There was a little blurb in the local paper Saturday morning that read, “Set clocks forward; gain one hour daylight.” Excuse me. I set my clocks forward for Daylight Saving Time, but I didn’t gain an hour of daylight. Did you? Both yesterday and today had exactly the same number hours of daylight as Saturday. My day still has only 24 hours. Did you gain that hour of daylight or do you only have 24 hours in your day?
We give thanks to you, O God; we give thanks; your name is near. People tell of your wondrous deeds.
At the set time that I appoint I will judge with equity. When the earth totters, with all its inhabitants, it is I who keep its pillars steady. I say to the boastful, “Do not boast,” and to the wicked, “Do not lift up your horn; do not lift up your horn on high or speak with insolent neck.”
For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up; but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed; he will pour a draught from it and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs. But I will rejoice forever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.
All the horns of the wicked I will cut off, but the horns of righteous shall be exalted.
Psalm 75
It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!
You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
and the book:
The Fight of Your Life: Why Your Teen Is at Risk and What Only You Can Do About It
Multnomah Books (February 17, 2009)
Jeffrey Dean is the author of Watch This, This Is Me, and the One-Liner Wisdombooks for Multnomah. The founder of Jeffrey Dean Ministries, he speaks to more than 150,000 teens each year about teen issues and culture. He lives in Nashville with his wife and family.
Visit the author’s website.
Product Details:
List Price: $13.99
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Multnomah Books (February 17, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1601421109
ISBN-13: 978-1601421104
AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:
Grappling with the Enemy
Every teen is in a battle. Parent, did you know that? I’ll say it again: every teen is in a battle. Including your teen.
If this “battle” talk sounds like a bit of a stretch to you, let me tell you about Rhys. A few summers ago I spoke at a camp. After an evening session, one of the guy counselors, Rhys, asked if we could talk. A clean-cut nineteen-year-old, Rhys was heading into his sophomore year at a well known Christian college. His eyes reflected sadness that I couldn’t fathom.
He told me he had a lot of nightmares and a lot of guilt.
During his senior year of high school, Rhys and his girlfriend, Emily, were fairly typical Christian kids. They were both active in youth group, had pledged to abstain from sex until marriage, and were known in their circles of friends as “good kids.”
But on the night of their senior prom, everything went crazy. Rhys admitted, “One thing led to another, and we pretty much did it all that night. Fooling around, drinking, drugs…you name it.” Tragically, Emily overdosed on the drugs, went into a coma, and never came out of it. A week later, she died.
This is an extreme story, yes, but it happened. As I speak to highschool-age students around the country, I hear stories you wouldn’t believe. Welcome to the world of today’s teens. It’s a fight, and every teen today is engaged in it.
This fight is about a tsunami of information, communication, anything-goes ethics, and the inevitable moral experimentation that results. It’s a world of light-speed Internet, texting, unlimited access to online porn, oral-sex parties, MySpace, cutting, Wicca, drinking, drugs, and more.
The world of today’s teens moves at a pace you and I would never have dreamed of when we were teens. It’s a world where hooking up has nothing to do with a fishing lure, spam isn’t something you eat, and pharming doesn’t require a tractor. Almost weekly, teens write to me about addictions to types of drugs that weren’t around twenty years ago. At seminars across the country, I meet students who have contracted sexually transmitted diseases.
By the time they graduate from high school, most seniors tell me, they have consumed alcohol and been offered drugs. Most teens I meet say that marijuana is easily accessible. It doesn’t matter whether they attend public schools or Christian schools; students know where drugs are used, kept, and sold. Many tell me they know a friend or classmate who has abused prescription drugs.
Here’s the fact that keeps me awake at night: Rhys and Emily could have been anyone’s teens. They are from a generation of teens bombarded by lies, hungry for help, and desperate for truth. Not every teen will face exactly what Rhys and Emily faced, but war is the daily reality for every teen.
That is why I say that as a parent, you are facing the fight of your life.
Why This Book Is for Every Parent
Maybe you’re thinking this book isn’t for you. Your teen appears to be doing well. And it’s true: there are many Bible-believing, church-attending teens who desire to live lives surrendered to Christ. Your teen may be one of them.
Or maybe you’re at the other end of the spectrum. The choices your teen has made so far have pushed your family to the breaking point. You’re feeling hopeless, ready to throw in the towel.
Wherever your teen is at in his or her journey, this book is for you. No matter what the situation looks like on the surface, every teen faces struggles, temptations, issues, fears, and challenges. Every teen has to navigate the confusing waters of today’s culture. Every teen is only one choice away from hurt, addiction, heartbreak, and more.
