PRAYING FOR BOYS A BOOK BY BROOKE MCGLOTHLIN

“Raising boys brings one adventure after another, but we’re losing the beauty and importance of training up godly men. Our boys need faithful Christian parents now more than ever. We can choose to rejoin the war for the hearts of our sons…today.”

-Brooke McGlothlin, Author, “Praying for Boys for the Things They Need Most”

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I recently had the wonderful opportunity to review “Praying for Boys” by Brooke McGlothlin, in exchange for a fair and honest review I was given a copy of her book. The opinions expressed below however are entirely my own.

Praying for Boys is a book that talks about how we Mamas can cover our little men in prayer and place their hearts in the hands of an all loving, all knowing and all powerful God. Page by page the fruit of the spirit and other characteristics are written of and shown how each one should be prayed for on the behalf of our little ones. There are even specific scripture references for each trait so that not only are we praying for these christian qualities, but we are taking the word of God and putting that into prayer to cover our sons.

I have been praying for my children since before they were born, a part of being a christian mother has to do with sending more than a few prayers up to God on their behalf. I had never thought however of turning scripture into a prayer itself. I love it, I think it's wonderful to prayerfully battle for the hearts and minds, the christian walk, of our sons (and daughters). Throughout Brooke's book there are scriptures laid out that can be directly applied to our children to pray for them. Unlike other books, this one in particular is not just one you read and implement later, this is a read and use right away kind of book, from beginning to end.

I love how Brooke is honest enough to admit that as parents there is only so much that we can do or as she puts it, control, and because of that we must bend our knees and turn to the one who controls it all. Knowing that we alone cannot raise Godly men of sound christian character alone is already half of the battle we must fight. We must do all we can and then entrust our sons back into the loving hands of the one who gave them to us, our Creator, Heavenly Father, Prince of Peace, the Great and Mighty Counselor – God.

I urge anyone who is a parent of boys to check out Brooke McGlothlin's newly released book, “Praying for Boys” you will be glad that you did. Here are some quotes from Brooke's book “Praying for Boys” that I just loved;

“All it takes to lose the truth of the Word of God is one set of parents who fail to teach it. The result can be generations of men who don’t know and fear the Lord. Imagine the impact for a moment. It’s a lot to take in.”

and

“If their knees are ever to bend to Jesus as Savior, their hearts must bend first. This is the place of a mama’s prayers.”

I am excited to announce that for those of you who have read to this point that I will be GIVING AWAY one free copy of Brooke McGlothlin's “Praying for Boys” (applicable only for residents of the United States), as soon as I receive it from her publishers. I will keep you updated on this fantastic giveaway so don’t forget to check back, or take a minute to subscribe, as I am hoping to announce the start of the giveaway soon and will be sharing how to enter in for a chance to win your very own copy of “Praying for Boys” – Yay!

And yet, here is ANOTHER GOODIE for you all, a question and answer I was blessed to ask Brooke McGlothlin, enjoy!

Me: Hello Brooke, Thank you so much for the opportunity to review your book. I can honestly say that I loved reading it from the moment I picked it up and now that I'm done with it, I am so very grateful for having read it. A few questions I'm excited to ask you are:

As an author having written “Notes to Aspiring Writers: Your Dream, God's Plan”, “How to Control Your Emotions, So They Don't Control You: A Mom's Guide to Overcoming”, “Hope for the Weary Mom” and now “Praying for Boys: Asking God for the Things they Need Most”, which of them would you say you had the most fun writing or that you hold a little dearer to your heart?

Brooke: “I would say I had the most fun writing Hope for the Weary Mom because it gave me the opportunity to work with my co-author, Stacey Thacker. She's been a gift in my life, and I've loved spending time with her. Hope was a total labor of love for us both, and as a self-published book, it's been a treat to watch it succeed.

With that being said, Praying for Boys is probably closest to my heart because it represents my cry to the Lord on behalf of my sons.”

