The Mrs. & the Minister

Positive Discipline:  The First Three Years, from Infant to Toddler -- Laying the Foundation for Raising a Capable, Confident Child , revised and updated edition, is a book that is nothing short of a paradigm shift for the way most of us think about parenting.  It covers techniques that can help parents understand their child's temperament and needs, and how to use that in disciplining and teaching them.  The focus is on positive discipline, as opposed to punishing the child. In a nutshell, positive discipline involves offering alternatives when they do things or touch things they shouldn't, and also giving the child more autonomy and giving them more choices to help them become more involved in the process and feel like they're not being ordered to do something. There are any number of useable tips here.  The trick, of course, is to remember them, and practice them. If you're a new parent or you have a toddler that seems to never listen to you or obey...

With those whose lives are so complicated that frustration and anxiety name day-to-day experience, books like Sandra McCollom's I Tried Until I Almost Died:  From Anxiety & Frustration to Rest & Relaxation is a welcome guide.  This book is filled with practical wisdom in moving away from the legalism is perfectionism, and toward a life of grace that overcomes that daily frustration and anxiety. What you won't find here, though, is another program to follow.  This isn't a book that trades one anxiety for another.  Instead, it's a book filled with spiritual wisdom about how Jesus delivers us from all the "rat races" of our lives.  No, I Tried Until I Almost Died is a book about transformed life in all its facets. So this is a welcome book to so many.  Even if it's a challenging book precisely because of that transformation. In the end, this is a book for all those folks who just can't catch their breath or catch a break.  _______...

Dave and Jon Ferguson's Finding Your Way Back to God: 5 Awakenings to Your New Life is one of those books in the Christian life I so wanted to read, only to discover the tragedy it is.  This is a book that left me disappointed to say the least. Finding Your Way Back to God is based on the premise that we humans are constantly hungry for God, yet in the midst of our search, find ourselves actually drawn away from God.  The thesis is that God wants to be found, if we but utilize the appropriate tools for finding God in meaningful ways.  And when we do, the meaning, love and significance for which we crave might be found. Sadly, though, Finding Your Way Back to God embraces the individualism and privitism that is at the heart of cultural Christianity that embraces more of what our culture promises than the depth of Christian spirituality.  Because the idea here is to progress, using the right program, to getting to God.  It's a book filled wit...

Samantha Hayes' Until You're Mine is a real suspense novel.  There are two main characters, a heavily pregnant Claudia who recruits a nanny to help mind her new baby and her twin step sons.  And the other character is Zoe, the nanny who is not all she seems.  The narrative changes first person point of view between these characters.  This is something that can annoy me in books.  I normally find myself distracted.  But Until You're Mine is so well written, that this switch only added to the suspense.  We also have a third character, a detective who is investigating brutal murders of mothers-to-be. The plot is enough to keep you guessing.  It did me.  I constructed several theories as I read along, but quickly discovered that each was wrong.  But in retrospect there are enough clues to lead you undeniably to the conclusion.  And what a conclusion it is! Like I said, this is a real suspense novel, written for people who lov...

Possible is a story about how we can change the world, told by someone -- World Relief CEO and President Stephan Bauman -- who's lived that change in his own life. When we talk about poverty, suffering and injustice -- it matters what story we tell.  We can choose between stories of pity or dignity, dependency or potential, need or capacity.  We can zoom in on our neighbors' suffering without seeing their strength.  There is danger here, though:  When we choose only to see weaknesses of our brothers and sisters, we reduce them to projects or problems to be solved.  When poverty is seen through this lens, no one is empowered, honored or lifted up. But when we see our neighbors through the eyes of their Creator -- loved, dignified, and capable of creating beauty out of pain -- we empower heroes and become heroes in the process.  This is the heart behind World Relief's work, and is the message of Possible . Possible is a challenge for Christ...

Marco Canora is a critically acclaimed chef and the owner of the restaurant Hearth.  Marco himself was forced to re-evaluate his eating habits after receiving alarming results of his blood tests.  He was ready to change his lifestyle, but was not ready to sacrifice the enjoyment of eating food that tastes great.  He chose, instead, to enjoy wholesome, healthy food of the highest quality.  A Good Food Day is a cookbook just about that -- simple, delicious food that is good for you.  In this cookbook, Canora explores common healthy diet guidelines (for example, good fat, LGI, Omega-3, etc.), and offers a variety of recipes for each of these.  His main principles are eating good food and enjoying it. I thoroughly enjoy A Good Food Day .  Canora divides the book into several sections:   Breakfast, Salads, Vegetables, Beans and Lentils, Great Grains, Fish, Meat and Poultry, Snacks, Sweets.  And there are some 125 recipes to ...

I know God is there, all the time.  But might there be ways I can catch his attention? Jeff Anderson's Divine Applause:  Secrets and Rewards of Walking and the Invisible God says yes. And he writes with the goal of helping us to see our lives as God sees our lives. His book begins largely with his own experience, in an effort to illustrate what he understands God to see about our lives.  Then he goes on to encourage us to see God in every day moments, and live in a way that is pleasing to God.  The third section of the book focuses exclusively on living "blamelessly". I can understand why this book appeals to certain readers.  But it's largely filled with so much personal experience, and very little biblical reflection.  In that way, it's more religious psychology than genuine Christian faith.  While I agree that our goal is to live in such a way so as to please God, I think what it means to "please God" can be less described from my life --...