FIRST: Truth or Dare Devotional by Ann-Margret Hovespian

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

Today's Wild Card author is:

Ann-Margret Hovsepian

and the book:

Truth and Dare Devotional

David C. Cook (October 1, 2011)

***Special thanks to Audra Jennings, Senior Media Specialist, The B&B Media Group for sending me a review copy.***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Ann Margret Hovsepian is a published author, freelance writer and editor and amateur artist. She has published more than 210 articles for dozens of Canadian and U.S. print periodicals and has become a sought-after author of pre-teen girls’ devotional books. She has published Blossom: The Complete New Testament for Girls (Thomas Nelson, 2006) and The One Year Designer Genes Devo (Tyndale, 2007). She speaks at conferences and events and is actively involved on the board of Canadian Baptist Women of Ontario and Quebec, Canada. Hovsepian resides in Montreal, Canada.

Visit the author's website.

SHORT BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Is your pre-teen daughter ready for more—more excitement, more adventure, more joy? Then dare her to discover the secret to a life that sparkles for God. Show her she’s got what it takes to make an impact on the world. Ann Margret Hovsepian’s newest book, Truth and Dare: One Year of Dynamic Devotions for Girls, is designed for girls 9 to 12 and filled with powerful wisdom on everything from godly friendships to worshipping God.

It can be easy for young girls to neglect their Bible reading. Perhaps they feel Scripture doesn’t directly relate to them. Maybe they may lack encouragement or accountability, or they may just have too many distractions in their everyday lives. This lack of spiritual food can stunt girls’ spiritual growth and make them vulnerable to the temptations and ungodly influences around them. It can also prevent them from developing a love for Scripture early in life, making it even harder to get into God’s Word when they get older.

Truth and Dare encourages tween girls to discover how exciting God’s Word can be. They will see it make a difference in their daily lives and experience the blessings that come from doing it and not just hearing it. Daily challenges (dares) based on Scripture (truth) will provide opportunities for them to make their faith come alive as they learn to serve others, build character and make a difference.

Scripture will be transformed from something learned to something lived. Girls will delight in discovering how God’s Word can become real in whole new ways as they learn to apply it with each day’s dare. It ideally suits anyone looking to inspire a young girl to boldly live out her faith. So encourage the tween girl in your life to take the dare and discover the truth! It’s her time to shine as a girl who knows what it means to live a fierce and fearless life of faith.





Product Details:

List Price: $14.99
Reading level: Ages 9 and up
Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: David C. Cook (October 1, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1434702081
ISBN-13: 978-1434702081

AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER (To enlarge, click on the images):

LOVE IT!  I originally thought I would sit down with the kiddos and we would do these devotionals each day, but I LOVE the format - yearly - so I skimmed through the  book and decided that these were going under the tree!!  I am so excited for them to have a good devotional to work through this next year!

FIRST: Triple Dog Dare by Jeremy V. Jones

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

Today's Wild Card author is:

Jeremy Jones

and the book:

Triple Dog Dare Devotional

David C. Cook (October 1, 2011)

***Special thanks to Audra Jennings, Senior Media Specialist, The B&B Media Group for sending me a review copy.***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jeremy V. Jones is an award-winning journalist who has served as senior associate editor of Breakaway magazine. He has authored several books, including Toward the Goal: The Kaka Story and The Keeper: The Tim Hoard Story. He also writes for magazines such as Clubhouse and Christianity Today. He resides with his wife and two children in Colorado.

SHORT BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Boys want action. They don’t want to sit around and talk—that’s for grown-ups and girls. They engage life and relationships by doing something: skateboarding, playing games or re-creating favorite movie scenes. So why should faith be any different? That’s why Jeremy V. Jones created Triple Dog Dare: One Year of Dynamic Devotions for Boys—to provide the action boys need in order to grow their faith.

The Bible is full of action. Remember how David slew Goliath, Daniel faced those lions, Paul survived a shipwreck and Jesus stood up for a woman about to be killed? God made boys to take His truth and do something with it, to man up and change the world. These action-packed devotions for boys ages 9 to 12 are filled with godly truth and bold spiritual challenges that transform time with God into the adventure of the day.

