Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Beloved: 365 Devotions for Young Women {a Crew review}

I have been wanting to do something with Trina as a devotional reading, or just something about growing into a godly woman that isn't too cute and trendy.  Zondervan to the rescue! Beloved: 365 Devotions for Young Women is intended for girls ages 13-18, so Trina is just a bit "too young" for it, but this has been working great.

My plan, which I had announced to the Crew, was to go through this five days a week with Trina.  On the weekends, between church and pantry and everything else, I knew we would never be able to be consistent,  and I didn't want to feel guilt for that.  That means I didn't plan for that to happen at all.

Good decision on my part.

We failed at doing it every weekday too, even though the readings are super short.  Our problem seems to be that we simply are not getting in the habit.

All of that just proves how much we need it.

Snuggled up, reading, trying to ignore the photographer
The product name does a pretty good job of describing exactly what this product is.  A daily devotional, for young women.  Each day is a single page, starting with a Bible verse and ending with four lines that can be used to journal.  In between there are two or three paragraphs that absolutely relate to growing into a woman of integrity.

One thing I really love about this devotional is that it is not just random devotional thoughts.  The beginning focuses on "ideal" womanhood, and then there are a few about Eve (days 7-14), and Noah's wife (days 15-18) and it continues on through Genesis.  I love that you aren't just reading random thoughts here and there, but that it is more like a little story that continues from day to day.

Sarah, for instance:
  • Day 19: talks about the crazy promises of God, and how Sarah reflects huge amounts of faith, but also shows how not to respond to life events.
  • Day 20: talks about fear and leaning on your own strength instead of asking God for protection.
  • Day 21: talks about intertwined relationships, specifically Hagar and Sarai.
  • Day 22: talks about taking matters into our own hands.
I love that quite often, one day really does add on to what we read about the day before.

Looking ahead, there are some amazing devotionals that really mean a lot to me as well, not just my daughter.  Day 196 really hit me.  There is a string of devotionals talking about Hannah (mother of Samuel) and offerings and suffering.  And then... Day 196.


This one switches gears and starts talking about Peninnah.  Yeah, I didn't recognize that name either.  She's the other wife, the one spoken of in 1 Samuel 1:6 "her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her."

It's easy to be mad at Peninnah.  Like the devotional says, "Not cool, Peninnah."  But it immediately goes on to say,
But perhaps we should turn the magnifying glass onto ourselves before we judge Peninnah too harshly.  The ugly truth is that blessings can make us smug.  When the Lord has chosen to bless us with something - material wealth, talent, intelligence, beauty, opportunity - it's very easy to feel superior to those who don't have what we've been given.
Ouch.

So while this is written to teens, some of these devotional entries absolutely hit me as well.

Smug superiority.  Lord help me not display that, and even more, help me not to feel it either.

A few dozen folks on the Crew have been using Beloved: 365 Devotions for Young Women in their homes.  Go, check out the other reviews!

Beloved: 365 Devotions for Young Women {Zondervan Review}


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