The scary thing with teenagers is that often we don’t know exactly what they’re thinking or feeling, even when they live under our own roofs! For the past fifteen years, I’ve been touring the country, speaking—and more important, listening—to teens. Some three hundred fifty thousand teens a year check out my Web site, and more than fifty thousand read and respond to my blog. Teens tell me things they often don’t share with their parents. That’s why I wanted to write this book—not to break their confidences, but to give you the inside scoop on what I’m hearing so you can help your teen in the battle.
In the struggles teens face, they have a common enemy: the devil. And he hates these kids. More specifically, he’s your teen’s number one enemy. His task is to steal, kill, and destroy (see John 10:10), and he wants to lure your teen away from the truth and lead your teen toward destruction. Sure, movement toward destruction is more evident in some teens than in others. But no teen is immune to spiritual warfare. So, as a parent, your call is to grab your weapons, jump into the battlefield on your teen’s side, and be ready to give it all you’ve got.
Playing Offense
The idea of fighting for your teen might almost scare you off. Hey, you’re just trying to pay the electric bill, pick up the kids from soccer practice on time, and serve something for dinner that didn’t come from a drive-through.
But I won’t sugarcoat what’s happening in your teen’s world. As a parent, you are engaged in one of the greatest fights of your life. It’s already on, whether you want it or not. Every day a war is being waged for the soul of your teen. The question isn’t, are you at war? The question is, are you equipped to do battle?
Here’s what the Bible says about it: “Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith” (1 Timothy 6:11–12, emphasis added).
“Fight the good fight”—that’s the battle you are in. You are called to faithfully fight for what’s right. Just as Satan is fighting to steal, kill, and destroy your teen, so you must be a fighter, helping your teen to win! Recently a mother talked to me about her teenage son. “Jeffrey,” she said, “my son has never smoked pot, checked out porn, or been sexually active. His grades are good, and his friends are well behaved. He loves going to youth group at church and believes God is calling him into pastoral ministry. I am so glad that God has given us our son.”
I congratulated her on the successes of her son and on her parenting skills, then asked, “What are you doing each day to ensure that your son continues down this good road?”
“What do you mean?” she said, looking perplexed.
“What steps have you put into place to safeguard your son from the Enemy?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “Everything’s going so well—I haven’t
thought about it much.”
Together we discussed a plan for her to pray daily for her son, to keep speaking truths into his life, and to keep the lines of communication open with him about his personal life. Most important, we talked about ways she could continue to help him grow in a daily and intimate
walk with God.
That’s what the fight looks like in action. It’s easy to believe that good parenting means checking off a list of positive accomplishments for a son or daughter:
? My teen is a Christian.
? My teen regularly attends youth group.
? My teen dates a Christian (or doesn’t date at all).
? My teen doesn’t watch MTV.
? My teen ___________________ (has this form of observable good behavior).
You may be able to place a check beside any one or all of these statements. But helping your teen through these intense years isn’t simply about completing a checklist. You need to be looking ahead, adapting and strategizing as the flow of the battle changes, and working to both guide and guard your teen through obstacles to victory. It means approaching parenting on the offense as you work toward a goal, rather than sitting back and waiting for the other side to come at you.
Undoubtedly you’ve heard messages about how to deal with personal struggles, how to climb back up after failing, how to overcome addictions, and the like. But what if, rather than living life on cruise control, you lived life on enemy patrol—watching, being prepared, planning, developing a game plan for life, and putting into practice the principles that shape character and truth?
This is the idea behind the warning God gives in 1 Peter 5:8: “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
God has not created you to simply survive. He has created you to thrive, to experience the abundant life. When it comes to your teen, 1 Peter 5:8 warns that parents must be found with weapon in hand, ready to fight on behalf of their teens.
A mom recently said to me, “I realized years ago that I can’t sit around assuming that my kids are going to naturally come talk to me about all the stuff in their lives. I have to go to them. I have to initiate conversations. I have to look for moments of opportunity to get them talking. Because if I don’t, I’ll probably never know what they’re up against out there.”
That’s it! This mother is in the war room every day, plotting against the Enemy of her teen. She’s studying the Enemy’s tactics so she can guide and guard her teen as he moves toward a deeper and more intimate walk with God.
The Confidence to Go for It
The idea of fighting can seem daunting. But my goal in this book isn’t to scare you. It’s to help you see that the fight is real, that you’re in it whether you like it or not, and that you can win the war.