Triple Dog Dare connects God’s Word to boys’ hearts and hands with real-life scenarios and activities. Each day is filled with short Scriptures, concise biblical truth and a daily dare, all challenging them to put their faith into practice. Scripture readings from every book of the Bible open up the action-packed Word of God. Whether it’s drawing comic strips of biblical battles, dreaming up a life list of goals, making snack packs for the homeless or producing Bible-based movies, boys will go on daily dynamic experiences with God, taking faith off the page and setting it into motion. Themes cover the daily realities of pre-teen males, including bullying, peer pressure, girls, sibling rivalry, honesty and more.

These exciting devotions will inspire boys’ hearts toward godly characteristics such as integrity, generosity and kindness. Parents will appreciate watching Christ-like traits emerge as each dare is undertaken. It is a manual that will deepen boys’ friendships with Jesus as they look forward to spending time with Him every day. So if you know a boy who is up for the challenge, triple dog dare him!




Product Details:

List Price: $14.99
Reading level: Ages 9 and up
Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: David C. Cook (October 1, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0781404576
ISBN-13: 978-0781404570

AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER (Click on images to enlarge):

Christmas Family Traditions ~ one of ours...

Family traditions... I loved having the ones my family had growing up ~ and I am loving the ones we are making for our family.  I didn't really think about it until this year, that we had started our own.  The first tradition of each year that we have ~ Christmas Tree Farm!  I say it's the first, because we go Thanksgiving weekend!

When we first got married, we had a fake tree... several of them to be exact... after the kiddos were born, we couldn't find a good tree.. they kept falling apart and were just not worth anything.  When they were three, we decided to see about cutting our own. Fun times and even though it was a bit messy, it was completely worth it! No hassle, no clean up, nothing - take the ornaments off and drag it to the burn pile!  We didn't give it much more thought until the following year when the kiddos actually asked about going and cutting a tree down... been every year since!

This year, the kiddos were able to get the tree down completely alone - Rog didn't have to help cut on it at all!

Load up on the tractor and head out to the middle of the farm...

Pick out the perfect tree...

 Yep, that's the one!

Take turns working on getting it to come down...

 Time to load up and take it home to make our own!

Both kiddos have their own Christmas box that we started for them when they were younger.  Each year, they are able to add their own ornaments and Christmas decorations to it and whenever they leave home, they will have a start up kit for their trees!  We never put anything else on the tree, just the kiddos ornaments... and they get to decorate it!  This year, they even put the lights on it and all! Rog and I just sat back and watched!

Attack of the lights... this is what happens when kiddos get to decorate the tree...

Final product!

We interrupt this marriage ~

to bring you
HUNTING SEASON!

 Actually, it is a family affair around here!  We always go down for Youth Hunt the weekend before Opening Day. The kiddos love to be in the woods...I'm sure it will only intensify when they bring something home.

We arrived Thursday evening (so we could go to Civil War Days) and this <-- was arrival looked like!

The kiddos were so full of energy and eager for the weekend... thought they would NEVER calm down!







Samantha headed out with Gramma, Ry went with Rog and I got to stay at the camper ALL BY MYSELF and read!  It was nice...until I heard the shot and Gramma whisper across the walkie-talkies that Samantha had shot.  They waited a bit to go look for it and best they could figure, she must have missed it.

 Once they all returned, Gramma let me know that Samantha was so scared after she pulled the trigger that she started crying... Poor baby... she told me it scared her! (She went out with Grandpa another time during the weekend and had a great shot but refused - maybe it's not for her? But doesn't she look so cute in camo/hunter orange?)

What a better way to wrap up youth hunt than with popcorn over the fire pit?  It was so good!

Roger and I took the kiddos and went back down for Opening Day, and stayed for the week.  Roger got to hunt alone during the weekend, but he had to take the kiddos out during the week.

He took Samantha out first, and once again, she had opportunity, but didn't shot.

 Riley talked me into going out with him while Rog and Sam were out...

We had fun, but didn't see anything...

Rog and Riley went out again on another afternoon, but didn't see anything.  Sam and I stayed back, because if she wasn't going to pull the trigger, then I wasn't going to sit out there with her...