! How cool is that?!). He was a lion-chaser. Mark Batterson quickly became one of my favorite authors after reading this book, I think his style of writing is really easy for me to read, and humorous as well. It's full of biblical knowledge and shows how to apply principles from the bible to our lives. I could go on and on, but I'll just leave you with SOME of my favorite quotes from the book. (This is hard because there are soo many!) So if you end reading here, and you have a big dream, or a something thats been on the back burner for too long, read this book, and read the BIBLE, it will help you realize that there isn't time to waste putting great dreams on hold, your time is now! God Bless! -Britt

"How you think about God will determine who you become. You aren't just the byproduct of "nature" and "nurture." You are a byproduct of your God-picture. And that internal picture of God determines how you see everything else. Most of our problems are not circumstantial. Most of our problems are perceptual. Our biggest problems can be traced back to an inadequate understanding of who God is. Our problems seem really big because our God seems really small. In fact, we reduce God to the size of our biggest problem."

"Why is it that the church is known for what we're against that what we're for? Why does it seem like the church is always in a defensive posture? Maybe it's time for Christ followers to put on crash helmets and play offense." 

"Lion chasers don't retreat. They attack. Lion chasers aren't reactors, they are creators. Lion chasers refuse to live their lives in a defensive posture. They are actively looking for ways to make a difference."

"We need to stop criticizing culture and start creating it."

"Part of spiritual maturity is caring less and less about what people think about you and more and more about what God thinks about you"

"We should stop asking God to get us out of difficult circumstances and start asking Him what He wants us to get out of those difficult circumstances."

"Worship is forgetting about what's wrong with you and remembering what's right with God."

"Faith is risky business...Maybe risk taking is at the heart of righteousness. Maybe righteousness has less to do with not doing anything wrong and more to do with doing things right. Righteousness is using our God-given gifts to their God-given potential. and that requires risk. Maybe our view of sanctification is too sanitized. Maybe our view of Christianity is too civilized. Maybe we need to reconsider what made our spiritual ancestors heroic."

I'll end with a quote that he quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, " Hell begins the day God grants you the vision to see all that you could have done, should have done, and would have done, but did not do."

It's been a REALLY long time since I have updated on any book that I have read, and I am reading, just been slacking in the "reporting." So I decided to lump these two together because they aren't the type of book that I usually read, (and probably shouldn't read too many of) but they were a good break from the usual, and very very very very good. 
Redeeming Love has been a favorite book of mine for a really long time, and someone from New Zealand had it so I had to borrow it and read it. (why is it that some books take you a day to read, and others take me a.g.e.s....) Anyway, Redeeming Love is a remake (kindof) of the bible story of Hosea and his prostitute wife from the Bible, and takes place in the late 1800s. Basically, without giving too much away, the story is about this beautiful girl who was sold into prostitution as a child, so she expects betrayal from every men and has, naturally, grown to hate them. Then she meets Michael "Hosea" who is unlike every man she has ever met who seeks after God's heart in everything, and who tries to win over her heart not only for himself but for God as well. However, she has lots to overcome before she is ready to accept this "god" whom she knows nothing about. It's is a really great story about God's unconditional love and redemptive healing. I could go on and on, but I wont you'll just have to get it yourself. 

Now, I have always loved the story of Esther in the Bible, and this story is about Esther and her "one night with the king." (There is also a movie made about this book called "A Night with the King" which is also a very good movie) The book stays along the lines of the story in the Bible fairly close, however there are parts, (obviously in a novel) that are added in to make it more interesting. So I have mixed feelings on recommending it, but I liked it and read it and feel maybe someone would benefit by reading it. As long as you are going into it knowing it's not word from word from the Bible. Ok, anyway this story is unique because it takes you into Hadassah's thoughts. Imagine a young Hebrew girl of 16-18 being taken from her home to now start living her life in a palace, to either become 1. a Persian queen or 2. a concubine. Probably not in the everyday thoughts of a Hebrew girl. It shows her struggle to accept God's plan for her life in being one of those two options because it was so different from all  her usual jewish customs, oh yeah, and her could-be future husband is the most powerful man in the world at that time, and just killed his old wife. No stress there. When she does become queen (you all knew that right?!) she has yet another tying experience, to save her people and risk her life, or be silent and watch as the man she loves destroys her nation. She has to learn to trust in God's decisions and think that, as it says in Esther 4:14, maybe God had placed her there for such a time as this.

I just finished the old classic Pilgrim's Progress. If you can get past the Old English style of writing, it is quite an interesting interpretation of the life of a Christian. It is written from a Puritan perspective with the tradition of being very strict. Bunyan's theology is quite sound from a Biblical perspective and is a great story generic enough to stand the test of time, with its focus on principles and truths that are as true now as they were at the beginning of time. 