This is your moment. When God created you, He created you to be the parent your teen needs you to be. God would never have given you the privilege of being a parent if He didn’t have an awesome plan for you in the process. God has called you to be a fighter—and He has given you everything you need to fight and to win for your teen.
This book will help you go the distance. In the pages ahead, we’ll discuss strategies for going on the offense. We’ll talk about what it means to study your teen’s culture so you can live with your eyes wide open—ready, armed, and alert. We’ll talk about how one of your greatest strategies, prayer, is actually one of the simplest and how the prayer of a righteous parent is an incredibly powerful and effective tool in this fight (see James 5:16). We’ll talk about specific issues your teen is facing (issues that definitely were not around when you were a teen), and we’ll look at how these issues don’t need to surprise you or catch you off guard. We’ll look at specific, detailed battle plans that include the tools and resources you need. We’ll talk about how your role isn’t to prop up your teen or ultimately save him or her, but to teach discernment and provide a solid foundation from which your teen can do battle. We’ll show you how to provide your teen with armor for fighting and wings for flying. And we’ll talk about the incredible privilege you have been given to encourage your teen to live wholeheartedly for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the fighter who is greater than anything this world can throw your teen’s way.
Your Fighting Positions
Right from the get-go, let’s take a look at five main fighting positions necessary for being armed and active in this fight. Keep these fighting positions in mind as you move forward to the following chapters.
The Sweeping Aside Motion
This means, the past is in the past. Helping your teen win the war isn’t about questioning what you could have done yesterday. It is about establishing a battle plan for what you are going to do today, tomorrow, and beyond. It’s never too late to reach out to your teen, to learn to communicate again, to listen, to speak words of wisdom into your teen’s life. Start today.
The Gritting Your Teeth Gesture
This means, whatever it takes is whatever it takes. There will be times when you will be challenged to move out of your comfort zone. Your goal must be to arm yourself for battle and be ready to do whatever is necessary to guide and guard your teen through these entangling years. Be fearless.
The Ultimate Power Stance
This means, pray for your teen every day. The Ultimate Power Stance is kneeling. If you are not praying for your teen every day, start now. If you are, keep it up. Prayer is the key to it all. I can’t reiterate this enough. Praying for your teen is the single most powerful tool you have in this fight.
The Open Book Motion
This means, you are now a student of teen culture. The world moves at an incredibly fast pace today. To keep up with what’s up in your teen’s world takes time, energy, effort, and motivation. What’s current today might not have been current yesterday. From here on out, make it one of your primary ambitions to study and learn about the world your teen lives in.
The Deep Breath Posture
This means, the battle is a fight of endurance. You develop a realistic strategy for success by taking it one step at a time. Remember, winning the fight is not about doing everything today. It’s about being faithful over the long haul.
Power for Your Toughest Job
Parenting is likely the toughest job you will ever have. Don’t assume that your teen is exempt from any issue discussed in the coming pages. At some point, on some level, every teen will encounter every issue described in this book. As a parent, you need to be equipped. It is my hope that this book will be a powerful resource you use to arm yourself and your teen to win the battle being waged for his or her soul. Remember the Ultimate Power Stance? Let’s take a moment to pray right now for your teen, for what we’ll talk about ahead in this book, and for how life may change.
Praying Scripture for Your Teen
Lord, You say in Your Word that if we seek You we’ll be able to
find You. Troubles may come and awful things may happen,
but You listen and You care. You’re a compassionate God. You
will not abandon my family. Please guide me in this fight for
my teen. You are God. You are good. Give me Your strength,
Your wisdom, and Your perspective. I put my trust in You.
Amen.
BASED ON DEUTERONOMY 4:29
It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!
You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
and the book:
FaithWords (March 13, 2009)
Ray Blackston of Greenville, South Carolina, worked as a buyer and a broker for eleven years before cashing in his modest 401k and leaving his corporate cubicle to write full time. He serves on the missions committee of his church, has traveled to rural Ecuador on a summer missions program, and coaches his seven-year-old nephew, Action Jackson, in T-Ball.
Visit the author’s website.
Product Details:
List Price: $13.99
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: FaithWords (March 13, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0446579610
ISBN-13: 978-0446579612
I love mangoes, but I wasn’t expecting a book about Texas mangoes. Well, this Mango is not the ordinary, run of the mill Mango. Shortly before graduating from college, Kyle Mango inherited four oil wells. He thought that he would be able to use that to impress the lady of his dreams. Before he could tell her about his good luck, she ended up in Alaska as a volunteer cleaning birds which had the misfortune to be caught in an oil slick. How can a Texas oilman persuade a bird loving free spirit that they are destined to be a couple? You’ll have to read the book to find out. I can’t tell. I haven’t finished the book yet and I don’t have any more time to mess around here. I’ve got to find out how or if they get together. Hope you enjoy the book as much as I am.
AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:
Please press the Open Book Widget to read the first chapter.
It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!
You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
and the book:
Milk Money (Maryland Wedding Series #2)
Barbour Publishing, Inc (2008)
Cecelia Dowdy is a world traveler who has been an avid reader for as long as she can remember. When she first read Christian fiction, she felt called to write for the genre.She loves to read, write, and bake desserts in her spare time. Currently she resides with her husband and young son in Maryland.
Visit the author’s website and blog.
Product Details:
Mass Market Paperback: 170 pages
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc (2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1602602557
ISBN-13: 978-1602602557
I’ve really been enjoying Cecelia Dowdy’s books. They aren’t the typical boy meets girl, boy jumps hurdle and they live happily ever after variety. In Milk Money Emily seems to be doing a pretty good job of running the farm and her life until an unwanted CPA comes along and complicates matters by telling her things she doesn’t want to hear. There’s an ocean of differences between the two and not ones that are easily overcome. Do they manage? Read it and see. If you read John’s Quest, I already know you will enjoy this book just as much. And you’ll be waiting with me for Cecelia to bring out another book. Since this is only the second in the series, I’m hoping we can look forward to many more.
AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:
She opened her eyes.
“Casey, hold on,” she cooed. When he watched the birth, his sour stomach worsened, and the bagel and cream cheese he’d managed to eat for breakfast felt like a dead weight in his belly. Her tears mingled with the sweat rolling down her face. She continued to pull and glanced in his direction. “Oh, thank God you came. Come and help me.”
A plethora of unfamiliar scents tingled his nose. He swallowed, losing his voice. What was he supposed to do? She continued to look at him, pulling on the rope periodically.
“I already left a message on your answering service that it was coming out backward.” Pushing the door open, he entered the room adjoining the barn, still hoping he wouldn’t throw up. She nodded toward the rope, still tugging. “With both of us pulling, maybe we’ll be able to get the calf out.”
“Okay.” He swallowed his nausea and pulled, mimicking the way he used to grunt when bench-pressing heavy weights. He followed her example, keeping tension on the rope and pulling each time the cow had a contraction. She grunted also, and their noises continued until the calf exited the birth canal minutes later. She dropped the rope, and he rushed behind her to look at the young animal. He touched the newborn,
awed by the birth. She glanced at him as she cleaned gunk off the calf ’s nose and mouth.
Her sigh filled the space when she noticed the animal was breathing. “Aren’t you going to examine the cow and calf?”
Before he could respond, a young man holding a large black plastic tote entered the pen. “This the Cooper farm?”
Confusion marred her face when she glanced at Frank. Then she focused on the new arrival. The newcomer rushed to the baby cow and began examining it. “I’m Dr. Lindsey’s son. I’m taking over my daddy’s practice this week since he’s on vacation. He told you that, didn’t he?”
She nodded, still looking confused. “I left a message on your answering service earlier.”
The vet grunted. “I was down the street at the horse farm helping out with another birth, so I couldn’t leave.”
“Are the cow and calf okay?”
“They both look fine.” He stopped his examination and looked at them. “I’m glad you had somebody helping you. You might not have gotten him out in time if you’d been pulling him on your own.” He pulled a tool out of his bag. “You have antibiotic on hand for the calf, right? If not, I’ve got some.”
The attractive woman nodded, her dark hair clinging to her sweaty neck as she promised the vet she would give the new calf the medicine. Frank watched, mesmerized by the whole process. A short time later, the newborn nursed from the mother. “Thank you, doctor,” said the woman, patting the man on the shoulder.
The doctor shook his head, placing his tools back into his bag. “Don’t thank me. You two got him out in time.” He told Emily he would send her the bill, and then he left the farm.
Emily glanced at Frank, as if taking in his khaki slacks and oxford shirt. Noticing his bloody hands, she beckoned him over to a room containing a sink and a large steel tank. After ripping off the long plastic gloves covering her hands and forearms
and dropping them into the trash can, she turned the water on, pumped out several squirts of soap, and washed. “I thought you were the vet,” she said, continuing to scrub her hands and forearms. “I’ve never met Dr. Lindsey’s son, so that’s why I
assumed you were him.” After rinsing, she pulled paper towels from a dispenser and gestured for Frank to use the sink.
