Moments for Graduates
Moments for Fathers
Positive Reflections to Strengthen His Spirit
By Robert Strand
New Leaf Press, $9.95
ISBN 0892212632
From a Father's Heart to a Son
100 Principles to Live By
By David Shibley
New Leaf Press, $5.95
ISBN 0892213094
I know everybody has Mother's Day on their mind. It's coming up right away, while Father's Day isn't until June 16, more than a month after Mother's Day. But you see, I've been watching the NCAA basketball tournaments with my dad like any red-blooded North Carolina son will do. Some of our best sharing is during these games. We always turn the sound off at the commercials and usually talk about other stuff. Things like Dad reminding me of how we cut wood for the fireplace last year and still have enough, or how we need to take some food to the homeless shelter right after the game, or how many more car payments I have to make. Sometimes I have a hard time answering. That's why Moments for Fathers and From a Father's Heart to a Son look good to me. I know the kind of dad Robert Strand and David Shibley were thinking about when they wrote these little books. There's a lot that Dad wants to tell me and a lot I want to let Dad know.
Shibley, author of From a Father's Heart to a Son, gives 100 principles to live by, each with an accompanying Bible verse. They're straightforward and easy to understand; for example, "Adultery is not first an act of your body. Unfaithfulness always begins as an affair of the heart," and "Be extravagant in your faith and lavish in what you sow in secret into God's work." Shibley knows what generation he's writing for, and he has two sons of his own. He wrote these admonitions as though he and his son were out at a quiet fishing hole, and he couldn't let the chance go by to impart wisdom and a heart for God into his son.
Strand's Moments for Fathers is a part of the Moments to Give series, and is a collection of 30 inspirational stories that reinforce what fathers can be. Some of the stories are about famous men and events, while others, just as moving, are about men we never heard about. Each story has a quote and a Bible verse at the end. All of these help build men up in the qualities that make a great father.
Strand is a pastor in Missouri with lots of experience in the fathering business. He has spent thirty years collecting stories in the series with seven titles and two more to come.
Moments for Graduates is a good choice for young men who are finishing some part of their education at this time of year. It follows the same format as the others-30 stories, each with a quote and a Bible verse. The topics are definitely for graduates with stories about success, genius, the importance of little things, being thankful, life and accountability.
Now that basketball season is over, I'm pumped! Ready to give Dad some appreciation and my young friends some inspiration. Glad I found these books. Hope you do too.
Jay Graham is a reviewer who works with teens in Greensboro, NC.
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