Tag: influence

The Butterfly Effect By Andy Andrews (Review)

On By pastorjonathanIn booksLeave a comment

The Butterfly Effect: How Your Life Matters by Andy Andrews is an inspirational book about how every life and every person makes a difference in generations to come.  The book is a small hardback that is perfect for laying out on the coffee table or end table as a discussion piece. The story only takes about ten or fifteen minutes to read and each page is filled with inspiring art work.

The story line of the book is similarly inspiring as the author sets out to prove that our lives and our actions make a difference.  The story is a great motivational story and I could see it given as a graduation speech or a  plea for someone who thinks their life doesn’t matter.  Over all I think it will make a great gift book or conversation piece in someone’s living room.

If you are looking for a great gift book for a graduating senior or someone else taking huge life steps, this book is for you.  I also highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a great, easy to read conversational book about how our live influence others.  The retail price is $14.95 (Hardcover), and is available at a discount at  Amazon.com for $10.17. I gave it four stars.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson as part of the BookSneeze program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Review: The Heart Mender by Andy Andrews

On By pastorjonathanIn booksLeave a comment

I was blown away when I read The Heart Mender: A Story of Second Chances.  Author Andy Andrews claims this is his best book to date, I can say it is indeed one of the best books that I have ever read. When I started reading the book, I couldn’t put it down and ended up reading it from cover to cover in one sitting.

The Heart Mender: A Story of Second Chances is a historical “fiction” book about war and forgiveness, love and espionage, the gulf coast and German U-Boats.  I’ve lived on the Gulf Coast for 13 years and was immediately drawn into the imagery and story painted by the author.  Even though this book is “fictional” in nature, Andy does a great job of drawing out several facets of forgiveness in this book.  The people who will benefit most from this book are those who are dealing with anger and struggling to forgive.

The story line is set on the gulf coast during world war II and involves lots of action, romance, and mystery.  I really don’t want to give away the plot, but I do want you to read the book so I included a video from the author below.  You can also go the the official website by clicking here.  There you can find all kinds of information about the book including a free PDF of the first few chapters!  (But I warn you once you start reading, you won’t want to stop.)

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of The Heart Mender, the retail price is $18.99 (Hardcover), and is worth every penny.  It is also available at places like Amazon.com for $12.91.  I gave it five stars.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their Book Review Blogger program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Communicating With Children: 5 Ways to BLESS your kids

On By pastorjonathanIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Be Available

This means removing distractions, like the phone, television, computer, etc.  This isn’t always face to face interaction.  Sometimes it can be enjoying a hobby or meal together.  It may involve a late night session of learning how to play Rock Band.  The point is to be available.

Level appropriate

When choosing how to interact with your child remember to keep it on their level.  I made the mistake of trying to teach my daughter tennis at the tender age of four and expecting her to be responsive to my techniques.  She quickly taught me that I needed to be on here level, so we reduced tennis to some basic motor skills and hand eye coordination with a racket and made a really fun game of it (we didn’t even worry about the net… which is where I started).

Her dance instructors are amazingly sharp at getting on her level.  In a few short lessons she knows more about dance than I would have ever hoped to learn.

Empathetic

Try to imaging the world from the eyes of your child (especially if they are younger).  We made the mistake of letting our daughter watch Scooby Doo.  Everything seemed fine during the day, but at night she was seeing “creepy” monsters and ghosts all over the place.  Not so much because scooby do is Evil (they do reveal the real culprit at the end of each show), but because she has an active imagination.  Things that seem harmless to us can be scary to our children.  Things that seem clear to us can be confusing to our children.  Its important that we try to remember or understand what life is like on their level.

Straight forward

Somewhere many of us have adopted the idea that it would be a good idea to persuade our kids what they should do instead of telling them what to do.  You may catch yourself dropping hints instead of giving actual commands.  We’ve found that stating the obvious really goes along way towards moving your child to be productive.  If you want something done like having the trash taken out, a room cleaned, home work done, etc.  Be direct.

Simple

Sometimes we forget that what is clear to us, may not be clear to our kids.  Not only is it important to be direct, but be simple.  Sometimes what appears as disobedience our kids part is really a lack of clarity on our part.  Here are a few basic tips for clarity.

1. use simple language (make sure your kids know what you are saying)

2. Provide direction.  ” You can’t be in your brother’s room right now. You can play outside or in your toy room, which one would you like to do?”

3. Give options, but not to many. Notice there were only two options above.  This gives your child room to make a decision about playtime.  We intentionally limit the options.  Too many options stifle the decision making process.