Frank shrugged and walked to the sink, placing his hands under the running water. “Sorry. I helped you out, but I didn’t have any idea if I was doing it right. It’s probably good I showed up when I did. It looked like you’d been trying to help
that cow for a long time.”
She shook her head. “Cows are tough. They can be in labor for hours before giving birth. When you came, I’d just started pulling the calf out with the rope.” She continued to stare, frowning. “Well, if you’re not Dr. Lindsey’s son, then who are
you?”
He offered his recently washed hand, glad the nauseous feeling had evaporated from his stomach. “I’m Franklin Reese, Certified Public Accountant.”
I’ll admit it. I’m a book worm. I love to read. When I was a kid we had a rule. No books at the table. Since I come from a family of book worms, I have since figured out the rationale behind the rule. We could have gone for days without speaking to each other if we were allowed to bring our reading material to the table. Instead my brother and I devoured anything that had the printed word on it. We read cereal boxes, ketchup bottles, salad dressing, A1 sauce. You get the picture. That’s why I was a bit dismayed when I ran across this list of the the “new classics.” 100 of the best reads from 1983 to 2008. Of the top 25, I’ve only read two. How embarrassing. It’s not as if I quit reading for 25 years. Of the hundreds (thousands, actually) of books I read, I just didn’t manage to read the right ones. I don’t even want to admit that those two books were the only ones out of the entire list that I’ve read. I think someone needs to make a list of the top thousand. Maybe I could do a little better.
Here’s the top 25. Did you do any better?
1. The Road , Cormac McCarthy (2006)
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)
3. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987)
4. The Liars’ Club, Mary Karr (1995)
5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997)
6. Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (2001)
7. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991)
8. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (1996)
9. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997)
10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997)
11. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (1997)
12. Blindness, José Saramago (1998)
13. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)
14. Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates (1992)
15. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000)
16. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (1986)
17. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (1988)
18. Rabbit at Rest, John Updike (1990)
19. On Beauty, Zadie Smith (2005)
20. Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding (1998)
21. On Writing, Stephen King (2000)
22. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2007)
23. The Ghost Road, Pat Barker (1996)
24. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (1985)
25. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989)
I have to make a confession. I’ve been obsessed with another man lately. For three days I’ve had thoughts of him almost constantly. This man has enticed me. Made me promises. Has been telling me how much better my life could be if I let him come home with me. Promises and more promises of satisfaction and delights.
I couldn’t take it any longer. I caved in Saturday night on the way home from work. I stopped by one of the places where he hangs out. I even had to ask another man to help me find him. There he was in the back. What a relief to see him! It didn’t take much to get him in my car. A little sweet talk and there he was in the seat beside me. I could hardly wait to get him home and make him comfortable. He has certainly warmed my heart and put the smiles on my face since then.
I’m sorry, Consumer Man. I had to do it. Three days of drinking instant coffee and I was eager to bring Mr. Coffee into our house. He’s very comfortably ensconced in our kitchen. And he’s certainly making me happy.
Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint: preserve my life from the dread enemy.
Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, from the scheming of evildoers,
who whet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows,
shooting from ambush at the blameless; they shoot suddenly and without fear.
They hold fast to their evil purpose; they talk of laying snares secretly,
think, “Who can see us? Who can search out our crimes?
We have thought out a cunningly conceived plot.” For the human heart and mind are deep.
But God will shoot his arrow at them; they will be wounded suddenly.
Because of their tongue he will bring them to ruin; all who see them will shake with horror.
Then everyone will fear; they will tell what God has brought about, and ponder what he has done.
Let the righteous rejoice in the Lord and take refuge in him.
Let all the upright in heart glory.
Psalm 64
This book has potential, but as it stands, the three separate story lines bouncing from chapter to chapter leaves a lot to be desired. This book would be better introduced as a book of long “short stories.” I enjoy books written by Christian authors, but do not need a word by word prayer every six or seven pages to prove that the characters are Christian. I think this would turn off most main stream readers. Another problem for me is the fact that the book seems to contain a lot of product endorsements. I don’t really care what brand jeans someone’s husband puts on nor where a character buys her body lotion. I’m not interested in brands. I’m interested in plots and characters. I have to admit that it was a struggle to read this entire book in order to give it a fair review. Dwan, I’m waiting for these story lines to each be expanded into novels.
The rules for my giveaway of the book, 501 Quilt Blocks, have been posted at Berries and Cream. Check it out. You can get up to six entries. The deadline for entering is 11:59 p.m. EDT, Friday, March 6, 2009.
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