Good Choices for Girls

A Girl's Guide to Making Really Good Choices, by Elizabeth George

Publisher: Harvest House Publishers

Publication date: September 1, 2013

Category: Christian, Parenting

Source: from publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a honest review

Pic Source: www.elizabethgeorge.com

A main concern parents have for their children as they get older is that they make good choices. At ages 14 and 12, my daughters are in prime time for the lessons of making good choices. So, when I saw a book up for review on NetGalley titled A Girl's Guide to Making Really Good Choices, by Elizabeth George, I couldn't pass it up. (As usual, nonfiction books I review such as these are by Christian authors.)

Like other books I've read intended for girls approaching new stages of life, I found this one appropriate for the pre-teen crowd. I don't know if it's just me, but it seems that teenagers would laugh at these kinds of things. However, I could see how I, as a mother, could read the book, and relate the information to my 14-year-old through conversations and situations as they arise. It's the nature of the beast teenager...

Chapter by chapter, this book discusses topics in which girls must realize they have choices. All discussion is backed by examples, stories, and Bible verses. The chapters are titled as:

1. You have a Choice. Many times we do or don't do things thinking it was all we could or couldn't do, when really, we had a choice. This chapter establishes that just about everything we do is a choice.

2. Choosing to Get Up. Kids' lives center around getting a good start to the day. Anyone who's tried to get a kid or two up and moving for the day of school and/or work knows how volatile the experience can be. This chapter talks about choosing the right things to start the day at its best.

3. Choosing to Read My Bible. This should be fairly obvious...talking about why Bible reading is important to daily life (closeness to God and direction for life) and how making the choice to read or not will affect a girl in various ways. Also, I should mention here, that at this point, the author shows how choices in the list of chapter affect each other. For example, if you ignore your alarm and don't get up, you don't have time to read your Bible, your morning is a rush, etc.

4. Choosing to Pray. Talks to girls about how prayer is communication with God, which is detrimental to Christian life. Tis chapter also speaks to the promises God gives about prayer and the purposes of prayer in life.

5. Choosing Your Friends. Always a source of angst in teenhood is friendships. The topic here concerns itself with following certain crowds and what to look for on friends. What I liked here was that the author encourages girls to involve their parents in discussing friendships and tells girls to be themselves. I see so many teens try to be someone they're not, only to regret it later...some with worse consequences than others.

6. Choosing What to Say...and Don't Say. Another good topic and hardship of teenhood...controlling your mouth. Things touched on here are saying hurtful words, your words as a view of your heart, and speaking the truth.

7. Choosing to be Patient. I don't think this one needs much explanation. Part of it is putting others first and the other is just plain old being patient!

8. Choosing a Happy Heart. I like that this chapter differentiates between "happiness" and "joy," pointing out that things can wreck your happiness, but you have the choice to remain joyful. The example sued is that of a girl told she will be helping her parents prepare the house for their party. She is instantly ticked...the chapter works the information through that scenario as an example, showing how choosing an attitude of joy can change us as opposed to attitudes of anger.

9. Choosing to be Faithful. Of course, faithfulness is a word we think of applying to God or a religion we practice. However, this chapter shows how faithfulness applies to every day life with those around you, like keeping your word and being reliable and not lazy.

10. Choosing to Trust God. Even in the midst of bad decision making, we can go back to God for help. This chapter shows girls how to seek God to straighten these things out and make changes in their choices for the future.

Overall, I like this book for girls ages 9-12. My 12-year-old (who acts young for her age) read this with me just fine and was willing to talk. My 14-year-old thought it silly to read, but if I read it myself and started a conversation that seemed related to a topic she brought up, it was all good. Know your girls is the key. I would also recommend flipping through a physical copy before purchasing it to make sure it seems like something you'd want to use. Seeing it can make all the difference in deciding how it may work with your girl or if you can utilize it in some way.

Think I'm on overload for these types of books! But I have a couple more left to review. Including A Boy's Guide to Making Really Good Choices, written by the husband of the author above, coming in September.