Me: In this book, “Praying for Boys”, you mentioned to let your children find you reading God's word and to share it with them. Amen. The Bible is the ultimate go-to guide when it comes to raising children and I do believe in sharing it with them also. I would love to know if during those moments, when they find you reading the Bible, do you read to them from your Bible or have them grab theirs to read to them a children's (or lighter) version?

Brooke: “I've done both. If I'm in the Psalms or Proverbs that day I'll read it to them. Sometimes, I just ask them to sit beside me while I wrap things up with a prayer, thanks God for His Word and for them. It really depends on the day.”

"thank God"

Me: There's a moment in your book when you mention the combination of the trees, the restaurant, and your boys I must admit I could barely stop laughing and could only think, “boys will be boys”. This moment in your book, and the title “Praying for Boys”, has left me wanting to know what do you believe is the hardest part about raising boys?

Brooke: “I constantly fight the desire for my parenting to be perfect. When I've worked hard on an activity for them, when they're just not paying attention when we're reading the Bible, or when the "boy noise" is off the charts for the day, I can be quick to feel like a failure. Thankfully, God never asked us to win the battle for the hearts of our sons, only to fight for them. I need to be reminded often that God sees and delights in a heart that wants to please Him.”

Me: Do you homeschool your boys? If yes, what has been your most rewarding experience and your most difficult so far? If no, have you considered doing it?

Brooke: We do homeschool our boys! I've often said that teaching my boys to read was one of the most rewarding things I've ever done, outranking even getting my Master's degree! The most difficult thing about homeschooling for me is that I'm not a crafty mom. I hate projects, experiments, coloring, painting...all those things a kid probably needs in life, right? Thankfully, my husband loves science and does most of the experiments with our boys. And we have some crafty friends who feed that need for our boys. God has been so faithful to provide for us in this area!

Me: My last question, do you have a hobby (other than writing), what is it?

Brooke: Reading. If I had no other responsibilities in life I would spend every waking second reading a good book. My favorite author right now is Kristen Heitzman.

Me: Thank you so much for your time, your answers and your amazing book “Praying for Boys”. I sincerely hope you are able to reach as many boy Mama's as possible.

Brooke: Thanks, Chelle!

If anyone of you have already ready Brooke's book "Praying for Boys" and want to share your opinion or what you most loved, I would love to about it, leave it in the comments below.

You Reap What You Sow

Recently I was given an opportunity to review the Abundant Harvest for Kids board game (ages 7 and up priced at $24.99), for a fair and honest review. I was really excited about this great opportunity because this seemed like just the kind of game I would love to play with my littles. As the Harvest Time Partners website outlines, this game was designed to:

• “create teachable moments for parents and educators” alike, and
• “the situations are presented and directed towards children who are learning the importance of making decisions that are based on principle”.

You can check out the games for yourselves at www.harvesttimepartners.com. Below is my opinion after having played the “Abundant Harvest for Kids” board game. (And even further below that, a quick mention of their “Face to Face Dinner Party Edition” game and my thoughts on that one – but you'll have to keep reading to get to that).

We are a homeschooling family that incorporates God and the study of His word into our daily lessons. I was at a point where I had started to think about new ways to focus on, encourage and strengthen Godly character – character development. After all we are to train our children up in the way they should go. Abundant Harvest for Kids seemed like a great way to do just that.

During our Thanksgiving holiday our family decided to break out our Abundant Harvest for Kids game and give it a go. We love gathering around the table to play games and this one was no exception, moments like these are what memories are made of. Question after question, my girls loved showing how they could make a good decisions. If I had asked the girls what their favorite part of the game was, I know their answer would be collecting the Abundant Harvest Dollars. Those dollars, unbeknownst to them, were a great tangible reward to positively reinforce their good choices to all of the games proposed situations.

