Book Review: God's Special Forces: A Manual for Becoming a Young Woman of Quality by Darlene Laney

This special program has been designed for pre-teens and teens to help them transform their minds, and thereby, transform their lives. Focusing on inner beauty that comes from being “skillfully formed” and “wonderfully made,” this program helps young women think positive, discusses self-esteem, and teaches basic etiquette and beauty tips.

I can’t say I’ve ever read a book like God’s Special Forces before. In some ways it’s deep; using Scripture, devotionals, and definitions to truly transform a young woman’s perception of herself. I loved the focus on how God “made everything beautiful for its own time.” During the years when girls are trying to hard to fit in, I feel this is especially important. The discussion on what a young woman can learn about value from the Proverbs 31 woman was very interesting. And the book retains a Christian perspective no matter what topic is being discussed.

From a “charm” perspective, the program dives into best hair styles to match the shape of your face; diet and exercise; how to sit, stand, and walk properly; beauty tips like caring for your skin; fashion advice and etiquette pointers. While some of these tips seemed outdated, like tucking a sugar wrapper under your saucer (What pre-teen or teenaged person cares about paper on the table?) or making sure your leg wear matches your outfit (The style I’m seeing these days is mismatched leg wear and the mixing of different patterns–if they use leg wear at all.), I still feel it’s important to provide this audience with the basics so as they mature they’ll have a good foundation.

God’s Special Forces is filled with numerous exercises and quizzes that will be popular with pre-teens and teens. My girls (11 and 9) found some of them a bit embarrassing, but the author admitted some of them might feel awkward at first. The ones I liked best were the exercise that got the girls thinking about what messages they received about themselves from their favorite books, magazines, and television programs and the My Style Quiz.

I’m glad my girls and I got a chance to go through this together. I feel pre-teens will get more out of the program if they go through it with their mother or other female role model. Teens will be fine working independently.

Paperback: 120 pages
Publisher: Halo Publishing International (January 31, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1612441262
ISBN-13: 978-1612441269

I received a copy of this book from the author. This review contains my honest opinions, which I was not compensated for in any way.

Teaser Tuesdays - June 11

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I call being able to give a proper handshake an art because it seems so many people have forgotten or never learned how to do so. You can learn a lot about a person by the way he/she shakes your hand. 

~ Page 95, God's Special Forces: A Manual for Becoming a Young Woman of Quality by Darlene Laney

You've Got Mail Monday

We'll it sure was an exciting week as far as mail and packages goes. In addition to my May 24th issue of All You magazine, a Summer 2013 Gardener's Supply Company catalog arrived. I've been planning the vegetable garden and the potato tubers are due to be shipped to us this week. I'm not sure if I'm going to use my potato growing bag or just sow them into my raised beds. The last time I sowed them directly into the garden, the critters ate them. The winter rye has been turned over and the raised beds are in good shape for planting. I think we're finally done with frost (hope I didn't just jinx it) so the early spring crops will be going in this week.

The new plants arrived for the flower bed I am putting in to the right of the entryway. When we moved here, I had little gardening knowledge. I don't have much more now, but I can follow a garden plan and put in purchased plants where it tells me. This is the one I'm using: http://www.bhg.com/gardening/plans/seasonal/summer-garden-plan/. All except four of the plants arrived this week. Cold weather delayed some of the shipment. I'll share before and after photos once I get all the plants in.

As far as books go, Last Chance for Justice by Kathi Macias arrived. I'll be reviewing it at my Christian book blog: http://cherylschristianbookconnection.blogspot.com/ on May 8th. I also received God's Special Forces: A Manual for Becoming a Young Woman of Quality by Darlene Laney. That review is for Christian Children's Authors, where I blog the first and third Fridays of each month.

That's it for this week's edition of You've Got Mail Monday. Hope you have a great week.