It was a good reminder for me that the path to follow Christ is narrow and how easy it is for many not to take that path or try and find their way off that path along the journey. For many that declare themselves Christians will not be admitted into the "Celestial City" because they did not put all their trust in Christ Jesus for their salvation. Even if they did good works, talked well, had lots of friends, or knew of God, they would still get into Heaven only by believing in the cleansing blood of Christ for their sins. The visual picture of this in the book is when the two main characters have to cross a river right before entering the Gates. The river was not very wide but it could be very deep. There was no way across except to walk. When they walked across the river, if they had complete faith that they could not do it alone but only through the support of Jesus Christ, the river was shallow and simple to wade through. However, for anyone that did not have 100% faith that Christ was sufficient for them, the bottom of the river was endless, they were washed away and gone forever.  

There are countless lessons throughout the book, like the one above, when reflected upon my own life, I can be more conscious of the pitfalls that I do encounter on the path of following Christ. Even though this is a hard book to get into right away it is worth the read for the timeless principles and would make a great book to discuss for church groups. -Paul

For anyone interested in the colonial period of American history, this autobiography is a fantastic read. The timeline of the book only goes from 1706 when Franklin was born until the end of the French and Indian War, which is a bummer since a lot of the most impactful things Franklin did in history occur after that time. The time that the book does highlight goes into detail to help the reader understand what Ben Franklin was really like. It is also a very well written book and entertaining to read. Franklin lead a really interesting life going from a boy of little means, to an apprentice, then an owner, and finally a statesman. Here are some of my highlights from the book. 

Junto Club- This famous club that Franklin put together was responsible for the first public library, fire department, University of Pennsylvania and many other positive influences of colonial society. The club was a weekly gathering of influential people in the community where one member would write about an idea and all the members would discuss it. The book goes into great detail about how they set the club up and how they went about their discussions. 

13 Virtues- Franklin's List of 13 Virtues is quite well known to people but the book tells the process he used to implement improvement in the 13 virtues. Franklin also tells how he came about making the list of the virtues and why he picked the ones he did. 

Personal Growth- I was very impressed and encouraged by Franklin's hunger to always grow personally. It pays to read the book just on for this reason.

I would definitely recommend this book as it is a great window into what daily life was like during the colonial period. It also brings to life one of the most well known and influential men that helped to shaped America.-Paul

This book was recommended to me by a group of highly successful entrepreneurs from the Team. All the books they have recommended have helped me, I hope they can help you out as well. What is the Entrepreneurial Myth? 
It is the assumption that an individual who understands the technical work of industry can successfully run a business that does that technical work. This is the reason Michael Gerber gives for the high failure rate of small businesses. 
The beginning of the book talks about the reality in business; that most small businesses are not started by entrepreneurs, but rather by people that just want to do their profession without having a boss. These people lack, as Gerber puts it, the "Entrepreneurial Perspective." That is, it's not the commodity or work itself that is important. What's important is the business; how it looks, acts, and does what it is intended to do. 
The book goes on to describe the Turn-Key Revolution. This is based on franchising models of having a systematic way of running the business. Gerber encourages people to work on their business, not just in their business. This section of the book is really helpful for anyone with a small business. The author describes in detail how to go about working on your business to be able to make it run smoothly, even when you are not there. 
In the last chapters of the book there is a section on marketing and sales that is very eye opening and thought provoking. I would recommend anyone in business or sales should read this section in particular. This book really challenges your thinking about how to make a business successful. I really recommend the entire book for for anyone in business or thinking about owning a business. -Paul

Are you a great thinker? Do you have scattered thinking like I do, or do you just not do much thinking for yourself? It's interesting to actually look back on a day or week and see how little thinking I actually did, especially intentionally. This book is a great interactive study on thinking. 

One thing that hit me at the beginning of the book was not even that I don't think but that I don't do enough thinking about things that will make progress, as Maxwell said  "successful people focus their thinking on progress while unsuccessful people focus their thinking on survival or at best maintenance." Another quote I really liked of his was, "If you want to live on a new level, you need to think on a new level." How often do we strive to get better and move up to the next level in anything, but yet not have a care about moving our thinking to that level? 

Something that I agree with Maxwell on is the importance of having special places to go off by yourself do think, reflect and meditate, without distractions. I find for myself that early in the morning in my office or in the summer out on a deck or by a lake I seem to think the most clearly. I challenge you to find your "thinking spot" and certain time of day that you can set aside to think. What do you think about? Well here are the 11 Thinking Skills Maxwell goes through in the book.

1. Big Picture Thinking
2. Focused Thinking
3. Creative Thinking
4. Realistic Thinking
5. Strategic Thinking 
6. Possibility Thinking
7. Reflective Thinking
8. Questioning Acceptance of Popular Thinking
9. Shared Thinking
10. Unselfish Thinking
11. Bottom-Line Thinking

To learn more about the thinking skills I listed, I would recommend that you read the book. I know that understanding these skills has helped me bring my scattered thinking into focus a little bit more. I hope that this book can help you be more intentional about your thinking, or at least get you to think! -Paul