As a parent, playing this game with my kids was great because I got to read the scenario cards and let them know how I would handle it and be able to share my wisdom before it was needed. Just like the military trains for war, parents train their children spiritually, to be biblically and morally sound – this game is something that can definitely be used for just that. Listening to the answers and hearing their wisdom speak volumes beyond their tender years was confidence building for me as a parent, I knew I had begun to raise little ones with a moral compass that pointed straight to the Holy Bible. Playing this game with them gave them and myself alike, the reassurance that no matter where life takes them, or what it throws at them, that they will be ready, and will be able to successfully navigate any of life's waters.

Honestly the game was a little hard for the girls to play all the way through because it was a little lackluster, the conversation cards were all serious and a little heavy without any lighthearted moments to it other than the moments we made. I think families with children that really haven't developed a solid christian moral compass could definitely benefit from playing this game despite that because of all the real world challenges it pitches for preparedness on how to tackle them from a good christian base – so if you're that family, I would highly suggest playing this game to help your children develop that despite it's lack of levity.

The only other downsides for us really were that the game was a little hard for us to relate to, maybe that's because we are a young homeschooling family – maybe for others who aren't homeschooled or maybe children who are even a little older than the game suggests, this game would be a better fit. There were cards that the children drew that I tweaked the scenario for to make more appropriate for their ages and some we skipped all together and drew another card for them in place of those I thought inappropriate. When either little landed on a parent space and had to answer a scenario as the parent, never having worn that hat –they were attempting to try on new shoes to answer those cards and as a homeschooling family things like bullying or cheating on a test is pretty foreign – however greek any of the un-relateable scenarios were, our girls still shined in knowing what the right thing to do would be and bless their hearts, they continued to show it turn after turn. That said, just like if you give a mouse a cookie – if you give a kid a soap box you might want to throw in a timer ;)

Overall, I would say this game was a fun time had by all. I am very thankful we took the time to play this game for the togetherness it brought but also for the opportunity to see the direction our little's moral compass was pointing (and the opportunity to recalibrate if needed). I think taking something like building good Biblically sound character and judgement and making it into a game so that teaching and learning can be done all while spending time bonding over a game is a fabulous thing to do.

Aside from the Abundant Harvest for Kids board came, my husband and I played the “Face to Face Dinner Party Edition”. This game has a deck of 96 cards and is priced at an affordable $12.49. There are other “Face to Face” card game sets aside from the dinner party edition such as the kid edition and teen edition. The dinner party edition is described on the Harvest Time Partners web page as:

• a conversation game “for ages 18 and up, adults, and parents”, and as having
• “scenarios encourage discussion between adults on issues in marriage, raising children, and the workplace”.

Exactly as described each scenario card was completely relatable and having experience in all topics covered it was really fun to play and explore the what would you do factor if this were a scenario you found yourself in.

We had roughly 400 miles of road time for Holiday travel and I had just the thing to distract us from all of that bumper to bumper. I pulled the “Face to Face Dinner Party Edition” out of the glove box and read the cards for us to take turns answering. Honestly, I loved it :) My husband said he did too, and really loved how they had a good Christian focus. We look forward to working our way (gradually – we can pace ourselves) through all of the games cards, but we will definitely be playing that game again – and if you invite us to dinner (or get stuck in traffic with us), you might find yourselves playing it right along with us. If you were to ask me if I thought was a game worth adding to your game repertoire, I would say definitely.

If this post has peaked your curiosity about any of the Harvest Time Partners games, hop on over to the Harvest Time Partners website, www.harvesttimepartners.com, or give them a call at (877) 786-4278 and see if there is a game there waiting for you. You too could be a moment away from your very own Abundant Harvest, after all – we reap what we sow. Happy sowing my friends!

Additional Harvest Time Partners Link Ups:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HarvestTimePartnersInc

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/HarvestTimePartners

Twitter:     https://twitter.com/Stand4Character

To see what others thought of this and other games from Harvest Time Partners, check out these blogs below:

http://roomsofknowledge.com/abundant-harvest-kids-game-review/#sthash.gpUc24Nv.dpbs

http://thewatersparkles.wordpress.com/2013/12/11/face-to-face-game-review/

If you have played this or other games from Harvest time Partners let me know! I'd love to hear about it too:)